5 Outputs with 3 Cards

[movebandit]

Hello,
I need to build a Computer with 5 Outputs (4 for the screens an one for the UI). Is it possible to use 2 PCI16X Gpu for the Outputs and Gpu-Rendering and another PCI1X Cheap card for the UI ? Or does the UI needs 3d Power too ?

[Basic]

Hey Movebandit,

Im not sure of the first question but i think you can use one of these cards...

http://www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/ ... rview.aspx

saying that im not 100% sure. I think some work was done before to enable this for eyesupply.

Cheers
Basic

[Joris]

Although it makes sense in theory, using a 3rd less powerful card for the GUI does *not* give you any performance boost. We've just done a project where it showed once again that working with multiple cards should be avoided if at all possible. If you need 5 screens Atis Eyefinity range is indeed a good choice.

[Virus]

hi,
im using http://www.powercolor.com/global/produc ... asp?id=332 and it was a great choice!

[edwin]

Make sure that the card the UI is running on is the best card you have in your system. The UI contains the main OpenGL context which everything is rendered in, so choosing a lesser card is actually the worst thing you could do.

[HerrNieDa]

my experience shows that a pci-e x1 card won't work if you use it in an x1 slot with other cards...
x1 slot only works if no other pcie-graphiccard is installed (maybe some boards support this, but never see something running on this)

so... your board needs 3 pci-e x16 slots and only the first needs x16 power supply.
for example i have 4 cards running on an msi 790gx amd board, only problem is if i use my "passive" card (with no extra 6pin power supply) in my x4 slot (or is it x1 powered, with9500gt - a pci-e x1 card should run in this slot)

somehow it seems the pci-e x1 slots are not really designed for (multiple) graphic cards

if you want to keep your hardware then try 2 graphic cards with a matrox triple head... so you also get 5 screens...
or maybe graphic cards with more outputs (mostly ati has more outputs expect some exotic geforce cards)
you can't use hdmi but normal these cards have display ports... you need extra adapters for this but then all works fine!

[movebandit]

Dont try this at home.....I tried.( Composition Size 3200 x 450px, 4 Layers DXV 800x600)
2 PciE 16x Cards and one Pci 1x Graphics Card. UI over Pci1x = 6 Fps, no way
Only the PciE 16x Cards = 29 Fps...........

[mrfipe]

I used two ATI eyefinity with 5 outputs each and it worked fine!!!