Basic Setup Options for minumum (3) monitor Surround

[racerx]

Hi guys,

If I have thought this out properly I see two options for myself to reach my goal of a 3 monitor setup.

I presently have Nvidia 6800GT with two heads (one being DVI) and 2 monitors ( a 20" Wide and a 17"/4:3)

Option #1
Matrox Triplehead2go
Another 17" monitor.
Cost $300/$150

Option #2
New motherboard (SLI capable)
2ea SLI 7800 (or other) video cards
Another 17" monitor.
Cost $150/$500/$150

Obvious reason #2 might be better, but lets not go there (300 SATA, SLI, faster cards etc...other beni's)

My MAIN QUESTINON is : IS it even possible to run 3 monitors on an SLI system (Nvidia, two cards) WITHOUT a TRIPLEHEAD 2go?

Also are there any other options or OTHER COMPANIES producing Triplehead LIKE PRODUCTS? (or some other technology?)


TIA
Racerx

[urban1]

Yes it is possible to have 3 monitors, actually you could have 4, on a sli system, but you would have to turn sli off, and would lose all the speed benefits of having sli, also as far as i know, the only game that works when you are spanning over multiple heads of a graphics card, and indeed multiple graphics cards, is ms flight sim

the clever thing about the th2go is it only uses one output of your graphics card, it tricks your computer into thinking you have just one massive monitor
even though you are using 3, so to games you are using one monitor albeit an extremely high resolution one, thus alot more games work with it, also you get all the speed benefits of using SLI

most games you can just select 3840*1024 res in the in game options

[racerx]

Thanks for the reply.

That explains. I am going to get the TH2G then.

:)

I am glad to get this now as I (or the wife) was not to happy to hear I wanted a new MB and GC. I realize the 6800gt is not razor edge now, but still its not that outdated.
Its doing quit well with HalfLife 2 e1 on my wide screen. I am have a great time re-viewing al my games.

[JKeefe]

I initially used my TripleHead2Go with a 6800GT. It can't hack hack it at all times with everything turned up, but it can in some games and in others it's worth turning some settings down to get to play in Triplehead.