Multiple monitors on Vista using two video cards.

[theinc]

I want to have three monitors on a Dell OptiPlex 745 running Vista.

I only have one PCI-E and two PCI slots.

I would like to use a dual-head video card in the PCI-E slot and a single-head video card in one of the PCI slots.

The problem is that Vista will only recognize one video driver. So both cards must use the same driver, even though they have different form-factors.

Does anyone know if this is possible?
And if it is, which video cards would you recommend to complete this triple-monitor setup?
Thank you for any help you can provide.
theinc

[KnightRid]

From what I have read, you cant do it in Vista. Both cards HAVE to use the same driver.

Either go to all PCI cards for video, maybe get a triplehead thing from matrox, or see if it works in XP and upgrade from Vista to XP ;) ( I like Vista, just read that somewhere and thought it was funny ).

Mike

http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/gxm/products/th2go/ - triple head thing I was talking about

[theinc]

Hi Mike,
Thank you for your input. I already saw the link you provided for the TripleHead2Go, but I don't want to split on screen in to three monitor outputs. This is not for gaming. It is for work. So I want to be able to view three different applications at one time, with one on each screen.

I do realize that Vista will only use one video driver for two cards. So maybe the only way is to have two identical dual-head PCI cards. It would just be a waste of a PCI-E slot and its bandwidth.

If anyone else has any ideas, please post.
Thank you.

[KnightRid]

Might want to check to see if the triplehead2go can do that, it sounds like it can.

regardless, since Windows XP you have been able to drag windows to different monitors hooked to the same computer. I used to do it with a monitor and a tv hooked up.

Mike

thought - wonder if they make a VGA or HDMI -> svideo convertor taht you could hook up as a tv display on a card wit h2 HDMI and 1 s-video...just a thought

[DMB2000uk]

thought - wonder if they make a VGA or HDMI -> svideo converter that you could hook up as a tv display on a card wit h2 HDMI and 1 s-video...just a thought

Unfortunately you can only use 2 monitors on a single card (even though they have 3 video outputs), so this wouldn't work

Dan

[wbhump]

You can run multiple monitors with two or more Video Cards within Vista and without buying expensive add-ons such as Triple Head 2 Go. On my home desktop, I have only 1 PCI-E Slot along with 4 PCI slots. In my PCI-E slot I am running a NVidia 7300 GS with twin 20" widescreen monitors (1 DVI & 1 VGA). In one of my PCI Slots, I am running a NVidia 6200 with twin 20" widescreen monitors (1 DVI & 1 VGA). The video cards have to be from the same manufacturer and the second card has to be able to accept the drivers from the primary card (This is something that the "Weak" Squad from Best Buy & countless other computer "experts" at other retail outlets said that I could not do without changing motherboards and going to SLI!) SO all you need to do is get yourself another video card (Same manufacturer), plug it in, let the drivers load automatically, and open these new displays up in control panel and there you go! Good luck!!!!!

[vicaphit]

Why couldn't you just use 1 card and have dual monitors on it. Just about all of the recent cards have dual DVIs and 1 S-video. Thats dual monitors and the s-video will act as a copy of one of the screens

[tbaggett]

For anyone out there trying to do the same thing. If you have two NVidia graphic cards there is a website laptopvideo2go.com that has drivers that work for pretty much all nvidia cards. So if you go in and install one of those it will work for both cards and Vista will allow them both to run! Hope this helps someone

[DaddyRabbit]

Since you aren't gaming something like this might solve the problem

http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/graphics_cards/m_series/m9140lppciex16/features/

This ones a little cheaper but you need to buy a quad analog adapter cable to do quad monitors

http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?EDC=1327517

and the cable

http://shopmatrox.com/usa/cart/shoppingCart.asp

Although according to this link http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/gxm/th2go/features/ the TripleHead2Go should do what you want