3 Monitor Setup

[VanDerGoes]

http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/gxm/products/th2go/

[Signal2Noise]

I was recently doing some research into adding a third LCD as well. Mainly to enjoy World of Warcraft in panoramic bliss. Oh, and perhaps more productive CG work as well. Yeah, that's it. ;)

I have a Quadro FX3500 (AGP) running two 19" NEC LCDs and was planning to throw in a cheap PCI card for the third screen. Haven't tried it yet but once I find a matching bezel size display (I unfortunately can't get my present LCD model anymore) then I'll do it. However, from what I gather reading about this subject on the www the 'easiest' solution is to have a mobo with onboard VGA in combination with a dual head video card.

The Matrox adaptor as VanDerGoes points out is definitely a good idea albeit expensive method. I'd wait for the Digital Edition (Q2 2007) to become available, tho'. I may even opt for this route if the headache will be negligible.

http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/gxm/products/th2go/digital/home.php

[MarkusB]

Thanks both you guys...

I checked this matrox adapter, but I dont like that I connects only through the VGA-adpater and not the DVI, so you are right.... waiting for the digital version might be an option.

In the quadro user guide i found a chapter about SLI, saying there is a SLI mode for dual view and you need to MATCHING cards for it.

well, if that is true than it is a HUGE stepp back with PCI-E, because you now would need TWO fx4500 cards :(

in the old days you could mix high-end and low-end cards with the PCI-bus. I cant beleive that that doesnt work anymore ...

[lots]

Keep in mind that SLI is OPTIONAL. SLI is not a technology to enable multiple video cards on PCIe (initially anyway :P), as PCIe supports this nativly. You dont need matching cards in the second PCIe slot in order to set up a secondary (or 3rd or 4th) display. SLI is designed to combine the output of two (or more) video cards into ONE display. So any multi-display technology would just be counter productive to what SLI is supposed to acomplish IMO.

Instead, I think you have a problem with the motherboard. What may be happening is the board is trying to configure itself in an "SLI" mode, when you dont want to use it. You may want to check up in the BIOS if there are any useful options for just enabling the second PCIe slot in a "standard" mode.

Also most SLI motherboards have a limited number of PCIe lanes (x16 represents 16 lanes). In your case, the board is limited to 24 lanes ( I think) which means that to enable the the second PCIe x16 slot the first x16 slot needs to be cut back to an 8 lane signaled slot, while the other 8 go to the second slot. The Quadro may not like this. Just for curiosity's sake, what happens if you use your two low powered cards in the system? :)

[MarkusB]

@lots: In the BIOS i only can set to SINGLE CARD, DUAL CARDS or AUTO. I agree with you that I think my board is trying to initialize the cards as an SLI-setup. The only way to get my system to boot is to set it to SINGLE card (but then there is only one card in windows visible) or to remove the second card.

Checking my manual agian, it says this board das 2x PCE-E 16x slots, making it a total of 32 lanes. Soboth cards should work fine.

The manual says further, that I should set the BIOS to dual cards, and then after windows has started I should switch the SLI-mode to "dual video card". Unfortunately I dont get that far :(

I know that I dont need, and honestly dont want SLI for max 3d Studio MAX setup :-P but, looking at my manual and all the problem I have, it seems to me that I need too identical SLI cards, to let my system boot and THEN disable it again and go for dual video card.. how stupid is that :sad:

[lots]

Markus there is a difference between a x16 slot and an x16 slot with an x8 signal :) I looked your board up, and it doesn't have enough lanes to do that. Only the Nforce 4 SLI X16 based boards had enough lanes for full dual x16 slots (38 lanes for AMD and 40 for Intel). Keep in mind your board has a x1 and x4 PCIe slot as well, plus the gigabit ethernet port(s) use a few PCIe lanes. so I may be wrong about how many lanes your board has :) (though it should be less than 32) I never remember how many lanes these boards had..

Your motherboard definately switches one of the slots off if you have a single video card, because it does not have enough lanes to go around for two full speed x16 slots. Otherwise there would be no reason for such a switch in your BIOS ;) When it enables the other slot, both x16 slots run at x8 speeds.

[MarkusB]

Thanks you lots ...

I trust your research lots, but that really sucks :( offering a board as a 2x PCE 16x and then not be able to run two cards in 16x mode ....

Seems that I need to stick two 2 monitors, because runing two none-quadro PCIE cards is not on option right now.

But when I understand you right, that is only a problem with an additional PCIE card. A 2nd PCI card should work, shouldnt it?

That would go as well, as I could use two screen on the FX4500 for my work and the 3rd just for all the 3d studio max windows...

[lots]

Well I'm not certain that the quadro wont work if it doesn't have an x16 slot, only experminentation can find that out or maybe some reasearch :) But It may be picky about such things. Just a guess on my part.

