EggXpert

I have a Windows Vista Dell PC...Optiplex 3300.

I tried to put 2 similair Nvidia cards in the box to display 3 monitors...the 2 cards conflict and only allow one card to work.

The one card in there now is an Nvidia geforce 6200 with DVI and vga out....this works for displaying 2 monitors.

 What is my best option for displaying a 3rd monitor...all 3 monitors should be able to show unique content and span accross all 3 displays.

 Dont want to spend more than $80.

Thx for any ideas!

You are saying the two cards conflict can you give us the Error codes for that?

Have you installed the most recent drivers for both the  Nvidia Gefore 6200?

It is possible to run 2 cards and 3 monitors on the system. You have given very little information on the issue. What drivers are installed ver. and What OS is running,  Do you get a BSOD? what does the device manager show? Did you enable Windows Spanning in side Nvidia control panel?

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There are no error codes...simply, only 1 card works, the other is disabled.

 I talked to Nvidia support..they say that 'officially' they dont support the use of 2 cards being used in the same PC. Except if you do a SLI setup. Which is not what I want.

 I just have the 1 PCIe slot and 2 PCI slots.

 The latest drivers are being used.

Is there a card out there that supports 3 monitors?

As I mentioned in the original post, Im running Windows Vista.

 The 32 bit ver.

With windows XP, it was sooo easy to add 2 video cards...I had 2 Nvidia cards and they worked so nice supporting 3 monitors.

proweb:

 Dont want to spend more than $80.

proweb:

.

Is there a card out there that supports 3 monitors?

Yes there are cards like this but that defiantly is not in your price range at all. Those cards are over $799 and made by Matrox.  And then there is this option as well but its still out of your price range at over $250.

Also after doing some research on Vista there is a issue running Aero and 3 monitors. From windows 98 - XP that was the case where a person could run up to 6 monitors off one PC. Now with Aero that has changed where a person can only run two, how ever there are work around for it and it has to be the same driver for both video cards. I will look further in to this as well and see what I can come up with.

Matrox

http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/gxm/th2go/

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000012.html

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000740.html

Issues with Vista and 3+ monitors

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000740.html

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/246304-33-vista-aero-problem-monitors-video-cards

http://forums.legitreviews.com/about10730.html

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in confilct to the last reply the two video cards:

ASUS EAH3870X2/G/3DHTI/1G Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB 512-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card

and

POWERCOLOR AX3870X21GBD4PH Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB 512-bit (256-bit x 2) GDDR4 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card

can support 3 monitors running at the same time on the same computer. Both are found on newegg.com. I am sorry that both are in the range of $200 - $400 and not under $80.

Ahh missed those ones but the best deal is the Asus over the Powercolor

ASUS EAH3870X2/G/3DHTI/1G Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB 512-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card - Retail 

 For under $200 that is not bad at all.

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