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Need help setting up 3 monitors on 1 PC
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Jeff11103
Junior Member
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8. July 2013 @ 21:14 |
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Hello everyone!
I am in need of a little help running 3 monitors on my PC. My current hardware only allows me to hook up one monitor. So as I understand it this will mean I can go one of two routes: 1. get a new video card that can support 3 monitors, or 2. keep the one I have and get a video card that can support 2 monitors and used one of my available PCI slots.
A little info about my hardware:
P4 2.4 GHz
3.5 GB RAM
750W Power Supply
NVidia Vanta/Vanta LT graphics card
AsRock MoBo P4V88
From the AsRock user manual it reads: 1 AGP slot, supports 1.5V, 8X/4X AGP card
I don't know what the 8X/4X means. Can someone explain this to me?
Also from the manual in regards to the PCI slots it reads: 5 slots with PCI Specification 2.2. Can someone explain what specification 2.2 is?
My concern is buying something my computer cannot support.
In terms of performance I don't need a powerhouse graphics card. I do not do any PC gaming, I am not a graphics developer. I really just need the 3 monitors to display 3 websites at a time. I would also like my new graphics card to be able to handle video better, like Utube videos. My current one seems to struggle.
Thanks in advance for any help, info, advice, and recommendations.
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ddp
Moderator
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8. July 2013 @ 23:14 |
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pci runs at 32mhz, your agp runs at 4 to 8x that pci speed. try to find an agp card that has 3 video outputs, vga, s-video & dvi as they are out there as i have 1 in my hand, used as they don't make them anymore. try to get 1 that has at least 512meg of ram though it might have to get more power directly from your psu.
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Jeff11103
Junior Member
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8. July 2013 @ 23:34 |
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Thanks for the reply. The card you described, does it have 3 VGA connections or just one each of VGA, s-video, and dvi?
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Jeff11103
Junior Member
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9. July 2013 @ 04:47 |
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Would this work?
link
And then I would need one DVI to VGA cord and one HDMI to VGA cord right?
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ddp
Moderator
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9. July 2013 @ 14:25 |
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that card would do. do you have all 3 monitors right now as could see what connections they have as my 2 24" acers have all 3 connectors whereas my samsung has both vga & dvi never mind my 2 17" that just have vga?
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Jeff11103
Junior Member
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10. July 2013 @ 05:00 |
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Right now I have 2 PCs sharing a 27" monitor with build in speakers. The KVM switch connects to the PCs by VGA. The 27" monitor has VGA, DMI, and HDMI but I would prefer to keep it connected by VGA so that I don't have to change the input on the monitor when I switch between PCs.
I have 2 17" monitors that I would like to add to one of the Pcs. One is VGA only and the other is both VGA and DMI.
I have also been looking at these cards:
link
link
Of the 3 cards the HIS seems to have more muscle but I do have 2 concerns about it. The first is that someone wrote in a review of the card that "Most motherboards with AGP do NOT work with this card bcuz its ddr3". Is this true? My other concern is would I need an HDMI to VGA signal converter or could I get by with just an HDMI to VGA cord? A quick search shows signal converters costing around $25-$50. I'd prefer not to spend that as I plan on building a new PC in a year or so.
Thanks again for your help.
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ddp
Moderator
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11. July 2013 @ 00:13 |
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what review as i saw only 1 & nothing bad about it except for supposed win7 driver issue? being the his card has all 3 types of connectors on it then why not plug each monitor into their respective connector like the 1 17" that only has vga to the vga port, the other 17" that has the dvi besides the vga to the dvi port & the 27" to the hdmi port. what monitor cables came with each monitor as my 2 24" acers came with all 3 cables each?
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Jeff11103
Junior Member
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11. July 2013 @ 00:48 |
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I'm sorry the review was from the newegg website:
link
It's the 4th one down written on 2/13/2013 9:33:25 PM.
I have all 3 types of cables. I just didn't want to have to change the input on the monitor as well as pressing the switch button on the KVM when switching PCs on the 27". The other PC is my fathers and he is far from computer savoy. He is fine with the KVM switch but I think finding the right input on the monitor too would frustrate him.
Price wise they're all about the same. Do you think the HIS is much better in terms of performance? If so then I guess I can deal with changing the input on the monitor as well.
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 11. July 2013 @ 00:50
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ddp
Moderator
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11. July 2013 @ 01:10 |
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your title is misleading then as not 1 pc but 2 pc's. if your computer is not a dell then should be alright according to the other reviews.
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Jeff11103
Junior Member
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11. July 2013 @ 02:06 |
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I'm sorry. I wrote it that way because I'm only interested in having one of the PCs use 3 monitors.....and at the time I was thinking I could get a card with 3 VGA outputs. Only when I started shopping for them did I realize a 3 VGA card is not available and that I'd have to take into consideration the 2nd PC sharing the 27" monitor.
Thanks again for all your help.
