three monitors on geforcefx

[yoladude]

i have someone who wants to know whether or not there is any kind of proprietary nview or third party hack to enable three monitors on an fx card. he says he's heard about it and that it's a free download. any advice?

[jAkUp]

well you could always get a vga multiplyer:D

[Sazar]

Originally posted by jAkUp
well you could always get a vga multiplyer:D

eh... wots at ?

[jAkUp]

its what they use for demos.. allows you to use like 10 screens.. all showing the same thing.

[extreme_dB]

How can there be a software workaround when the card can't physically connect to 3 monitors? You'd need another card for the third monitor.

[ricercar]

(1)
A VGA splitter cable would permit an arbitrary number of analog displays to be connected, all showing the same image. A software hack could increase the drive strength of the DAC, allowing more analog displays to be driven from one DAC.

(2)
NV3x have only two DACs, so you can view only two independent images regardless of how many displays you have connected.

(3)
NVIDIA drives TV output decoder from DAC B. A software hack might enable both a TV display and a VGA/DVI display to be driven from DACB. The third display, being driven from DAC A, would show a different image.

[yoladude]

thanks for the replies guys...i wasn't sure whether or not this would work at all.

[extreme_dB]

Well, ricercar did post some good info there. I guess you're only interested in having 3 independant screens.

[Nv40]

right now i think MAtrox is the Only one that support 3monitors at once ..
wait.. i think there is a quadro board from Nvidia that support 3 monitors too.. but is not for gaming ,only for professional aplications..

[extreme_dB]

I can say that if Nvidia supported triplehead in their highend card and ATI didn't, with all other relative aspects being the same, then I'd buy it for sure, along with the necessary monitors! As long as triplehead is actually supported in the games I play. :) I'm mainly into racing simulations, mechwarrior, C&C RTS, and Civ3. I'm looking forward to HL2 and Doom3 also.

[Nv40]

Originally posted by extreme_dB
I can say that if Nvidia supported triplehead in their highend card and ATI didn't, with all other relative aspects being the same, then I'd buy it for sure, along with the necessary monitors! As long as triplehead is actually supported in the games I play. :) I'm mainly into racing simulations, mechwarrior, C&C RTS, and Civ3. I'm looking forward to HL2 and Doom3 also.

3 monitors at once in a game will be supperb.
but you can count the people that have that cash$$ and even if you have the money ,you will need a video card 3xtimes faster than the NV35 and R350 to play at HQ settings in those games. so its not something we are going to see anytime soon.

what i will like to see in games 100% optimized for DUal CPus or any other higher number of cpus you may have in your PC. ATlonXp's are pretty cheap .just imagine the performance you will get with 2 atlonxp2500 plus..
at the same time. much higher without a doubt that a single P4 running at 4.2 ghz. :)

[extreme_dB]

Maybe a triplehead card would have triple GPUs. :)

Nonetheless, I would gladly sacrifice HQ settings for triplehead. And for strategy games/RTS, that might not even be necessary.

Triplehead is worth it for the 2D experience alone!

[Nv40]

Originally posted by extreme_dB
Maybe a triplehead card would have triple GPUs. :)

Nonetheless, I would gladly sacrifice HQ settings for triplehead. And for strategy games/RTS, that might not even be necessary.

Triplehead is worth it for the 2D experience alone!

that will be EXtremely superb.. :)
i just dream with that day.. to use more that one video card ,at least two..
like the old days of 3dfx.. just imagine the unlimited performance a dual R400 or dual Nv40 in your PC.. :D

however is more expensive with video cards..that the standar for a highend is $500 :( and more and more games are shipping CPu limited,so the feature to use multiple processors is effective and cost you a lot less money. :)

[extreme_dB]

The gaming experience with 3 monitors is revolutionary, so I think if the necessary hardware/software support was there, people in the enthusiast community would kind of HAVE TO drop $1500 regardless of any necessary sacrifices like food and clothing for their very own surround gaming theatre. :)

[Hanners]

Originally posted by extreme_dB
The gaming experience with 3 monitors is revolutionary, so I think if the necessary hardware/software support was there, people in the enthusiast community would kind of HAVE TO drop $1500 regardless of any necessary sacrifices like food and clothing for their very own surround gaming theatre. :)

Not to mention the money to buy a new house to fit all those monitors in! ;)

It is an interesting prospect though - Although it's only ever going to be a niche market, I wonder if ATi or nVidia have any plans to introduce triple monitor support any time soon on consumer-level cards.

