Can you have more than 3 PCIe X16 slots on a motherboard?

Quote from LeeD:

I believe the lowest price per monitor is offered by ATI graphics card with Eyefinity support. You can get one of 5450s (with support for 3 monitors) for less than half the price of an Nvidia NVS 295 (which supports 2 monitors). Read this story.
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Isn't "Eyefinity" all about a 6-monitor card or a 12-monitor card? We're talking >$1000 to "WAAAYYYY up there"... ??

Nvidia NVS 295s can be had for $50 or less, including the important DVI-DP adapters (2 per card).... sometimes even less if used... on Ebay.

Years ago, I used ATI cards. Now I use Nvidia. No plans to change back.

For multi-card trading rigs, I can't think of any video card or other hardware which is any better or more cost efficient than NVS 290 or 295.
 
Quote from Scataphagos:

Isn't "Eyefinity" all about a 6-monitor card or a 12-monitor card? We're talking >$1000 to "WAAAYYYY up there"... ??
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12-monitor cards is what makes the news but the most common crads with eyefinity drivers support only 3 monitors. They tend to have different interfaces to each monitor like D-SUB, DVI-I and DisplayPort. They cost under $50 each too.

Scataphagos, I think you didn't follow the link in my post. The linked article on Tom's Hardware provides lots of pictures of 3-monitor set-ups.
 
Quote from LeeD:

12-monitor cards is what makes the news but the most common crads with eyefinity drivers support only 3 monitors. They tend to have different interfaces to each monitor like D-SUB, DVI-I and DisplayPort. They cost under $50 each too.

Scataphagos, I think you didn't follow the link in my post. The linked article on Tom's Hardware provides lots of pictures of 3-monitor set-ups.
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Sorry, hadn't notice the link. Have read it now, but it looks like there are too many "gotcha's" with the budget Eyefinity... I wouldn't bother with it unless it looked like I had no other option.
 
Quote from Scataphagos:

Sorry, hadn't notice the link. Have read it now, but it looks like there are too many "gotcha's" with the budget Eyefinity... I wouldn't bother with it unless it looked like I had no other option.
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There are a few difficulties... But also there are issues with Quadro NVS cards that support 4 monitors (just search the Web, some of the monitors not beigng recognised after reboot seems the most common). USB graphics cards have a mass of their own "gotchas" depending on the model and brand.
 
Quote from LeeD:

There are a few difficulties... But also there are issues with Quadro NVS cards that support 4 monitors (just search the Web, some of the monitors not beigng recognised after reboot seems the most common). USB graphics cards have a mass of their own "gotchas" depending on the model and brand.
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I've never been much of a fan of quad video cards. Some computers won't even run them... and the cost... plus, if the card fails you might lose all 4 displays at once. Wouldn't use USB monitors either unless I had no choice.

Better... use dualhead video cards... just get the right mobo.
 
I am used to the dual cards from PNY Technologies. Nowadays you can pick one up (e.g. 8400 GS) at $60. So it's about $30 per monitor.

From what I have seen, those quad cards are something like $400-$500. (Which makes $100 per monitor supported). I can't imagine how much the 6-head and 12-head cards would cost. Wouldn't be any lower I don't think.

So I would rather spend the money to change the MoBo and keep my 3 dual cards (and buy more new ones) than to change out for 4/6/12-head cards.

Besides, the survivability and replacement cost is also a big concern of mine.

12-head card... card fails... That's the end of the world. Another $1000 please...

6 x dual cards... 1 card fails... only 17% down. System still usable. No big deal, $60 a replacement in a jiffy.


For those who say it won't happen.... Remember Murphy's Law.
 
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