Chris Padfield 2007-03-16 10:02
Hi,
I am trying to pick some graphics cards for a new system. I need 3 cards (6 monitors).
I want one good graphics cards. This will run for now 2x24" displays (maybe a 30" one in future so want DUAL-DVI). This card will also be used to play games every now and again so would like it to be good at that.
The other two cards will not run anything very complicated, generally outlook, programming environments, onenote etc; so these can be cheap.
The motherboard is not picked yet but I would assume the first card should be PCI-X 16 and the other two most likely PCI cards.
Does anyone have any suggestions? My budget for the good card is around $250. I know Dx10 is coming out soon but it seems this is pretty expensive right now?
Also, I want to run vista in the better graphics mode, I know this has an affect on chipsets I can use for the cards but am somewhat confused on the restrictions.
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damion 2007-03-16 11:23
I would suggest a xfx geforce 7600 gt. a great card for a primary, real good handleing of games and such, dual dvi as well. As far the 2 other cards, why dont you go with Matrox quad for the other 4 monitors, great for 2-d app's. I love mine. and you can lessen up some power by running 2 cards instead of 3. And depending on what matrox quad you get you can run 2 dvi or 4 dvi off the one card, that would be 4 or all 6 monitors in dvi. or run the other 4 in vga.
Damion J. Hester
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Christian Studer 2007-03-16 11:56
You should get cards using the same brand of chipset for Vista, otherwise you won't be able to use the Aero theme.
Aero requires that the same driver be used for all installed video cards.
Christian Studer - www.realtimesoft.com
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Anla-shok 2007-03-16 21:01
Also, get a board that can handle 3 pci-e cards. My prefered are the Asus Strike, or p5w64. Although evga makes a good i680 I hear. The two asus boards have 3 and 4 pci-e slots respectivly, which means you can run as many video cards as you really need. I have one of both, and as long as you run video cards with the same drivers, vista will play nice.
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Chris Padfield 2007-03-17 07:52
Thanks for the tip on boards with 3 PCI-E slots, I didn't know they existed.
On the chipset/drivers, how do I go about telling if they are using the same. Given that I want one decent card and two cheaper ones I am somewhat confused about what to look for.
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Christian Studer 2007-03-17 11:29
If all the cards have either Nvidia or ATI chipsets you should be fine.
Christian Studer - www.realtimesoft.com
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Chris Padfield 2007-03-17 17:07
Thanks Christian, would that include having one direct x10 and two others that only use x9?
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Anla-shok 2007-03-17 19:36
The only x10 cards out there so far are cards like my 8800gtx. And it does NOT use the same driver set as the other nvidia cards. It uses it's own version of forceware. So if you want x10 support, you will need both 8800 series cards, or no aero and glass on vista.
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