I am helping a friend who got a new computer, system is good but he wants to hook up 3 monitors. I know how to do 2, can you hook up 3? What graphics card do you recommend? He isnt a gamer, just needs basic function for 3 monitors. I also thought it might be better to get a card that he can hook up his TV to instead of so many monitors. Any suggestions or advice is appreciated. Thanks

There are basically three choices:

1) One graphics card with three outputs
- Matrox Millennium P750
- Matrox Parhelia
- Colorgraphic Xentera GT4
- Appian Phoenix
etc..

2) Graphics card with two outputs + graphics card with one output

Either AGP + PCI or PCI + PCI (unless the mainboard is the latest with PCI Express)

- too many to name

3) Three graphics cards with one output each

AGP + PCI + PCI


Most new operating systems should be able to handle multiple graphics cards easily. Some drivers might get confused though if the computer has two or more identical cards.

My choice for basic function, three displays, would be Matrox G550 AGP (dual DVI) and just about any PCI card, like GeForce2MX.

I had come to the same conclusion. 2 dual monitor cards, one agp one pci, however, you said something that I hadnt thought of. The computer is new, what would I look for to see if the original driver will work with an added card? Thanks.

You have to be sure that if you use 2 cards, the PCI one or the AGP one can disable VGA. If it does not, then you have to set the primary BIOS display to the card that cannot (AGP or PCI in the BIOS). The primary BIOS card can be different from the primary in Windows. If you do not follow that, the card that cannot disable VGA will not be present once windows is up.

How will I know if one of the cards can disable vga? I know how to switch in the bios, just dont know how to know if I need to. Thanks.

I have 3 monitors. Seriously. I don't know how people manage without it.

The Nvidia AGP card has dual-head, and then there is a second Nvidia PCI card as well.

You really need to try to get the same model and size of monitor in all cases. Also, curve the end ones in to a slight angle.

If done properly, your days of pressing alt-tab are over!

I would find it hard to go back now to a single or even dual monitor setup.

No mercy for the bandwidth impared!

Usually any middle price card can disable VGA. Those who cannot almost dissapeared (mainly simple 2D PCI cards with 4-8 MB of memory)