Running 3 monitors. Two Video Cards... Question!

Okay I have Dual Monitors setup with an ATI Radeon X1600 Pro Video Card (PCI Express). I run an online business and get extremely busy. I have around 15-20 FireFox Tabs open along with 4-10 AIM conversations open almost always. I want to set up 3 monitors now. (I'm using the DVI and Regular monitor slot on the Video Card for the two current monitors) Right now I can drag my mouse from screen to screen. I have to get another Video Card now to setup the 3rd monitor. (I don't believe a splitter would work because it'd just shoot the same image to two of the monitors. Correct me if I'm wrong!) What I'm curious is to find out if I can get the same Video Card (So I'll have two ATI X 1600) and function them together to run three monitors. I know some Video Cards have bridges to connect two of the same type, but in this case the Video Card I have doesn't have any type of bridge. (My brother has a 256 card that has a slot for the bridge. The bridge piece came with my motherboard.)

So if I get another ATI Radeon X 1600 Pro and hook both of the Video Cards up in my computer will they function together or function enough to get 3 monitors going? Like I said there's no where to connect the bridge on this video card. (I have two slots to connect both Graphics cards)

Also do the two video cards have to be the same card to get three monitors going?

Below is a picture of the box front...
On the box it says this in the corner... "You need all 3 to complete your CrossFire Multi-GPU Platiform"
1+2+3
CrossFire Ready Motherboard (STILL REQUIRED)
CrossFire Read Graphics Card (IN THIS BOX)
Crossfire Ready or Edition Graphics Card (STILL REQUIRED)

This above makes me think that I can run two cards, but of course I don't know. So anyone that can help me out here on getting 3 monitors setup that'd be awesome! Thanks!

EDIT I asked this question a few days ago on another forum and haven't made it too far. But there's some information there.

http://www.techsupportforum.com/har...tors-two-video-cards-question.html#post803230

 

Yes, you should be able to buy another video card (does not have to be the same brand/model) and plug it in to give you the capability of running up to 4 monitors.

 

That doesn't make sense... I'm almost %100 positive if I use another Video Card that isn't ATI it won't work...

 

No, you can put in any video card. I would recommend another ATI card so you don't have to mess with different drivers, and possible conflicts. If you were trying to do a Crossfire setup (which isn't possible with that motherboard anyway) then yes, you would need another X1600 video card. But if you just want another video card to feed more monitors, then you don't need to do anything special. Just get another PCI express video card and install it into the other PCI-x slot.

 

Triple Monitors makes me think Matrox
I'd like this set up but my desktop is too small http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/cadgis/products/th2go/th2go.php

Here's a little info & a list of some multi head video cards including basic specs
http://www.multiplemonitors.org/Pages - Hardware/Hardware - Multi head Video cards.html





15-20 tabs on firefox 4 plus AMI? thats a lot for three monitors

 

$300! That's crazy talk. Might as well get another ATI card and a new ATI mobo for that much.

 

Ignore the prices, they are a little outdated. For example, a 6800 Ultra for $650??

 

Ignore the $300 price? Is there another site it's cheaper? Is there any off brands cheaper?

 

Which cards are you talking about? All you need is another video card that can handle 2d output to more monitors. Something like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814127276

The FireGL and many of the Matrox cards (if those were what you were referring to) are marketed towards professionals who work with 3d models. They are not needed for normal desktop use. (web browsing, word processing, etc.) This stuff can be done with onboard video or a $50 video card from best buy.

 

Sounds perfect. Are you positive it will work? So this will have no effect on anything except for giving me a third monitor right? Any details that I need to know. Is this Card an ATI card so it won't interupt with eachother etc... Hook it in and install the driver that comes with and it should work? Thanks a bunch!

 

Should work fine, unless you plan on gaming.

 

Yeah occasionally I game. What would happen? Would it try to use the 128 or 512 card?

 

It will be fine. It should use your primary video adapter. (the X1600)

 

Sounds good I purchased the card you posted this morning!

 

Wow... I bought it, but there's no Windows Vista 32bit Driver... So it doesn't work. What can I do?

 

If the card you are talking about is this one
MSI RX1050-TD128E Radeon X1050 128MB 64-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 Low Profile Video Card - Retail


download the driver from here:
http://www.msi.com.tw/program/support/download/dld/spt_dld_detail.php?UID=791&kind=2

 

Well, the good news is that ATI/AMD says the X1050 should work with Vista:
http://ati.amd.com/products/RadeonX1050/index.html

So, try upgrading to the newest catalyst drivers if you don't already have them installed:
http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/vista32/common-vista32.html

 

Hmm I see it says Vista, but where is the actual driver for the card
http://www.msi.com.tw/program/support/download/dld/spt_dld_detail.php?UID=791&kind=2

The link only shows XP/2000

Also when I try to open Catalyst the mouse flashes a few times and nothing opens.

 

Sorry my bad
doesnt appear to have the vista driver

try the link that Wyatt_Earp supplied you with again
(it just worked for me)
http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/vista32/common-vista32.html

 

Yeah I installed that new Catalyst, but I can't get it to open. It just flashes then closes... I don't know why. I have dual monitors and they work fine, but I can't get the third one to work. Would I need a seperate driver for the 128 or will this catalyst cover it?

 

What can't you get to open?

