Graphics get geezer groggy

[Hans L]

I've been on the Hexus hardstuff forum and discussed CPUs, mbs and memory for my building project, and made my choices (see below). But when it comes to graphics, which was fairly easy to select a few year back, I am throughly stumped.

I now have an Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 CPU, and ASUS P5B Deluxe WiFi-AP motherboard, and two Corsair 1 GB DDR2 533 MHz memories (VS1Gb553D2). I am not a gamer, not an overclocker, but want to be able to work with three (3) monitors, all Iiyama ProLite E431S (vertical refresh rate 75 Hz, response time 8 ms, max resolution 1280 x 1024). I want to have capacity for having many apps open at the same time, and capacity for photo and video work, which wimm increase in my case in the future.

The mb has two PCI E x16 slots, but if I used both, the second one will work as x4 only.

I need one dual-head PCI E card for 2 monitors and one other card for the third monitor. But as I read about graphics cards, it seems that everething that is written is written for games. Where is a geezer to look, and/or to select?

Grateful for some tips.

Hans L

[kalniel]

As you're not interested in games, you don't need to worry about performance and can just look for supported features. To that end I would recommend just browsing through some retailers lists of graphics cards and look for the features you want - PCIe, dual DVI/ramdac.

Scan, dabs, microdirect, savastore and others all have quite good feature listings for their products - if the information doesn't look quite filled in then be sure to give them a quick ring or look up the product on the original manufacturers website.

[Barrichello]

Depends how much you want to spend really graphics wise?

Where i work our traders use QID Matrox quad cards like below...

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=454645


Basically a 4 head graphic card using just 1 PCI-E or PCI slot. Would leave you 1 head spare if you ever got a 4th monitor.

Its not a cheap card but you get what you pay for, we have about 50 of them in use and we never have any problems with them at all. It comes in a kit with all the connectors as well as standard and low profile brackets.

Sure there are cheaper soloutions, but can confirm that it is a great card if your budget can stretch that far.

[pauldarkside]

What about one of these: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=407353

That attached to a "normal" GPU would be fine. I'm sure I spotted Hexus a review on this a while ago...

[pmanington]

What about one of these: http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=407353

That attached to a "normal" GPU would be fine. I'm sure I spotted Hexus a review on this a while ago...

My housemate has one of those, it's superb

[pauldarkside]

Nope, it wasn't Hexus but here:

http://www.guru3d.com/article/Videocards/337/

If only I had the desk space

[Rack]

Other thing, do you really need the 16x pci-e speed if you are not gaming?? probably not. You will be fine having a 4x lane with your 2nd graphics card in it. then you can just get two low-end cards that have dual-port capability.

[Hans L]

So, am I to assume that no card in the ATI X1000 series has two DVI output connectors? What about nVidia? And does Matrox only have analog outputs (like in the Triplehead2Go box)?

I had my eyes set on a DVI output, because I thought the picture quality was better.

I have no problems with 4x -- I believe too that it is more than enough for my needs.

PaulDarkSide -- deskspace? Why not hang it from the ceiling?

Okay, thanks for the input. I'll look for dual cards, and see what I can find. I'll look at Triplehead2Go again too.

[Hans L]

What do you guys think about this:

One eVGA 7600 GT with two DVI ports $219.00

One eVGA 7600 GS with one DVI port $149.00

compared with

a card in the $150 - $200 area + a Matrox Matrox TripleHead2Go for $300 ?

Hans L

[kalniel]

So, am I to assume that no card in the ATI X1000 series has two DVI output connectors?

Er.. I thought they all do - certainly most of them do. Just check the specs.