Running 3 monitors off HP desktop?

aaronmnsky

I am trying to run 3 monitors off an HP 6700 desktop using an geforce 460 video card w/ 3dvi ports and an HDMI PORT, but it goes dark and is not loading the software. Any suggestions?

Tushon

That will not happen. The GTX 460 does not support more than 2 active monitors.

aaronmnsky

Any idea which graphic card will support 3?

Thrax

NVIDIA:

Supports a maximum of four monitors on their high-end products. This is called NVIDIA Vision Surround.

The attached monitors may use any connector, but adapters must be used if your displays don't match the jacks on the card. For example, you can use an HDMI-to-DVI adapter to connect a monitor to the GPU's HDMI jack. You can use an active DisplayPort-to-DVI connector to connect a DVI monitor to the DisplayPort jack.

Thus far only the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 features this capability.

AMD:

Supports a maximum of six monitors on their high-end products. This is called AMD Eyefinity technology.

The first two monitors may be connected to any port available on the graphics card. Every additional monitor beyond two must be connected to DisplayPort. If you have a DVI monitor you'd like to connect to a DisplayPort jack, you will need an active DisplayPort-to-DVI adapter.

Some of the graphics card companies that manufacture GPUs for AMD take full advantage of the Radeon chip with six monitor connectors, e.g. the PowerColor Radeon HD 7870 Eyefinity 6. Other companies only include four connectors, in which case each DisplayPort connection features a technology called "Multi-Stream Transport" (MST).

When the appropriate equipment launches this year, you will be able to connect an inexpensive monitor hub to one of your DisplayPort connections. These hubs will support two 2560x1600 panels or three 1920x1200 panels. Note that you cannot exceed six total displays, but the hubs will allow you to achieve that total without purchasing a graphics card that features six jacks.

The following AMD Radeon GPUs support six displays in the manner described:

AMD Radeon HD 7970
AMD Radeon HD 7950
AMD Radeon HD 7870
AMD Radeon HD 7850
AMD Radeon HD 7770
AMD Radeon HD 7750
AMD Radeon HD 6990
AMD Radeon HD 6970
AMD Radeon HD 6950
AMD Radeon HD 6870
AMD Radeon HD 6850
AMD Radeon HD 6790
AMD Radeon HD 5870 Eyefinity 6 Edition

The following AMD Radeon GPUs support five displays:
AMD Radeon HD 6770
AMD Radeon HD 6750

The following AMD Radeon GPUs support four displays:
AMD Radeon HD 6670
AMD Radeon HD 6570

The following AMD Radeon GPUs support three displays:
AMD Radeon HD 6450
AMD Radeon HD 5870
AMD Radeon HD 5850
AMD Radeon HD 5830
AMD Radeon HD 5770
AMD Radeon HD 5750

If you're only looking to connect three displays, Sapphire Technology has a lineup of AMD Radeon products known as the "FLeX Edition." These GPUs come with an HDMI-to-DVI adapter, and a custom chip, that will allow you to connect three DVI monitors out of the box with no additional purchases.

Finally, please note the following resolution limitations for each connector type:

Dual Link DVI: 2560x1600
Single Link DVI: 1920x1200
HDMI 1.4a: 1920x1080
HDMI 1.4a w/ 3GHz Signalling: 4096x2160
DisplayPort 1.2: 4096x2160

NiGHTS

Icrontic took a look at a relatively cheap way of doing it with the 6450. That option really isn't suitable for much gaming, but it'll give you 3 monitors with out of the box with no issue.

FYI - You're going to be limited with what type of GPU you can put in your system, given your power supply and supporting hardware.

aaronmnsky

Thanks for the info. I will check it out.