Why is it that the coolest video cards only come in AGP slot form, yet most high end retail like Sony's, HP's, even Dells, etc only contain system boards with one freakin' AGP slot and several PCI. What am I supposed to do with the PCI slots, make scrambled eggs?? Is anyone running a stock built machine that contains a system board with more than 1 AGP slot, that does not cost the same price as a Dodge Neon or something...... Also, there have been a ton of threads of touting quad cards and the like.....from a performance perspective and I know someone who did this.....he took a tweeked system board and was able to hook up 2 of the newer Nvidia GeForce4 Ti series cards and is essentially running 4 monitors. 2 on each card. Pretty cool. I guess worst case scenario, if you only have one AGP slot, a Matrox or PNY 4 card is the only solution. By the way, for you guys running the quad cards, logistically speaking, how does it look from the back of your tower. The monitor ports are not lined up on the back side by side in 4's of the card sticking out are they???? Is there some kind of splitter and does this hurt performance at all????
AGP is specifically made to deliver the better quality output for that extra umph some desire in the video image! Multiple AGP's? Good luck finding something standard. A motherboard with onboard AGP and an AGP slot (maybe) is your best bet. But I wouldn't recommend that solution as of yet. There are many multiple monitor cards out there. My setups employ some of them and I am in love the results. I started with Matrox and have moved to and tested a few others. The back of the tower looks ok with the horizontal spread inputs. Hope this helps.
AGP is a dinosaur that was supposed to die a few years ago. Intel made the spec. for a segway to another technology (forgot for now, maybe 3gio, don't remember) but the AGP specs are so hard to work with that it will be a blessing to see it die http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=7885 .One of the hardest things to do is make a mutiple haeded card and AGP only truely clones the second head, as 4 headed cards are PCI. PCI-X will open alot to what traders really need, bandwith.
Thanks for the link......I am amazed at how many cool cards are out there for multiple monitors ( I mean 4 or more) on PCI. Let me follow up with you on this. Have you had any experiences with Nvidia stuff??? I am presently looking at the NVS 400 series on PCI format which supports 4 monitors......Here is the deal......most newer machines come stock nowadays with an AGP video card......Am I better off just getting a roach card and ripping it out & disabling the AGP slot all together in my BIOS???? Or should I put in a jacked AGP series Nvidia ti4600 card supporting two monitors there & also run the PCI card with an additional 4 monitors for a total of 6.....would this create a tremendous headachewith respect to drivers and other goodies.... Lastly, what is your take on the card itself in terms of juice....is 64MB enough....128MB.....that PCI 4 monitor card is only 64MB.... any insights are greatly appreciated ....................
It does. Thanks.....Matrox is a little out of my price range....believe it or not...that Nvidia card I just mentioned is only $400....I wonder if that adds up??? Does price always = quality......
The nvidia cards seem like overkill to me and they are playing catch-up to Matrox in the multi-card segment. I haven't heard any problems with them though . Nvidia just hired a year ago some top engineers that have a specialty with multiheaded cards and have since come out with a new line based on this investment. But I only use Matrox and their pci dual head cards (I have 3 in my box with the 3 head AGP card) work great and very cheap.
I guess I didn't answer your whole question. The memory thing is mainly a 3d thing and most charts and websites are 2d so the added memory to me is overkill and not utilized. The bus system that carries the data to and from the card to me is more important so check this out http://www.nvidia.com/docs/IO/32/ATT/nForce_StreamThru_Tech_Brief.pdf
Never heard of a MB with more than 1 AGP slot. ATI man, myself. One poster on ET says he has "...Dual-head Radeon 7500 VE AGP + 2 Radeon 7500 PCIs" running on his system. (This is relatively new. a couple of years ago, ATI said other cards would not run with the VE.) I run 4 single ATI cards... All-in-Wonder 128 PCI + 2 Xpert 128 PCI + Xpert 2000 Pro AGP. They all work together. In fact, they all use the same Rage Pro driver. You could probably buy the 4 cards online for about $120. 16mg/display is plenty for a trading machine.
Ok, glad to see that you've opened up to the possibility of a PCI card to cover your needs. Now, let's work on that price issue. I have attained several items that I sought out through eBay. With a little care of research and some due diligence, I think you might find a good solution and at a fair price. Look here: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3402030415&category=3666 (Definitely worth the gamble) http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3402872243&category=3666 (Just to show that this is very doable. Low price-to-risk ratio. Seller even has his own store) http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3402601128&category=3666 Take a moment and go to eBay, pop in the name of that elusive video card that you're looking for and maybe just maybe...