THREE Monitors?

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JNightshade

JNightshade

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I saw something about this in a thread a while back, but searched again recently and couldn't find it. I am currently using one 19" flatscreen CRT, and recently realized that I have two spare 17" monitors in my basement (left over from my parents' jobs). I was wondering if anybody here knows how to configure three monitors (I know it's possible).

By the way, if it'll help, here are my specs:

Mobo- ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe
Processor- AMD Athlon XP 2800+
RAM- 1 gig (can't remember the company, but it's DDR400 PC3200)
Video card- ATI Radeon X800 XT
Sound card- Audigy 2 ZS Gamer Edition (dunno how this would impact monitors, but what the hell)
 
Ach, I couldn't stand playing like that, I would actually have to use my neck muscles while gaming...
 
too many screens .. would rather just have one of those apple widescreens
 
ehh... I was kind of going for the aesthetic- big screen in the middle, little ones one the left and right. All about balance. Oh, and see, what I want to know is HOW he got the triple screen setup. I did some searching, and from what I've seen, the only way to get triple monitor support is to have a Matrox vid card. I'm pretty sure a Matrox wouldn't be able to handle HL2 on those settings.
 
the x800xt should be capable if you have a tv-out plug in, then get an adapter to hook up the two other monitors. Although I'm absolutely positive that there are tutorials explaining this.
 
yeah i was gonna say im sure theres another way apart from that card. One of the mods i think had more than one screen setup, although i cant remeber which, maybe i dreamt it...TDE or Com Badger. Hopefully one of them can help you maybe?

edit : *post below mine*oh it was asus sorry mate :p
 
Easy, I did it for fun after I got my dual monitor setup. Had it setup for about a day before I took the other monitor off and put it with my old PC.

Have windows XP? Just plug in one AGP card that has 2 outputs and another PCI card. Or have 3 individual cards.

I had a GF4 4200 with 1 VGA and 1 DVI (DVI2VGA adapter used) and a ATI 7500 PCI card and had a good sided Desktop. I just set it to DualView. Now I didn't have all the display controls with the Nvidia or ATI drivers since I had 2 different brand cards in there but I could change resolution and refresh rate easy. ;)

Some cards might not work together well.
 
pfft 3 screens, thats for show offs.LCD Screen glasses I tell ya!, they beat that, i tried a pair and Omg , people get some.. its ace!
 
Asus said:
Have windows XP? Just plug in one AGP card that has 2 outputs and another PCI card. Or have 3 individual cards.

I just set it to DualView. Now I didn't have all the display controls with the Nvidia or ATI drivers since I had 2 different brand cards in there but I could change resolution and refresh rate easy. ;)
Click to expand...

I have 2 monitors [17" Flastscreen CRT + 15" Flatscreen CRT] both running off my 9800 xt [one is coming off a dvi output which has been converted to 'standard' output].

I have my 2 monitors working in Win XP, but when I go into hl2 and choose widescreen [tried both ratios and most resolutions] it only shows up on 1 screen [the main one].

Any idea how to do it with an ATI based card ?
 
i looked around his file dump... he made almost all the big games 3 screens.... i want a guide/tutorial for this...
i have 3 flat screens waiting for this...
 
You need either a graphics card with 3 seperate outputs or 2/3 graphics cards I'm afraid. It's probably easier from a configuring standpoint if they're all the same, or at least from the same manufacturer. Most graphics cards have two outputs - the tv out and one of the monitor outs display the same thing. If you have an SLI motherboard then you have two 16x pci-express slots and can put in two graphics cards, that's the only way I can think of getting the necessary performance (you can't plug in two AGP graphics cards and pci graphics cards suck).
 
You do know how much of an advantage something like this gives in cs:s right.
 
I'm sure i could get used to it pretty damn easily, but it would be a bit strange having black bars in the middle of the screen at first...
 
Platinum said:
too many screens .. would rather just have one of those apple widescreens
Click to expand...
Same here. It's a cool set-up in terms of it being possible in the first place but the screen edges would put me off.

giant384 said:
Ii would rather plug it into a HD plasma screen o yeah
Click to expand...
Or that :) That would be sweet.

Could I hook my PC up to a normal widescreen TV? My gfx card has a normal monitor output + a DVI output .......... I'm guessing I'd need some sort of TV/S Video output on the card .......... Unless you can get some sort of converter?
 
I was thinking about going the way of 2 cards... but then, wouldn't the monitor controlled by the PCI card look like ass? Also, I searched for a good 4 hours, and couldn't find a damn thing online that wasn't over 2 years old. If anybody can point me to a good tut or FAQ, I'll be very grateful. Thanks.
 
I've got 4 monitors, so I know it's possible. Unless you have 3 outs on your video card, you're going to need a secondary (most likely PCI) one. Just slap it in a slot, configure which one is the primary in your BIOS, and enable and arrange them using the desktop>properties>settings stuff.
 
aah. So by configuring the X800 as the primary, I'd make all the screens look non-assy?
 
Slainchild said:
Ach, I couldn't stand playing like that, I would actually have to use my neck muscles while gaming...
Click to expand...

no you wouldn't, those other monitors are for your peripheral so it surrounds your head...
 
I recently tried doing 3 monitors, but unfortunately I could only get the game to stretch out across 2 monitors. I have a geforce 4 ti 4600 agp and a geforce fx 5500 pci.
 
That would require HL2 to be proccessed on more than just 1 video card. You need software.
 
A True Canadian said:
Ah!! Why doesn't the link work for me?? ;(
I wanna see...
Click to expand...
It is nearly three months old...
 
^Yea I didn't want to make a new post when there was already an existing one covering the same topic, I used the Search function :)

Asus said:
That would require HL2 to be proccessed on more than just 1 video card. You need software.
Click to expand...

Know of any software off the top of your head?
 
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