2x PCIe cards needed, to drive 4 DVI monitors - suggestions?

[Ferreting]

I’m thinking about buying a motherboard such as the Asus 790X * (M4A79XTD EVO) which I understand has two PCIe x16 slots. I’m looking to buy TWO dual-DVI graphics cards, so that I can connect 3 or 4 DVI monitors (which I already own).

Please can you suggest a suitable graphics card?

Requirements/preferences:

• A fanless card would be best, but anything as long as it’s quiet and has TWO DVI ports.
• I need to drive 3 or 4 monitors of at least 1920x1080 resolution.
• I won’t be gaming much, so I don’t need powerful cards.
• Naturally, as inexpensive as possible! But it's important that the card is near-enough inaudible.

A few other things, just to be clear...

• Primarily I'll be running regular Windows 7 applications, some with [2D] animation.
• I do want Windows Aero support, and I have one game that requires DirectX 9.0c (but I can run it in low detail, so I stress that performance is a non-issue).
• It must be physically possible to install TWO cards on a motherboard such as the Asus 790X.

In principle, a very low-end card would be fine. The only thing is, the 2x DVI requirement cuts down my options somewhat. I have noticed that many budget cards are still 1 DVI + 1 D-Sub.

The XFX ATI Radeon 4670 HD * seems to fit the bill, though I have no idea how quiet it is, nor whether I should be able to find something cheaper. All suggestion welcome.

Thanks in advance.

---

* Agh, the forum won't let me include URL tags so here are the links - I hope it's okay for me to include these:

ht tp://w ww.dabs.com/products/asus-am3-amd-790x-atx-ddr3-audio-and-gigabit-ethernet-64N7.ht ml
ht tp://w ww.dabs.com/products/xfx-ati-radeon-4670-hd-750mhz-1gb-pci-express-2-0-dvi-654S.ht ml

[Jay]

I used 2 x nVidia 8400 passive cards to do this, cheap and did the job fine.

edit

just looked and it only has 1 DVI and 1 DSUB

Although why not just use a coverter?

http://www.dabs.com/products/asus-am...rnet-64N7.html
http://www.dabs.com/products/xfx-ati...-dvi-654S.html

Clickable links for above post

[shaithis]

You will need 2 HDMI>DVI converters (prob come bundled) or cables but can't get much cheaper or silent

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ASUS-...-PCI-E-20-W-LP

[abaxas]

Maybe spend a little more and get a matrox card?

[MaddAussie]

we use these for dual monitor output on our laptops at work

http://www.lambda-tek.com/components...prodID=B253940

you can have up 6 of these connected depending on the configuration and graphics card in your machine
http://www.displaylink.com/support/ticket.php?id=296

[Terbinator]

What about a Ati 5xxx series card, don't they have 4 outputs ?

[badass]

I have done exactily this for a monitoring PC at work.
1x785g motherboard and 1x Radeon HD4550 or 4350. Tick the box in the Driver and Et Voila - 4 screen goodness. The only problem is that one output must be a D-SUB

[Ferreting]

The only problem is that one output must be a D-SUB

Please can you explain precisely what you mean by this comment?

The ASUS 256MB RADEON HD 4350 (suggested by shaithis) has 3 outputs (DVI + HDMI + D-Sub). I read that you can only use 2 out of the 3 simultaneously, which is what I expected.

Are you saying that it's not possible to use the DVI and the HDMI at the same time....?

Because that would completely defeat the objective!!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I would look at this HD5750 which has 4 outputs:

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/179681

[scaryjim]

*sigh* - people, you can't use all 4 outputs on a 5750 together - only 3 simultaneously, and then one has to be the DisplayPort.

Ferreting - badass was referring to using the integrated graphics on a 785G mobo + a single discreet card: this would be the cheapest way to do 4 monitors, but one would have to run off the VGA output of the motherboard (the others could all run off digital outputs from the mobo and discreet card). If you're happy running three monitors, or 3 digital + 1 analogue monitor (if your existing monitors have D-SUB inputs), this is the best way to go.

If you *must*, absolutely no 2 ways about it, have 4 digital outputs, then you're pretty much stuck with a 2 x PCIe x16 mobo, two low end cards and 2 HDMI -> DVI converters, like shaithis suggested. If you're not going to be gaming much, I'd suggest this ASRock 770-based motherboard - the second PCIe x16 only runs at electrical x4, but that will be more than enough to drive a couple of desktops to large screen monitors (leaving your main monitors for gaming on the full x16 slot), and it's a lot cheaper than a 790X based motherboard! Depending on how flexible your budget is and how much gaming you plan on doing, you may wish to consider a passively-cooled HD4670 for the primary card (with a HD4350 as the secondary).

Oh, p.s. - it may be worth waiting until ATI release the 5600 / 5500 series cards: there's a chance these will come equipped with DVI / HDMI / Displayport and be natively capable of running 3 digital monitors off one card like the higher 5k series cards

[Ferreting]

Thanks for the extensive advice Jim.

The ASRock 770 looks good - that will save me £30 over the 790X board.

Depending on how flexible your budget is and how much gaming you plan on doing, you may wish to consider a passively-cooled HD4670 for the primary card (with a HD4350 as the secondary).

What's the idea behind having two different cards? Is the idea that when you run games in full-screen mode, it uses the primary card to do all the rendering on a single screen?

There is only one Direct3D application I'm concerned with, and it runs in a window. This might be a dumb question, but is the 3D acceleration always performed by whichever GPU is connected to the screen the window appears in?

I ask this because I don't always have it running on the same screen! Intuitively I would expect the acceleration to get better as I moved it to the screen(s) driven by the better video card...

[alsenior]

what about 2 of these ? should fit the bill just might need to point a large slow fan at them to make sure there cool and you should be sorted

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/1GB-X...-DL-DVI-I-HDTV

Edit:

Also motherboard wise what about this?:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Asus-...-SATA-RAID-VGA

[Pob255]

If you're only gameing on one monitor, then I don't think you need two identical cards.
2 of the same family to make drivers eaiser to manage.

so 4350 + 4770 or 4850 or nvidia (shock horror gasp) a gt220 + gt240 or gts250
Ok both the gts250 and 4850 are powerful for what you want but it'll give you some head room to up the graphical settings in games and when teamed with a cheap card just to drive a couple of desktops will be fine.
Oh you'll still need one HDMI to DVI converter as the higher end cards are far more likely to have 2xDVI, unless one of you monitors has HDMI then you'll not need any converters as long as that monitor is on the cheap card.

If one of your monitors has display port then you could run 3 monitors off a 5750 and a 2nd card just to run the last monitor for gaming (there buy getting the most out of the single card+single monitor)
But this is not a cheap option and requires a relatively expensive 5750 and a display port monitor or Active display port to DVI adaptor (which cost around £60 I beleve)

[scaryjim]

Thanks for the extensive advice Jim.

You're welcome

What's the idea behind having two different cards? Is the idea that when you run games in full-screen mode, it uses the primary card to do all the rendering on a single screen?

There is only one Direct3D application I'm concerned with, and it runs in a window. This might be a dumb question, but is the 3D acceleration always performed by whichever GPU is connected to the screen the window appears in?

That's certainly how it should work, yes. So you'd run any gaming or D3D accelerated programs on a monitor attached to the primary, more powerful, graphics card.

I ask this because I don't always have it running on the same screen! Intuitively I would expect the acceleration to get better as I moved it to the screen(s) driven by the better video card...

That's what I'd expect too - perhaps if you get this set up you could do a little review and let us know?