Single-card solution in XP?

[korff]

Hi all!

Long-time lurker, first-time poster, etc etc.

For reasons too long to explain, I'm stuck on Windows XP for the foreseeable future. I've had a dual-monitor setup for ages, but recently picked up a third identical monitor to the two I own already (HP W19, @ 1440 x 900 each). I've been meaning to upgrade my lowly 7600GS for ages, and looking into things it seems that ATI's Eyefinity only works in Windows 7. I can't go with Nvidia Surround, because I understand you need two cards for that (I don't have an SLI mobo anyway - just the one PCIe 32 slot in my DP35DP). That leaves me with a Matrox TH2G as the solution, but their web site says it requires a dual-link DVI output to drive 3 x 1440x900 monitors. So I *think* I'm looking at getting a better GPU, plus a TH2G... Unless my resolutions will work with VGA?

I've got some PCIe 1x slots free, but I'm guessing these won't get me far (and I've got no PCI slots left either, though I think these would be useless anyway).

Is this right? I'll mostly be using the monitors for desktop/work, but I wouldn't mind running some of the HL2 games across three monitors every now and then either...

Cheers!

Chris

[suiken_2mieu]

Well there is the TH2Go, you'll want to get a newer video card to run game imo. If you go ATI, I'd say stay within the 4000 series, as they can do the resolution you need. If you go nVidia, I don't believe there is a card that isn't compatible, it just requires some extra work to get working.

The other thing you can do is get a card with 3 output (that work at the same time) and use SoftTH. This requires a lot of configuration, for every game. You also get performance hits.

BTW, Most cards have Duel-Link DVI. Any modern one will as well. I think you can get 1440x900 over VGA, but analog signals generally look like crap over lcd panels.

[tricky]

From other SoftTH users, I have read they successfully run triplewide with a fast primary card driving two screens and a decent card in the PCIe 1x slot running the third screen. If you can borrow a 8800GT or better you can install it in the PCIe 16x and put the 7600 in the PCIe 1x...certainly the least expensive option as you have to get a new video card anyway...

SoftTH does require some fussing with settings, but usually you can find someone else that has posted their working settings, and it's free :)