TR Forums

Hi Folks,

I have recently acquired 2x24 inch 1920x1200 monitors. I want to add them my machine that already has 2x22 inch 1680x1050 monitors. What combination of graphics cards do I need to make this work? This is a purely work computer that I use for development and I will not be doing any gaming on it. However, I do need some hardware acceleration for desktop composition.

My current setup
HP Z400 Workstation (motherboard has two PCI-E 16x and two PCI-e 8x Connectors)
1x Quadro NVS295 -> Two Display Ports -> 2x22 inch 1670x1050 monitors.

What I think I need
Get 2x GeForce 210 512MB 64-bit GDDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 @ $24.99 and put one on each of the two X16 PCIE slots.

This should give 4 DVI ports across the two cards.

Now for the questions:
-Will this work under Windows 8?
-Do I need to do anything special with the drivers to get this to work?
-Can I even mix and match ATI and NVIDIA cards on the same system?
-if I want to "future-proof" it even further, can I stick in 4 of the above cards (2 in the x16 slots and 2 in the x8 slots) and have access to 8 monitors?

Thanks,

Sid

sid1089 wrote:

1. Will this work under Windows 8?
2. Do I need to do anything special with the drivers to get this to work?
3. Can I even mix and match ATI and NVIDIA cards on the same system?
4. if I want to "future-proof" it even further, can I stick in 4 of the above cards (2 in the x16 slots and 2 in the x8 slots) and have access to 8 monitors?

1. Yes.
2. No.
3. Yes.
4. You could.

They are cards that can do up to six outputs on their own, but the price point you've listed put them out of reach best I can tell. They'd also require DisplayPort, which would appear to be a second issue.

You can drive more than just two monitors per card. Under Windows 7 or 8 you can mix and match graphics cards and monitors. Some of the information in this other thread may be helpful.


$130 -10MIR Radeon HD7770 1GB (HIS model iCooler H777F1G2M) o $123 Radeon HD7750 1GB (HIS model H775QNT1G2M) include 1 dual-link DVI, 1 HDMI and two mini-DisplayPort outputs on a relatively inexpensive graphics card.

Monitor 1 uses a DVI cable.
Monitor 2 uses an HDMI to DVI cable for $5 or $10.

Monitors 3 & 4 will require mini-DisplayPort to DVI active adapters for $25 or $30.

In another thread, I wrote:

If your monitors have only DVI and no DisplayPort input, you will definitely want some Active mini-DisplayPort to DVI adapters. This one is single-link DVI, so it's only good up to 1920x1200 @60Hz.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6812200944
http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-MDP2 ... 527&sr=8-1

If your monitors are higher resolution than 1920x1200 each, you'll need a dual-link DVI adapter, which is more expensive.
http://www.amazon.com/Accell-B087B-003J ... 795&sr=8-1

Thanks for the replies, folks. I greatly appreciate it.

I did look at the 7770. It is good card, no doubt. However, it is a tad over my budget. Additionally, my PSU doesn't have a 6 pin power connector. So I would also have to purchase a PSU if I went for the 7770.

Thanks again!

sid1089 wrote:

I did look at the 7770. It is good card, no doubt. However, it is a tad over my budget. Additionally, my PSU doesn't have a 6 pin power connector. So I would also have to purchase a PSU if I went for the 7770.

If your PSU can supply enough amps over the 12V rails, you can just use an adapter that combines 2 4-pin molex connectors to that 6-pin thing.