[Typedef Enum]

I'm running in triple head right now. 2 LCD's are hooked up to my 9800 Pro, and the other LCD is hooked up to a Radeon PCI card. Out of 3 displays, 2 of them are using DVI, while the one is using Analog.

[Gator]

they do make video cards with multiple DACs (up to 4 I think) but they are designed for CAD and not your average home user or gamer. I think 3dlabs makes/made them.

But no, there is no way to take a single Nvidia GFFX or GF4 AGP card and allow it to handle more than two monitors by itself. HOWEVER it may be possible for the NVIEW software to handle more than two if you installed another Nvidia card. For example, a GFFX AGP card and a GFFX 5200 PCI card in the same machine. Or maybe even a GFFX AGP + GF4MX PCI card. I say this because they use the same detonator driver package anyway.

But even if NVIEW doesn't understand, hope is not lost. My friend uses 3 monitors with a Radeon VE AGP + Rage128 PCI combination and it works great, and that's handled by Windows not the driver package. Radeon and Rage128 use completely different driver packages yet Windows itself will allow you to use one big Desktop setup for multiple monitors and cards :D

[yoladude]

Originally posted by Nv40
3 monitors at once in a game will be supperb.
but you can count the people that have that cash$$ and even if you have the money ,you will need a video card 3xtimes faster than the NV35 and R350 to play at HQ settings in those games. so its not something we are going to see anytime soon.

actually, the matrox parhelia is remarkably efficient at running three monitors. granted, the resolution isn't as big as it could be, but it's basically 800x600 on each screen for a total of 2400x600. look here:
http://www.nvnews.net/reviews/matrox_parhelia/index.shtml
and you'll see fairly decent performance, especially in ut2k3 which i was surprised at.

[GlowStick]

If you just want 2d, with more monitors, you can add pci videa cards with monitors on em.

[Greg]

I have no product info, but I have seen a 'monitor' that has 3 screens, but one connector. It allows a huge display mode eg. 3000x1024. So the video card driver merely needs the ram and the driver support. The image is just split across 3 monitors. To play games properly, you would need the game to support different pixel aspect ratio, and/or create 3 viewports and render to them with parts of the wider view.

[extreme_dB]

Those 3in1 screens are incredibly expensive though. I would prefer to have a single, super wide-aspect screen, but we just won't see them in the consumer market for the forseeable future.

Regular CRT monitors are extremely cheap these days, so having 3 is not out of reach for the typical enthusiast. You just need lots of desk space, air conditioning, and a good stomach when you're opening your electrical bill. :) 3 LCDs would be much more practical, but at a higher initial cost.

If, say, HL2 supported 3 screens, and Nvidia supported 3 screens, then BAM, I'm there! :D

[yoladude]

Originally posted by extreme_dB
...If, say, HL2 supported 3 screens, and Nvidia supported 3 screens, then BAM, I'm there! :D

:drooling:

[AthlonXP1800]

I think get 2 widecreen LCD TV/monitors with VGA ports are bigger and better than 3 monitors so you can use 2 widescreen LCD TV, I will be plan to get probably 26 inch LCD TV for xmas, it likely to be £1200 to £1500.

Oh by the way I remember here was a link from AMD Zone about a insane man who use Geforce 4 AGP and PCI cards in 9 AMD powered PCs to run flight sim with 13 monitors. :eek:

http://members.chello.nl/~s.ferris/

[CaptNKILL]

You know, I was just thinking about this, and how the hell do you play a game with dual monitors? A first person shooter I mean.

The center of your screen would be split between the two monitors! And I personally have never seen monitors without borders.... how does this work!?!?!?!?!

[Deimos]

Originally posted by CaptNKILL
You know, I was just thinking about this, and how the hell do you play a game with dual monitors? A first person shooter I mean.

The center of your screen would be split between the two monitors! And I personally have never seen monitors without borders.... how does this work!?!?!?!?!
System Shock (yes, the original) had a main character who could be enhanced by inserting certain devices. One of those devices opened up a small window on the screen and rendered a view of what was behind you. Great to have in order to avoid having enemies sneaking up on you from the back. I can imaging putting that view on a separate monitor instead of in a window.

A team-game, such as Team Fortress, could conceivably add command/hq information on a second screen. And so on and so forth.

So I guess it depends on the shooter if and for what that extra monitor(s) can be used.

/Deimos