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rwong48
join:2002-11-10
San Jose, CA

rwong48

Member

Which nVidia cards support 3 independent displays?

I'm a bit behind with tech.. last I checked, nVidia cards were always (and still) limited to 2 displays.

They had something called MDT (nVidia surround?) which was a workaround - as far as I know, that just presented two physical monitors as one to the OS.. which is *not* what I'm looking for. I need to be able to connect 3 independent displays and see 3 displays in the OS, like I do at work with my ATI 6450M-or-something. I was about to switch to ATI for this, despite disliking ATI's software.

Now I'm seeing some people have some success with 3 displays, using cards from the GTX660 to GTX680. But before I blow $300 on one, I want to know.. exactly which ones?

I don't need crazy performance - the newest game that I play is 5+-year-old Team Fortress 2, and only the primary monitor will be used while gaming.
Also, I'm okay if display number >2 has to come out of the card as DisplayPort or such; I'm used to that limitation, so I have some active adapters.
BlitzenZeus
Burnt Out Cynic
Premium Member
join:2000-01-13

BlitzenZeus

Premium Member

A cheaper option would be to use the onboard video if you have one since you would only use one monitor while gaming.

rwong48
join:2002-11-10
San Jose, CA

rwong48

Member

I've considered using the onboard or even a PCI/PCIE GeForce 8400GS for the 3rd/4th displays, but I'm not sure how they would affect performance of the primary adapter. Maybe I should try it for myself.

As a clarification, during gaming, the other displays will still be on, and have mostly idle material - as opposed to being disabled and re-enabled. The game itself spans only the primary display.

DKS
Damn Kidney Stones

join:2001-03-22
Owen Sound, ON

DKS to rwong48

to rwong48
said by rwong48:

Now I'm seeing some people have some success with 3 displays, using cards from the GTX660 to GTX680. But before I blow $300 on one, I want to know.. exactly which ones?

I have a plain vanilla GTX 680. I am supporting two monitors. One is on the card and one on the mobo onboard video (Intel 4000). I could add aone more monitor, if I had the desk space.

Krisnatharok
PC Builder, Gamer
Premium Member
join:2009-02-11
Earth Orbit

Krisnatharok to rwong48

Premium Member

to rwong48
This will answer your question:

»www.geforce.com/hardware ··· irements

MacGyver

join:2001-10-14
Vancouver, BC
·TELUS
Actiontec T3200M
Arcadyan WE410443-TS
Sipura SPA-2102

MacGyver to BlitzenZeus

to BlitzenZeus
said by BlitzenZeus:

A cheaper option would be to use the onboard video if you have one since you would only use one monitor while gaming.

That's what I do with three monitors and Windows 7, and it works great. My GTX460 handles two monitors, and onboard graphics does the third. Last night I was playing a game, watching NFL, and doing voice chat. The Intel HD3000 video built in to the core i5 processor is more than adequate for the third monitor.

I do recall I had some trouble getting the third monitor to work. I had to enable onboard graphics in the BIOS, install the driver, and make sure "Intel HD Graphics Family" appeared in device manager.
BlitzenZeus
Burnt Out Cynic
Premium Member
join:2000-01-13

BlitzenZeus

Premium Member

Unless I'm connecting something like a room hdtv to an existing two monitor system I wouldn't bother with a 3rd, I already have to use a large folding table as a computer desk for my two large computer monitors.

Watch out when updating the nvidia drivers, when it refreshes the drivers without a reboot it might leave all your monitors black, and then you're stuck guessing if the setup completed properly. On a very similar system this happened, and I had to wait until I thought it was completed, then I had pressed the power button to trigger the soft shutdown in the operating system. On startup the drivers were updated, but it was clearly the fault of nvidia's driver refresh method which even turned off the monitors attached to another gpu.

Octavean
MVM
join:2001-03-31
New York, NY

Octavean to rwong48

MVM

to rwong48
I recently upgraded from an XFX HD 6870 video card to a PNY GTX 670 which drives a triple 27" monitor setup consisting of Asus VE276Q, VE278Q and VK278Q models (5760x1080).

I was a little concerned about having enough room to set this up with and finding a suitable desk. After a while I gave up but was inspired by a post made here at BBR which showed off a custom (makeshift) desk.

Basically I just used two half hight filing cabinets, some scrap wood, 2x4s and some floor paneling. It's fairly solid too, so much so that I have been considering using a desk mounted triple monitor mount rather then individual monitor stands. A slight angle on the side monitors allows the 27" monitors to fit in the allocated space.

I'm not sure if this is accurate but I have heard Haswell iGPU will support three monitors natively.

Camelot One
MVM
join:2001-11-21
Bloomington, IN

Camelot One to rwong48

MVM

to rwong48
said by rwong48:

I've considered using the onboard or even a PCI/PCIE GeForce 8400GS for the 3rd/4th displays, but I'm not sure how they would affect performance of the primary adapter. Maybe I should try it for myself.

As a clarification, during gaming, the other displays will still be on, and have mostly idle material - as opposed to being disabled and re-enabled. The game itself spans only the primary display.

I run my primary display - a 30" at 2560x1600, off of a GTX260. I run left and right displays - landscaped 1280x1024 19"s, off of an old dual DVI 7600GS. Obviously I only play games on the primary monitor, but everything works perfectly. If performance on the primary is important, make sure only your primary monitor is connected to it, and run the other displays off of the second/third/fourth cards.

