I want to use 3 displays of different resolutions

Hey guys. This is a slightly odd request, so bear with me. I have 3 LCD displays; a single 20" 1680x1050, and two 15" 1024x768 monitors. The way I would like to have it set up is the 20" in the center and a 15" on either side. What I need is a way to connect all 3 at once.

My graphics card has two outputs; a DVI and VGA. It works great with two monitors, one 20" and one 15", but I don't have a third port. The only thing I've ever heard of that works for 3 monitor setups is the Matrox TripleHead2Go, but everything I've read says that all 3 displays must be the same resolution, which is not the case.

So, is there any way I can make this work?

EDIT - I just realized my GPU also has an S-Video output...as the third monitor I have uses VGA, would it be as simple as just finding an S-Video to VGA adapter?

Now that I've done some looking, all I can find are female S-Video to male VGA adapters, but I need the opposite. My GPU has female S-Video for output, and my monitor cable ends in male VGA. I can't seem to find a single thing to make this work. Halp?

 

Single GPU'd computers i think can only do 2, but i'm not sure,

The matrox double head should work for the two littlens but it'd have to be a merged res i think,

You could try USB monitors maybe?

And ofc eyefinity supported cards do more then 2.

 

you can also get individual USB video cards and just keep plugging them in but dont expect to game on a USB video card.

and you will not find an S-vid to VGA cable as they are a COMPLETLY different signal.

 

The card in question is an 8800GT. After doing some research, it does seem that there is no such thing as S-Video to VGA without buying a multiple-hundred-dollar converter box, and according to reviews, image quality is questionable at best.

And the Matrox DoubleHead would probably work for the two 1024x768 monitors, but the way I'm trying to set this up is with my 1680x1050 monitor in the middle, and one 1024x768 on either side. Using the DoubleHead, I would have to put both 1024x768 monitors next to each other

What's this about USB monitors/video cards?

EDIT - I just looked up some USB VGA stuff, and it's all just as expensive as the S-Video VGA. Should I just give up?

 

USB monitors and video cards work good, I have a bunch of the E-VGA UV+ UV16 here and they stack pretty nice, but like I said before you wont be gaming on them. but they work great for business apps and such

 

Hmm...I read up on that model you mentioned, and it sounds like I'll be able to use this third monitor at the same time as the other two, which is good.

Could I possibly use a PCI (not PCIe) graphics card to accomplish the same thing? I'm fairly certain I still have an old FX5200 for PCI that should work...or would I only be able to use one at a time (i.e. the 8800GT or the FX5200)?

Actually, now that I mention it...is there any way to use my motherboard's integrated VGA output to make this work?

 

sure can, I think the DIY Vidock guys had a solution for a PCI card, but its still cheaper and easier to go with the UV+ USB cards as NOTHING thorugh a USB 2.0 port will game off of.

and the DIY Vidock parts will be the cost of a couple of the USB video units

 

So a PCI card would not work simultaneously with my PCIe card for an extended desktop?

What about my onboard video? Any way to get that to run at the same time?

 

nope laptops seem to hate running multiple GPU's unless its a PCIE solution through an expresscard or internal PCIE connector ( like I said DIY Vidock guys on the forums here are your best source for this)

depending on what your doing I would say get one external video card for each external screen and toss them on to extend your desktop.

 

PCI, PCIE, AGP (I have motherboard with all three connectors) will all work when mixed together.

The integrated VGA would be most simple, if it can be enabled while you have external graphics card installed (some integrated ones just turn itself off).

Basically you can have one video card in every expansion slot of your motherboard and each one of them will run 2 monitors. More than 2 with Eyefinity ATI's.

If you want everything to be as simple as possible, use graphic cards from same chipset maker. In your case 8800GT and the FX5200. That way you only need to install one set of drivers and the same control panel will control both cards.

I've run up to 4 monitors on my small Shuttle box, it works just like running one or two. Sometimes having them arranged properly might be challenging tho, but that's worth another thread.

With multimonitor setup, you get best results if you run Vista or Win7. XP isn't that nice in real life.

 

It looks like my BIOS only allows one video device to be active at a time; I can select onboard, PCI or PCIe. I tried my old Radeon 9200 in a PCI slot (turns out my FX5200 was AGP), and if I selected that device, then the display would work on it, but not on my 8800GT. If I selected PCIe, then the 8800GT would work and not the 9200.

 

Choose PCIE, then boot into windows. Check the device manager, do you see both graphics cards there? If you do, then just enable the other displays.

IF you have Win7, just press Win+P to enable/disable secondary display

Otherwise, go to display settings, click on the second/third display and check the extend desktop to his monitor -box.

 

I would agree with what some of the guys here have said on using an extra adapter. With the resolutions you are playing with (1024x768) you can just get a USB-to-DVI adapter and be done with it. You can't game on that screen, but at different resolutions you can't really do it anyway.

This technique lets you pretty much do whatever you want. I am using one at a resolution higher than that and have no problem playing videos, and even using another OS with all bells and whistles on that monitor alone. You should give it a shot but do plenty of reading so you find one that matches the resolution you need and stuff.

Not too show off, here is a picture of what I have to run the 3rd monitor:




The one on the right is USB powered. 3D support with no delay.