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ddp
Moderator
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11. July 2013 @ 19:26 |
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no problem.
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Jeff11103
Junior Member
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31. July 2013 @ 04:55 |
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I am struggling with getting the new graphics card installed properly.
As a refresher and so you don't have to scroll up I went with the HIS Radeon HD 4350 graphics card. Link here.
After removing the drivers of the old card, inserting the new card, and installing the new drivers, I am unable to find the card under Device Manager --> Graphics Adapter
However, under Device Manager --> System Devices, there is a listing for VIA CPU to AGP2.0/AGP3.0 Controller with a yellow exclamation mark. The Device Status reads: This device cannot find enough free resources that it can use. (Code 12)
I do get a display using this card but the resolutions are on the low end.
Using the HDMI connection yields a resolution of 1400 X 1050 pixels, VGA is at 1920 X 1440, and DVI is at 1400 X 1050. I have not tried connecting more than one monitor yet.
The rest of my hardware is:
P4 2.4 GHz
3.5 GB RAM
750W Power Supply
AsRock MoBo P4V88
I've tried looking for answers on the web but so far no such luck. I'll keep looking but if anyone can point me in the right direction I would very much appreciate it.
Any chance this could just be a defective card?
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ddp
Moderator
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31. July 2013 @ 12:27 |
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This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 31. July 2013 @ 12:33
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Jeff11103
Junior Member
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31. July 2013 @ 18:27 |
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Initially I got the drivers off the disk. After that I tried the same one you gave a link to.
It installs the AMD Catalyst Installation Manager without any problems but when it goes to install the drivers I get this result:
Ok well I wanted to add a screenshot here but I don't know how.
The message I get is: Installation complete(warnings occured during installation). View Log for details.
When I click on view log it opens a page in internet explorer:
Existing packages
Packages for install
AMD Catalyst Install Manager
Final Status: Success
Version of Item: 8.0877.0
Size: 20 Mbytes
Other detected devices
Error messages
And that's all there is to the report.
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Jeff11103
Junior Member
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4. August 2013 @ 13:10 |
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I got it working.
My PC has four modules of RAM in it. 3 X 1GB + 1 X 512MB. I took out one of the 1GB and also the 512MB. Leaving in the remaining 2 modules in dual channel configuration.
After that Windows was able to recognize the new hardware and I was able to install the drivers with the AMD Catalyst Install Manager.
Added back 1 GB of RAM and it was still happy.
Put in the 512 MB module and it was back to not listing the card under Display Adapters. So I took it back out. I can live without it.
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ddp
Moderator
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4. August 2013 @ 13:13 |
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might be a bad stick.
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Jeff11103
Junior Member
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4. August 2013 @ 14:23 |
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Yeah?
Before I changed graphics cards my PC showed having 3.5 GB RAM. So is it possible the 512 was never working? How can you tell if it's working or not?
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ddp
Moderator
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4. August 2013 @ 20:13 |
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32bit windows or 64bit windows?
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Jeff11103
Junior Member
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5. August 2013 @ 10:32 |
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It's 32 bit windows
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ddp
Moderator
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5. August 2013 @ 18:05 |
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32bit windows won't read past 3.25 - 3.5gigs of ram.
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Jeff11103
Junior Member
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6. August 2013 @ 11:24 |
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I'm sort of back to square one. I can display 2 monitors at the same time but not 3.
I contacted HIS Digital after having difficulty getting the 3rd monitor to display. They said the card is not capable of displaying 3 monitors at once. The reason they gave was "4350 AGP does not support Eyefinity on 3 monitors.
Eyefinity needs a DisplayPort / Mini DisplayPort output."
Can you give me some guidance on what's the best way to solve my problem? Should I look for a new card that can handle 3 monitors? Should I keep the card I bought and get a pci card for the 3rd monitor?
DDP you mentioned earlier that you had an AGP card that supports 3 monitors. Is that card for sale? Would it have the same problem running 3 monitors at once as the HIS card?
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ddp
Moderator
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6. August 2013 @ 12:32 |
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my agp card has the 3 video outputs, vga, s-video & dvi so s-video might be a problem for you besides the fact i'm in canada & i think you are in the states. will have to see if i can output 3 monitors on my win7 computer using a hd 6450 card that has vga, dvi & hdmi.
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Jeff11103
Junior Member
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6. August 2013 @ 12:42 |
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For the s-video I could just get an s-video to VGA cord right? Yes I'm in the states.
I really appreciate you looking into seeing if you can get 3 monitors displayed using your hd 6450.
Thanks.
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 6. August 2013 @ 12:46
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ddp
Moderator
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6. August 2013 @ 12:50 |
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This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 6. August 2013 @ 13:02
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Jeff11103
Junior Member
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6. August 2013 @ 16:14 |
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Thanks for the links. Very informative.
I'm going to see if I can get a pci card for the 3rd monitor.
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 7. August 2013 @ 12:31
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