Help! Triple monitor eyefinity help needed.

Miguel Gonzalez · Apr 3, 2011

as the title reads i got my two brand new dell 22's and get everything all hooked up into my computer to discover my gfx card can only support 2 monitors. >.< i was under the impression that only two monitors had to be plugged into the graphics card and the third could plug into the standard vga port on the back of my tower.

i got my pc from newegg from ibuypower specs are as follows:
OS: windows 7 home premium
Motherboard: Asus M3A78-EM
CPU: AMD Athlon(tm) II X2 240 Processor
CPU clock: 2808.02 MHz
graphics: Nvidia GeForce 9500 GT
Memory: 4096 MB (4 slots 2 empty)
HD: 465 gigs 133 free +1TB external HD used for music/movie storage

the back of my tower has a standard vga and hdmi inputs in the back but neither work if i plug monitors in to them. the nvidia card on the bottom has all 3 inuts.

would i need to buy a new gfx card that supports 3 screens or maybe another regular card and run them together? can you even do that? lol its been a while since i really got deep into pc hardware. some advice would be greatly appreciated im so sad ive got these beatiful screens in front of me and one is blank. i might cry :frown::frown::frown:

Jim Cole · Apr 3, 2011

Not sure if the graphics card you have supports SLI or not, but if it does, you should be able to mount a second card if your system has the available slot. Running triple monitors takes a bit of horsepower from the graphics cards, so that is probably the preferred way.

The VGA port you are talking about sounds like the motherboard has built in graphics as well as the graphics card that you have installed in it. It also sounds like it is disabled in your bios, but that will not help you when it comes to using triple monitors as it would not be sync'd to your other card.

Miguel Gonzalez · Apr 3, 2011

how would i find out if it has sli? im not against buying another graphics card but if i have to buy one i may as well know whether im replacing or adding on.

Nils Norberg · Apr 3, 2011

Miguel Gonzalez said:
how would i find out if it has sli? im not against buying another graphics card but if i have to buy one i may as well know whether im replacing or adding on.

http://www.asus.com/Product.aspx?P_ID=KjpYqzmAd9vsTM2D&content=specifications

Gary Hutchison · Apr 3, 2011

Look inside your tower for another pcie slot on the motherboard.

You'll be struggling with a 95gt to run 3 monitors with decent fps.

Miguel Gonzalez · Apr 3, 2011

Nils Norberg said:
http://www.asus.com/Product.aspx?P_ID=KjpYqzmAd9vsTM2D&content=specifications

well thats the one i got and it seems to have another graphics slot. im in too deep to not see it through but id like to not go broke before i can press the gas pedal lol if im gonna run another card i might as well get something that can run 4 total. 3 in eyefinity and my 40" as my 4th. im looking to spend up to about 300 bucks. and would my processor be enough to run two cards smoothly or would i need more?

Jim Cole · Apr 4, 2011

Your processor may well become a bottleneck for graphics once you get a configuration that will handle the 4 monitor setup that you want. Unfortunately you may be looking at a near complete system upgrade in order to enjoy the triple monitor setup.

There may be one other option, though I am still not convinced that your system has the horsepower for it. I am not sure if it still exists, but there used to be a device you could attach to your card, think it was called triple head to go or something like that, and it might allow you to get those monitors working, but I doubt the framerates are going to be that great with your current setup.

If you have $300 to spend on the upgrade you might be able to get an upgraded processor as well as a decent graphics card capable of handling the triple monitor setup. From what I saw your motherboard can handle the AMD Phenom quad cores so I would see what one of those is going for.

Dominant1 · Apr 4, 2011

TO activate Nvidia surround, which is triple monitor support, you need 2 identical graphic cards in sli. Also all 3 monitors must be identical for it to work.. trust me i just did this a week ago..I don't know if your 9500 card does sli if not you will need 2 new cards that can, a power supply strong enough to support them and nvidia's latest driver version 266.58..here is a picture of my set up:

3- 21.5 inch Gateway Led's configured @ 5760x1080 resolution, Thomas Super wheel with digital encoders throughout. Core I-7 920 quad core @ 2.66 ghz, 6 gigs of corsair dominator ram...twin Galaxy gtx 570 fermi's in sli...Tritton 5.1 surround sound headphones.