The triple head cards are nice if you want to game on all of the outputs. But given your stated needs, it would be a waste of money.

EVGA_RobB
@verizon.net

EVGA_RobB to DKS

Anon

to DKS
said by DKS:

said by rwong48:

Now I'm seeing some people have some success with 3 displays, using cards from the GTX660 to GTX680. But before I blow $300 on one, I want to know.. exactly which ones?

I have a plain vanilla GTX 680. I am supporting two monitors. One is on the card and one on the mobo onboard video (Intel 4000). I could add aone more monitor, if I had the desk space.

Just curious, but on your 680, why not connect both monitors to your 680? In fact, Many of the 6 series cards will run 3 monitors by themselves (including the 680).

DKS
Damn Kidney Stones

join:2001-03-22
Owen Sound, ON

DKS

said by EVGA_RobB :

said by DKS:

said by rwong48:

Now I'm seeing some people have some success with 3 displays, using cards from the GTX660 to GTX680. But before I blow $300 on one, I want to know.. exactly which ones?

I have a plain vanilla GTX 680. I am supporting two monitors. One is on the card and one on the mobo onboard video (Intel 4000). I could add aone more monitor, if I had the desk space.

Just curious, but on your 680, why not connect both monitors to your 680? In fact, Many of the 6 series cards will run 3 monitors by themselves (including the 680).

Because the second monitor isn't used for gaming and the video card runs cooler. I was using the Lucid MVP software, but found it conflicted with BF3.

MineCoast
Premium Member
join:2004-10-06
Pensacola, FL

MineCoast to rwong48

Premium Member

to rwong48
My GT 660 supports 4 monitors (Two DVI's, HDMI, Display Port) at the same time.

Gordo74
Premium Member
join:2003-10-28
Pittsburgh, PA

Gordo74 to rwong48

Premium Member

to rwong48
If you're not looking to game across multiple monitors, you can use any combination of video output devices (multiple video cards/onboard video/USB Monitor addition).

I know the ATI 5xxx, 6xxx, and 7xxx series work with up to 4 monitors each. As far as nVidia, you can do 2 monitors per video card. Onboard video can do up to 3 (Ivy Bridge can do 3 if 2 are through displayport connections).

Whichever monitor the game is on, that is the video card that will be driving it. Make sure the game is on your most powerful one and it wont be an issue.

pnjunction
Teksavvy Extreme
Premium Member
join:2008-01-24
Toronto, ON

pnjunction

Premium Member

said by Gordo74:

I know the ATI 5xxx, 6xxx, and 7xxx series work with up to 4 monitors each. As far as nVidia, you can do 2 monitors per video card. Onboard video can do up to 3 (Ivy Bridge can do 3 if 2 are through displayport connections).

Not sure but I think nVidia has finally added 3-4 monitor support on a single card in the 600 series.

El Quintron
Cancel Culture Ambassador
Premium Member
join:2008-04-28
Tronna

El Quintron

Premium Member

said by pnjunction:

Not sure but I think nVidia has finally added 3-4 monitor support on a single card in the 600 series.

This is the case, even if they'll only support surround gaming on select cards.

rwong48
join:2002-11-10
San Jose, CA

rwong48

Member

said by El Quintron:

said by pnjunction:

Not sure but I think nVidia has finally added 3-4 monitor support on a single card in the 600 series.

This is the case, even if they'll only support surround gaming on select cards.

This appears to be the case, for (most of?) the GTX 660, 670, and 680 cards. Not sure about the 650, which is what my original question was - exactly which ones?

I think I'll settle with using a secondary card for the 2nd/3rd monitors, whether that be with a nVidia 8400GS (since I have some laying around) or the Sandy Bridge iGPU, but I'd still like to know.

Gordo74
Premium Member
join:2003-10-28
Pittsburgh, PA

Gordo74

Premium Member

said by rwong48:

This appears to be the case, for (most of?) the GTX 660, 670, and 680 cards. Not sure about the 650, which is what my original question was - exactly which ones?

All from the 660 upwards. I meant to put that in my original post.

dfrandin
Premium Member
join:2002-06-14
Las Vegas, NV

dfrandin

Premium Member

said by Gordo74:

said by rwong48:

This appears to be the case, for (most of?) the GTX 660, 670, and 680 cards. Not sure about the 650, which is what my original question was - exactly which ones?

All from the 660 upwards. I meant to put that in my original post.

I recently bought a 610 for a friend, and it has DVI, HDMI and VGA. I'm currently using it with two monitors, off the VGA and DVI ports, but I wonder if I had a third monitor that did HDMI (or an HDMI to DVI adapter) if it too, would support three monitors.. Enquiring minds....

Gordo74
Premium Member
join:2003-10-28
Pittsburgh, PA

Gordo74

Premium Member

said by dfrandin:

said by Gordo74:

said by rwong48:

This appears to be the case, for (most of?) the GTX 660, 670, and 680 cards. Not sure about the 650, which is what my original question was - exactly which ones?

All from the 660 upwards. I meant to put that in my original post.

I recently bought a 610 for a friend, and it has DVI, HDMI and VGA. I'm currently using it with two monitors, off the VGA and DVI ports, but I wonder if I had a third monitor that did HDMI (or an HDMI to DVI adapter) if it too, would support three monitors.. Enquiring minds....

I do not believe so. I believe it has to be 660 or upwards.