many many monitors (quad)

[user1453]

Ok guys I nedd as much screen realastate as possible for a lighting control program for use in a school production

Anyway the question is this would an sli motherboard equipped with 2 6200 gfx cards be able to support 4 monitors?

[dave87]

I dont think the 6200s are SLi Compatable, iirc its 6600gts & up.

Having been a technical director of a school production I found that 2x17" Tfts @1280x1024, is enough for lighting control (out of interest - what are you using?) and then 2 machines with 17" tfts for Sound. 2 TFTs can easily be run off a 6600, but not too sure on the 6200s ability, especially if your lighting control has any element of 3d modeling (ie showing a plan of the hall, & the lights contained in it).

Dave

[user1453]

I am not talking about sli just the ability of using 2 gpus to get 4 moniors
It's just I know sli boards are designed to use 2 gpus

[XA04]

My ATI 9800 pro isn't anything overly special, but can support 3 outputs.. (Normal monitor connection, s-video and the high defintion cable... can use converters for the last two).

[user1453]

I thought 9800's have one vga and dvi three moniors?

[nvening]

This and just using the normal port make work but im not sure...

http://www.matrox.com/graphics/offhome/th2go/home.cfm

[user1453]

where do you get these things?

[kushtibari]

You could use a DFI Ultra-D with 2 x PCI-E slots and a graphics card in each?

[user1453]

thought of that but I thought that going with an s754 sli system would be cheaper

[TheAnimus]

most SLI boards will let you use 2 PCI-E graphics cards, its just some only have x8 in the second slot, but this isn't a problem.

Make sure you get the same firm's cards, i've had issues with having an ATI and a nVidia.

I used to run 3 * 19" TFTs and a 22" CRT off a 5900 and a 6600 without any problems at all. However when i was using an ATI card the drivers kept having big problems, its also worth noting that nVidia give some nice software for MM setups.

The big question here is when using the 3 screens, will there be direct-x or openGL on any of them? Also, x really, really, has problems with my setup, so windows is the only option really for me (well, its a desktop, so its the best option anyway).

SLi will only really improve the performance on 1 screen, to use them as seperate graphics cards, theres no need to worry about SLi, just get a good motherboard with 2 * PCIe

[user1453]

I believe it is mainly open gl, not any really gpu intensive stuff though

[TheAnimus]

Okay, two 6600's would work then, assuming one 6600 can coupe with driving two screens of the open GL stuff

[user1453]

I was thinking of using this as the motherboard
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=249105

[user1453]

to keep costs down could I use a couple of these on the pci bus?
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=105002

[5lab]

matrox do a couple of 3-port cards

i had a single 4-port card a few years back - worked ace but only in 2d. i believe xp can support up to 8 monitors (nt for 16. iirc)



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