Dominant1 · Apr 5, 2011

Oh and the term "eyefinity is a term used for Radeon Cards, not Nvidia cards!!!

Miguel Gonzalez · Apr 5, 2011

So if I was to get another identical 9500 gt would I be able to run 4 in unison? And how fast of a processor would I need to run it smoothly?

Jim Cole · Apr 5, 2011

It appears that your card does support SLI, but does it support having 2 monitors connected to the single card? This would be a requirement if you plan on running 2 cards and 4 monitors.

Miguel Gonzalez · Apr 5, 2011

yea it supports 2 monitors currently hdmi/dvi/vga inputs any 2 in unison.

Dominant1 · Apr 5, 2011

Miguel Gonzalez said:
So if I was to get another identical 9500 gt would I be able to run 4 in unison? And how fast of a processor would I need to run it smoothly?

No you can only run 3 monitors under nvidia surround with sli not 4, and you will have to get a quad core cpu to run- 3- 22 inch monitors with the weaker 9500 gt cards....for it to run perfectly smooth -(optimal), you will need to upgrade to 4 or 5 series nvidia cards with the quad core cpu. The best examples are the 560 ti , the 570, or the 580 in sli, the new 590 will run all 3 monitors without the need of sli. If money is an issue you can buy 1 amd radeon 6970 card which can run 3 monitors by itself, but you will still need a quad core cpu to run it perfectly smooth.

link for gtx 590:

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/ASUS/GeForce_GTX_590/

link for amd card:

http://support.amd.com/us/Pages/amd-radeon-hd-6970-overview.aspx

Miguel Gonzalez · Apr 6, 2011

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121418

if i were to get this would i be able to run 4 at once? 2 dvi 2 hdmi? or would i still be limited to 3? and what speed processor would i need to run everything smoothly?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115070

are both these pieces compatable with my motherboard?

Dominant1 · Apr 6, 2011

Miguel Gonzalez said:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121418

if i were to get this would i be able to run 4 at once? 2 dvi 2 hdmi? or would i still be limited to 3? and what speed processor would i need to run everything smoothly?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115070

are both these pieces compatable with my motherboard?

no only 3 monitors, one of those hdmi is linked to 1 of the existing dvi , the other is not!

Miguel Gonzalez · Apr 6, 2011

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121416 i think this would work then 1 hdmi 2 dvis eyefinity and ill forget the 4th monitor. would the processor be enough?

Dominant1 · Apr 6, 2011

yes your good then for 3 monitors and that cpu you posted....

Tony Crabb · Apr 7, 2011

If this is your motherboard?
http://www.asus.com/Product.aspx?P_ID=KjpYqzmAd9vsTM2D&content=specifications

then a big fat no to the CPU. As the board is an AMD phenom board, not an Intel.

Secondly you can not fit 2 graphic cards to your board (if that is your board), as it has only 1 PCIe slot.

But, with the AMD 6970 you do have a possibilty to run 4 screens; 2 via the DVi ports and 2 via the diplay ports. But I think that the AMD cards will only run iFinity with a max of 3 monitors.
The AMD does have another advantage over the Nvidia cards, in that they require less ampage on the +12volt rail. I think it is around 26 to 28amps. Not sure on that one. Also the overall power wattage needed is less with the AMD cards.

I think you might want to read the review of the 6970 card on newegg, as the 1st reviewer has some relevant info about PSU needs.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121416

Also these cards are BIG, so I hope you have a large case.

I'm sorry if this all seems to be a bit like overkill with the above info, but I'm a computer hardware engineer. And I've come across these problems, and spending money of one thing can end being money spent on a lot more than you first envisaged.

So i hope it will be of some help.

Miguel Gonzalez · Apr 7, 2011

im glad you said something tony i actually stumbled on that fact just before you posted but im glad you pointed it out. my asus is amd compatable so i found an AMD Phenom II X6 1075T for 209 but i happened to have a 50 dollar gift card so it came down to bout 170 after tax and i also picked up a powercolor ATI Radeon HD6950 1GB DDR5 2x hdmi 2x dvi inputs on ebay for 260 so i came in under budget at bout 450ish. not bad =)