And, you shouldn't need a seperate driver. Does the device show up in Device Manager? (Right click on My Computer->Properties->Hardware Tab->Device Manager->Expand Display Adapters) Does the X1050 have a yellow question mark or a red exclamation point?

 

Catalyst 7.2 won't open, but I don't believe I even need it. Anyways I went through the device manager and my video card isn't even located in the devices... I know it's installed correctly and tightly pushed down. What might cause this?

Also I went through the sites and it looks like it'll work for Vista, but there is no current driver yet for this model. But above you said I may not need a seperate driver. I'll check and make sure it's tightly down, but I'm almost positive it's in there good.

 

Bump! Any clue why?

 

Well, since it isn't showing up in device manager, it looks like bios is not recognizing it. Can you try going into bios and seeing if there is anything that might relate to the second PCI express slot?

 

Hmm I don't know much in that range. I hate to take more time, but if you don't mind explaining it that would be great.

 

Immediately after you power the computer up, there should be something on the screen saying, "Press DEL to enter BIOS (or system setup)" or something along those lines. You'll want to press the key that it tells you to.

Also, if you can tell us what brand/model your motherboard is, or the brand/model of your computer (if it is a Dell, HP, Gateway, etc.) it would help.

 

Hey, I actually built my computer so it's all from new parts. Here is my mother board.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813128321

I have a 300GB Seagate hard drive. AMD Anthlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4200. You know the Video Cards and a couple other TV/Wireless card. I'm using Windows Vista Business 32 bit. (Vista is pissing me off btw... "Server Execution Error" for my wireless)

I'll go look at the bios and see if I see anything in there. I just installed a Wireless-N PCI Adapter and everything was pushed in good.

 

EDIT: I looked through everything and saw many different things. I was in the PnP/PCI Configuration and saw somethings that may have been the two cards, but I just don't know enough.

 

EDIT Again... (It won't let me edit my posts so please read the last 3 posts) I just ran a simple test. I went ahead and pulled out both Video Cards. I placed my ATI Radeon in the second slot that I want to place my new Video Card in. When I booted up the monitors did not work and basically it was like no Video Card was there. I then took my Video Card out and placed just the new on in the second slot. Again neither monitors worked. Finally I took the new Video Card and placed it in the slot my ATI Radeon 1600 was in the begin with and everything booted normally. Meaning either A, the second PCI Express x 16 slot is dead or B it has to be enabled somehow. What should I do? Do you think the slots dead? Everything leads there. I know newegg has a 1 year replacement "Standard Return Policy."

Get back to me!

 

Ah, it looks like you'll need to set a jumper to enable SLI. If you look at page 17 of your manual, it shows you how to enable SLI. It says:

Give that a try and see if it works.

 

While reading page 17 I'm finding out it requires me to use a bridge that connects the two Video Cards together. Meaning it'd have to be the same 2 video cards and they'd have to be nvidia with the slot for the bridge on top of the two cards. My two cards are different and I can't use the bridge. Also it says sli is only available in Windows XP. Maybe since Vista is new it might work, but what should I do now? Should I try it without the bridge?

 

No, you don't need the bridge. That's only if you want to use SLI. You are not going to do that. You just want to enable the second slot. (which means you need to set the jumpers as if you were going to use SLI)

 

Okay, I switched all of the jumpers. I booted up the computer and now one of my two monitors is blue. Everything loads it's just got a dark blue shade over it. The third monitor does not work. Though in the Device Manager it now finds both Video Cards! Both look fine and have no red ! or yellow anything.

Okay the manual says a few things that I don't know what to do.

"If you plug the display cable to the card on the PCIE_16_1 slot, make sure to set Init Display First in BIOS Setup to PEG; if you plug the display cable to the card on PCIE_16_2 slot, set Init Display First to PEG (SLOT2)."

Okay What do I do here. I have 2 monitors in the 512 card and 1 monitor in the 128 card. Also it says to go into Nvidia Display and change the graphics card mode to SLI multi-GPU. How do I do this with ATI? Keep in mind I can't open the Catalyst Control Center.. It doesn't load when I open it.

Thanks and get back to me!

EDIT: I went to the Wizard.exe for ATI and it says that my version of Catalyst in not compatible with my version of windows. I have Windows Vista Business 32 bit. That was with http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/vista32/common-vista32.html. Not sure why it won't work there, but besides this my monitor is still blue...

 

First off, I would try uninstalling and reinstalling your video card drivers. (using the link to the 7.2 catalyst drivers for Vista 32-bit)

Also, I'm not sure how it works in Vista, but can you get to your display properties? The place where you can change your resolution? With my old Radeon 9800 Pro, there was an Advanced button where I could change things about the monitors. Maybe there is something similar in Vista. You might want to try calling ATI tech support. They may be able to help more now that Windows is seeing both video cards.

http://support.ati.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=894

 

I opened up the display properties and enabled the third monitor. It was working, but I couldn't get some stuff to work. Anyways I got EVERYTHING to work great! Only problem is is that my middle screen has a dark blue shade, but besides that all my monitors are working awesome! How can I get rid of this blue?

 

Done! It works now! Thank you so much! I honestly believe the blue was there because the monitor cord wasn't all the way in, but it could have fixed once I restarted.

 

Great. Glad you got it working.