Triple Monitors = 3 Head VGA Card

[Spunkey]

just found this site with some mighty tasty multi-monitor rigs...
http://www.lcd-monitors.co.uk/
.. and been looking at the 3 18" monitor horizontal setup.

I know its possible to have a dual head AGP card, with a single PCI card which will give you a three monitor setup, but a PCI card would be a crime when attached to that.

So my question is, anyone know of any decent triple-head cards?
although its primarily for 3d/2d graphics work, i wont moan if its capable of half decent gaming performance too

ahh the joys of being able to charge this to your company

[Steve]

You could go SLI Geforce 6, or Matrox Parhelia. I can't think of any other setup that will allow it, I'll do a quick search for you though.

Nup, can't find anything else after a quick look.

[Lee H]

The only Triple headed card I know of at the present time are the pharhelia range of cards.

More information can be found here ;

http://www.matrox.com/mga/products/parhelia/128mb.cfm

and heres some quick tech info on the card ;

Key features:
512-bit GPU
256-bit DDR memory interface
128MB DDR memory
High performance 2D, 3D & video
Triple-RGB, Dual-DVI, TV output
Surround Design and Surround Gaming
DualHead-HF and TripleHead Desktop
16x Fragment Antialiasing
UltraSharp Display Output technology
10-bit GigaColor technology
Matrox PrecisionCAD driver for AutoCAD®
Realtime Display Color Adjustment
PureVideo Preview
Visualization Plugin for AutoCAD®
WYSIWYG Plug-ins for DCC
10-bit GigaColor Plugin for PhotoShop
AGP 8X

Hope this helps ;

[Spunkey]

wow, speedy

i found the 256Mb Matrox's on MicroDirect for £500. I've used a Matrox before and wasnt overly impressed, although it was a few years ago so might have to have another shifty. GeForce 6 SLI sounds interesting *chin scratch*

Cheers all!

[funnelhead]

Just bear in mind that the parpahalia isnt the greatest 3d performer, but its the best you'll get with 3 monitors. Its price is kept up by the fact it's the only triple header.

If you wanted the option of more than 3 monitors then you could run a multi-monitor G200. Up to 16 panels with this:

http://www.matrox.com/mga/products/g200_mms/home.cfm

hope this helps

f

[Steve]

The GeForce 6's in SLI mode aren't out yet... but watch this space

[Rythmic]

Apart from above, and other matrox cards such as their G200MMS cards, can't think of anything:

http://www.matrox.com/mga/products/g200_mms/home.cfm

They apparently do custom designs up to 8 head as well.

Roll on dual PCIEx16 slot boards.....

Edit: went off to make a coffee, and left the page open...

[Defiant]

Please remember that for a Geforce 6800 set up to work, you will require:

1. New motherboard which has two x16 PCI Express slots and a chipset that will support will support that configuration. From what I know you can only get a Xeon server motherboard with that configuration at this time. Current Mobo prices £500 or >

2. 1 or 2 Intel Xeon Processors + you may need to change your ram depending on the motherboard.

3. Also you would need 2 Geforce 6800 Ultras that are PCI Express based, which are not out on the market. Current idea on price £350 or >


So Its not going to be a cheap option for about 6 months I would think.


But what you going to use 3 TFT screens for? Games? I dont know many games that use more than 1 screen. Or is it CAD or modeling work?

[baius]

Hi. Sorry to resurrect, but I'm interested in running 5 monitors.

3 screens will/can be identical, so no worries, there.

However, I still need 3 (digital) outputs.

I'd like one discrete graphics card, (current ATI/nVidia, so 2 outputs) for power reasons.

Can anyone come up with anything?

(Please ask if clarification needed. Or read here.)

[TooNice]

This would take care of 4. I am not sure what how 3 digital outputs would be setup for 5 monitors, but something like Matrox TripleHead2Go may be worth looking at.

[baius]

This would take care of 4. I am not sure what how 3 digital outputs would be setup for 5 monitors, but something like Matrox TripleHead2Go may be worth looking at.

That is exceedingly helpful. Thank you. (FYR, you can use an 1->4 HDMI or DVI switcher for the "duplication" bit.)
Thank you again.

[baius]

Yeah, got my "weekly subscription" for this thread into my inbox, and I got to wondering again... What I'd probably like - hey, I didn't already say this, did I? hope not - ...is a 9800gx2 with the 4 "simultaneous" outputs.

I wish the Palit 9600gt Sonic would do it, but it doesn't.

Will keep waiting/watching.