You could try to enable the second slot in BIOS and leave it empty, then try and boot into windows with just the quadro attached. At which point you may be able to get access to that SLI menu you read about. Again this is just a guess.

As for just using a PCI card, that should be possible. You should be able to put as many as you like actually :P

[scrimski]

Stay away from Matrox if doing anything 3D related, it just sucks big time.

[MarkusB]

Ok, things are really getting weird now.

I added an additional PCI card,... and ... same thing, after the boot screen, the PC restart...

So, I tried now:

FX4500 (PCI-E) + FX550 (PCI-E)
FX4500 (PCI-E) + 7800GT (PCI-E)
FX4500 (PCI-E) + Elsa Synergy-II 32 (PCI)

Nothing worked :( After the bootscreen when windows is supposed to start it just reboot...

I am getting the feeling that there might be an issue with the windows installation.

[Srek]

Stay away from Matrox if doing anything 3D related, it just sucks big time.
The multi view gadgets they offer are actualy pretty good, it's only the 3D capabilities of their graphics cards that are not comparable to the competition.
Cheers
Björn

[lots]

Markus: Do you have a monitor attached to your second card? Does the machine reboot or is the screen just blank?

[MarkusB]

It reboots and then it says, windows couldnt start correct.

I think there could be some driver issues or something like that. Even if that is still strange as XP should just recognize the new card.

But after it doesnt work with a standard PCI card, and in the bios I can choose which is the primary video card (PCI or PCI-E), I am being more and more sure that it is the windows installation.

I will try that the next days with a new windows installation on a sperate HDD, before I rebuild my entire workstation....


... and when I upgrade in fall this year, I take care that I buy a board with REAL dual X16 slots :twisted:

[lots]

Well the dual x16 slots is probably not really the problem.

Have you tried to boot into safe mode?

[MarkusB]

yes same thing... windows just reboots :(

i hope i will find some time to try another installation next weekend... i keep you update about the result ,)

[imashination]

A small note on the lanes. A 16x card doesnt need 16x lanes, it just uses them if theyre there. All cards will clock down to at least 4x if needed. Many dual 16x slot motherboards actually run them both at 8x if 2 cards are on.

[lots]

To add to that, the difference in performance between x8 and x16 isn't that noticable in most benchmarks anyway :P

[Tarrbot]

What BIOS version is the motherboard running?

[MarkusB]

What BIOS version is the motherboard running?

i am running BIOS 1009.

[MarkusB]

HI,

ok, it seems that i need to give up :(

I made a few test... and...

installed is: FX4500(PCI-E) & SynergyII (PCI)

When I set the bios to video card INITIAL FIRST: PCI-E
I see the boot screen on the the monitor attached to the PCI-E card and thee PC reboots when windows is loaded.

When I set the bios to video card INITIAL FIRST: PCI
I see the boot screen on the the monitor attached to the PCI card and thee PC reboots when windows is loaded.

So, I can get a signal on both cards during boot-up,, but as soon as windows starts it reboots....

I have no idea what else to do... I really thought having a PCI-E and a PCI card is possible...

[Srek]

Get rid of the synergy card. In the past i only had trouble with the synergy cards. They did only work with very specific (and very old) drivers and even then only flakey
Cheers
Björn

[MarkusB]

That is the only PCI card i have left here.. the rest are all AGP cards. nevertheless, it doesnt work with two PCI-E cards too as mentioned above...

I have really no clue what else i should do...maybe it is just that stupid mainboard, but i am afraid buying the next hardware piece and it doesnt work

I already buy two different PCI-E cards for testing it...

Honestly, I am really shocked that this is soo hard. I had two videocards installed in all my system since the last 9 years!! Starting with the special two monitor setup from ELSA. It was never a problem to get windows booting with two cards! Why now :(

[Srek]

It isn't a problem in general, but of the Synergy card. With three Quadro FX cards (2 x PCIe + 1 x PCI) i had no problems at all to use them all under XP Pro at the same time.
Cheers
Björn

[Koogle]

well i dunno what the solution is for you, but I recently got a 3monitor setup working

nividia 6800+8800
dfi nF4 SLI-DR mobo

upon first installion it wanted the drivers for the 8800, which i supplied, the 6800 was already installed before, the 8800 replaced it, and I put 6800 onto the 2nd pcie slot. After restarting windows would hit a black screen during loading.. so I got it into safe mode and reinstalled the drivers.. restart windows booted fine.. and everything is working now. Although i can see updating my gfx drivers might be tricky in the future with shoddy nvidia drivers.

maybe it could be not enough power being supplied to support 2gfx cards running once it gets to windows.. scrap windows and do a complete reinstall? it could be a driver thing I dunno :) goodluck though

[CGTalk Moderation]

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.