Triple Monitor Setup

Ive got a 8800GT which has 2 DVI outputs and a tv-out. Ive got 2 monitors now hooked up. Both use DVI but one of my monitors has tv inputs so I was wondering if I could hook up three monitors by getting another monitor and using 2 DVI wires and a tv-out?

 

I'm not absolutely sure so don't rely strictly on my comments. I don't believe your card will support three monitors. So, if you still want to add a third monitor, get a PCI video card for the third monitor. Since your primary card is nVidia, I'd stick with nVidia for a second card; doing so is less likely to cause any driver conflict.

 

Having 2 cards wont cause any conflicts? Like in gaming I wont see some sort of performance drop?

So I could get something like this and just plug it into my mobo and plug a monitor into it and thats it?

 

Assuming you're not playing the game on the monitor attached to that PCI card, you won't see a performance hit with your game.

To get your computer to recognize the PCI card, you may need to access your BIOS and set PCI as the primary graphics adapter. This still lets the primary card work and allows use of the secondary card.

I have an AGP and a PCI video card installed to run two monitors, one off each card. My AGP card will only support one monitor. With an older GeForce Ti4200 card that would support two monitors, I tested running three monitors by using a PCI card along with the Ti4200; that worked fine.

 

I really wanted to play games spanning across all three monitors

But lets say I get a geforce fx card. The 8 series and fx series of nvidia cards use different drivers. Do I just keep on using the drivers I have installed for my 8800?

 

The two cards I have installed, a GeForce FX5200 and a GeForce4 MX440, use the same driver. But, in the case of the two cards you're talking about, you may have to wait and see what happens if you install the PCI card. Apparently, you've visited nVidia's site or verified from other sources that those cards use different drivers; if true, then you would, indeed, have to install a separate driver for the PCI card. And, yes, you would keep the driver you now have for the 8800.

 

Well if I look for the normal drivers yes they're different but when I search for the beta drivers the same one comes up for both of them. Im currently using the beta drivers and have had no problems.

 

Well, you'll probably soon know if you install that PCI card, whether the beta driver you have will work with both cards. But, if nVidia says it will, there's no reason to doubt it.

 

One more thing, if I disable the monitor that the PCI card is hooked up to the PCI card should not be in use anymore right? As in it wont be generating any heat?

 

You can verify that heat issue by observation; in other words, open the case and physically check the card for heat after the computer has been running for awhile and the PCI display adapter has been disabled. But, I feel quite sure you'll find that it won't generate heat in that situation, since it's not being tasked to do anything.

 

Thanks for all the help vet!