easiest way to run three monitors

I currently have a GTX 580, and would like to know what I need to do to have triple monitor capability. I have been researching and trying to figure this one out, and I believe that having this card alone will not give me that ability. It seems that I would need to add a second video card. I read on one particular blog or website that I need to have SLI compatible cards in order to have two video cards. So I looked for such a card and they are all way beyond my price range. Is it true that I need that kind of card or is it possible to just buy any kind of video card to go along with my primary card?

If this helps any, I want my second and third monitors to mirror each other, but to be extensions of my first monitor.

What you have researched is sort of true. With nvidia any single gpu card that's from the 500 series or below can only run up to 3 monitors. I think (don't quote me on this one) that with nvidia they let you do 3 monitors from one gpu starting with the high-ish end cards in the 600 series. AMD had that capability since the high end 6000 series cards have appeared.

Now, to answer your question, if you want to do sli you do need another card that is the same gpu type as your previous one. So, in your case it has to be a gtx 580. However, you can mix manufacturers, meaning you can have a MSI gtx 580 slied with a evga gtx 580.

You can mix two different cards to run three monitors but you will usually see screen flickering when moving the mouse over to the other screen which is cinnected to a different type of a video card. For web browsing that's usually fine but I wouldn't do it if you game because you won't be able to game on all 3 screens at once anyway.

I never play games, so SLI is unnecessary for me.

How bad is the flickering? Does it only occur when moving the mouse to another screen?

I'm probably going to build a new PC, so I probably won't be using my current card. I just need a basic solution. Is it feasible to install two of these cards:

http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-GeForce-...ref=sr_1_5?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1406573531&sr=1-5

dmehling said:

I never play games, so SLI is unnecessary for me.

How bad is the flickering? Does it only occur when moving the mouse to another screen?

I'm probably going to build a new PC, so I probably won't be using my current card. I just need a basic solution. Is it feasible to install two of these cards:

http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-GeForce-...ref=sr_1_5?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1406573531&sr=1-5

Click to expand...

It probably is, however these cards are terrible, my advice would be to use the card you currently have and add another one to it. You can for example can put your gtx 580 in the rig and add something cheap to it for the 3 monitor setup. The best way to go however I think would be to get something like a r9 270x or a 760 because that would let you do 3 monitors on one card for a pretty good price.

If you are not playing games, is there another reason that you have a 580 in your system? If you do not need that kind of power you could sell the 580 before it diminishes any more value and get some thing that supports 3 displays.

GPUs compatable with Nvidia Surround in the 6xx series should be able to do 3 displays just fine.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130795&cm_re=gt_640-_-14-130-795-_-Product

I'm really trying to keep things on budget, so I don't want these higher-priced cards. I was looking at one particular card for about $160, which really seemed like overkill to me. That one could probably do three monitors on its own. Getting two cards that get me well past $160 doesn't seem like a better deal.

Basically, I just need to run the three monitors at full HD resolution and play HD TV recordings on one display. And, and of course run the basic Aero Windows graphics. I don't know why going with such low end cards would be such a bad idea. I'm a very tight person and don't want to waste good money on something that is way beyond what I would ever need.

I'm not sure what I can do with the GTX 580. My current Alienware was a gift, and had two overkill SLI cards. They went bad after a year or so, but the computer was still under warranty, so they gave me the new GTX. Not sure if I can sell it or not under those circumstances. Anyway, the card is huge and takes up too much space. I don't really want it on a new system.

The card that I posted is 95$ and will run the 3 displays that you want to run. If you see no need to keep the 580 sell it and use the money to pay for the card that will output to 3 displays.

I'm sorry, I didn't realize you were saying to use that card alone. I thought you were still talking about using two identical video cards. This is all really confusing because I keep seeing forum discussions where most cards in this price range cannot do three monitors.

Actually in the last few hours I have been thinking about the possibility of the HD 4600 graphics (gasp!) on a new i7. I don't know if it can do three monitors, but I'm just wondering how that would be for a non-gaming computer. If I never play games or do 3-D rendering, I'm really not sure if I even need a discrete graphics card.

dmehling said:

...This is all really confusing because I keep seeing forum discussions where most cards in this price range cannot do three monitors.

Click to expand...

Maybe I can clear that up a bit. In the previous generations of video cards, the displays were limited to two outputs. In order to get around that you either needed to add another additional internal card or add something like an external USB video adapter. In the AMD 5xxx series they introdices Eyefinity. This allowed more than 2 displays from a single card BUT you needed to use an active display adapter in order to add the 3rd (and any additional to 3) display. It is my understanding now that AMD addressed the adapter issue in the later generations and no longer needs one in order to go above 2 displays but I ma not completely sure on that. Nvidia with the 5xx series (your 580 included) can achieve 3 displays but needs to be configured in SLI with the same card. So in your case you would need 2x 580s in SLI. In the Nvidia 6xx series and up you are able to add 3 displays in Nvidia Surround . In your case you can add 3 monitors with one Nvidia card without the need for extra adapters.

In the latest Intel CPU release, (Haswell/4xxx) you can use 3 displays connected to the integrated GPU on the chip. I'm not sure if that is true for all Haswell CPUs but I know that it works for most of them. check Ark.Intel.com for the specs on the specific processor that you want to know about.


That idea might give you an interesting solution. If you just want 3 monitors without any extra GPU horsepower then the last generation of Intel processors might work well for you.

http://ark.intel.com/products/75122/Intel-Core-i7-4770-Processor-8M-Cache-up-to-3_90-GHz

The 4770 supports 3 displays without any dedicated GPU in the system. You would just need to get a motherboard that supports the outputs that you need for the displays and fits your budget. If you wanted to add that 4770 to an existing motherboard, please post the model so we can see if it is compatible.