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Tom's Guide > Forum > Graphic & Displays > Graphics Cards > Three monitors, ATI onboard and Nvidia PCI

Three monitors, ATI onboard and Nvidia PCI

Forum Graphic & Displays : Graphics Cards Three monitors, ATI onboard and Nvidia PCI

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I have this computer that I bought as a barebones kit from TigerDirect.
-Gigabyte motherboard
-AMD processor
-Onboard ATI Radeon HD 4200
-currently only 3gb RAM
-Windows XP media center edition
Then I installed an Nvidia Geforce 9500 gt GPU (1gb)
Next I proceeded to stick a second monitor on it (both are 19 inch, 1280x1024 res)

The problem is first person shooters suck at two screens due to the crosshairs being in the middle.
So what did I do? Pinched a monitor from my dad's computer room and stuck that on my onboard video card, that Radeon.

Now my problem is (since I used nvidia control panel to manage the two monitors on the 9500, and catalyst control center to manage the third monitor on the hd4200) I seem to be unable to make the desktop SPAN all three monitors instead of "dual view" stuff that windows does.
I can arrange them properly and stuff and set pretty wallpapers with DisplayFusion, but i still cannot play games that span the entire three-monitor desktop.

I'll be anxious for any help you guys can offer :bounce:
Thanks,
-Nick

Reply to phait103
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you need a amd card with eyefinity is you want to do that, tell me what cpu and power supply do you have, and your budget

------------------------------ Nobody knows what's gonna happen at the end of the line, so you might aswell enjoy the trip
Reply to megagabobe1

CPU- AMD Athlon II X2 240
PSU- 600 watt i believe
Budget- minimum possible...

Reply to phait103

what games are you planning on playing?

------------------------------ Nobody knows what's gonna happen at the end of the line, so you might aswell enjoy the trip
Reply to megagabobe1

Half Life 2, Ace Online, Modern Warfare, Battlefield 2, Portal, etc

everything runs great right now, i even tried spanning two monitors and it causes no lag then

Message quoted 1 times
Message edited by phait103 on 02-16-2012 at 06:29:38 PM
Reply to phait103

phait103 wrote :

Half Life 2, Ace Online, Modern Warfare, Battlefield 2, Portal, etc

everything runs great right now, i even tried spanning two monitors and it causes no lag then



for the third monitor i would recommend an hd 6670 or hd 6790 at least

------------------------------ Nobody knows what's gonna happen at the end of the line, so you might aswell enjoy the trip
Reply to megagabobe1

megagabobe1 wrote :

for the third monitor i would recommend an hd 6670 or hd 6790 at least


Do you know if that is compatible with a Gigabyte GA-MA785GM-US2H motherboard?
Also, I have two monitors with DVI hookups and one with VGA, how will I be able to connect the third one with VGA? Does that stay on the onboard graphics card?
Thanks for your help.

Reply to phait103

you can put any of those gpus on the motherboard, i believe you'll need to get a display port to vga adapter

------------------------------ Nobody knows what's gonna happen at the end of the line, so you might aswell enjoy the trip
Reply to megagabobe1

Could I not use an nvidia card (with nvidia 3d vision surround) and "bridge" it to my 9500? would the second one have to be a 9500 as well?

Reply to phait103

phait103 wrote :

Could I not use an nvidia card (with nvidia 3d vision surround) and "bridge" it to my 9500? would the second one have to be a 9500 as well?



that card is too old for that technology, you need at least a 200 series card i believe, get a cheap 6670 if you want to spend as little as possible, you'll be able to run your 3 monitors

------------------------------ Nobody knows what's gonna happen at the end of the line, so you might aswell enjoy the trip
Reply to megagabobe1
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