Quad-head Video Card buying help

learninglisted · Jul 3, 2003

Quote from AAAintheBeltway:

If it came from the manufacturer that way, it's undoubtedly an agp card. Look in your manual, and it should identify the slots. Then open the case and see where it is.

I'm not a tech junkie and fear opening the case....aw well, I guess it can't be helped...

But sheesh, why does the display adapater general settings say "PCI bus 1"?

nitro · Jul 4, 2003

Quote from learninglisted:

I'm not a tech junkie and fear opening the case....aw well, I guess it can't be helped...

But sheesh, why does the display adapater general settings say "PCI bus 1"?

Go anywhere where they sell MOBO's - you will see them naked at most of those stores, e.g., MicroCenter, etc. On a slow day, ask one of the people that work there to walk you thru what is what and what goes where. You probably had to do that at least once when you were 16 or so.

nitro

bro59 · Jul 4, 2003

I've never used these, use Matrox myself, but this price jumps out for a digital quad card:

http://www.axiontech.com/prdt.php?src=PW&item=35640

I may buy and try one of these X4 cards.

weld1 · Jul 4, 2003

i have 1 dual and 2 singles, was cheaper

max401 · Jul 4, 2003

Quote from learninglisted:

I'm not a tech junkie and fear opening the case....aw well, I guess it can't be helped...

But sheesh, why does the display adapater general settings say "PCI bus 1"?

They all say that. AGP is a port to a PCI-to-PCI bridge and "PCI bus 1" is the location. In other words the AGP port is just a fast PCI slot on the PCI bus.

learninglisted · Jul 4, 2003

Quote from max401:

They all say that. AGP is a port to a PCI-to-PCI bridge and "PCI bus 1" is the location. In other words the AGP port is just a fast PCI slot on the PCI bus.

The mystery is solved! Thank you, Max401.

max401 · Jul 4, 2003

Quote from learninglisted:

The mystery is solved! Thank you, Max401.

Glad to help.

BTW, there are currently 19 Appian cards listed at this moment on EBay in the "Buy It Now" category. The bottom 17 range from $8 to $38, the top two are $199 and $150. Also there are 20 G450 or G550 dual heads ranging from $27.99 to $112.

nitro · Jul 4, 2003

Quote from max401:

They all say that. AGP is a port to a PCI-to-PCI bridge and "PCI bus 1" is the location. In other words the AGP port is just a fast PCI slot on the PCI bus.

In fact, I believe the spec says that PCI slot 1 and the AGP slot share the same IRQ.

nitro

no_agenda · Jul 4, 2003

Quote from learninglisted:

The mystery is solved! Thank you, Max401.

Yes!

I second that!

Thank you indeed, Mr. Max401!

I believe that I am now going to go with two dual-head cards instead of a quad. Is it the consensus of the posters here that it is better that both cards be from the same manufacturer to avoid conflicts? For example, my present card is based on the NVidia chipset - should I NOT consider an ATI for my second card?

Trend Fader · Jul 4, 2003

I have an Nvidia Gforce 3 AGP card.. running with the Jaton dual MX440 PCI.. on an Asus motherboard. Total of 3 KDS 19" CRT monitors on one PC.

I am using Win XP and everything runs great.

--MIKE