Can I run three monitors off of my nvidia 8300 gs pci graphics card since there is a dvi, vga and s-video slot?
I already have two monitors running off of this graphics card, one occupying the vga and the other occupying the dvi slots on the graphics card. There is still an s-video plug-in open. Would it be possible to run a third monitor off of this graphics card if I used a vga-to- s-video adapter? Has any done this with this graphics card? Also, I was wondering if that weren't possible could I somehow enable my onboard graphics card to be able to use both onboard and vga at once to run the three monitors. The onboard vga port has a plastic cover over it with a do not use symbol on it since it came disable since I got the computer with the nvidia already installed. But, would this still be possible. I don't want to buy another graphics card, so what are my other options if I wanted to run three monitors?
Even if I use a splitter or adapter on the vga or dvi ports?
No. The GPU chip in the 8300GS is designed to support TWO monitors only. You will get no picture on the third display if you attempt to connect one to the S-vid port on that card.
Triple-monitor support did not arrive for consumer-grade (i.e. non-workstation) GPUs until the new ATI Radeon HD5000-series came out late last year. And those will only work with computers that have a PCIExpress 16x slot, not PCI. (And the third monitor must have a DisplayPort jack.).
nVidia also did not come out with Triple-monitor support until a few weeks ago, with their new GTX400-series cards.
I much prefer ATI's HD5000-series because there are games out there written to support image spanning over three monitors, using ATI's Eyefinity technology. If you want triple monitor support, you need to check if your computer has a PCIExpress 16x slot. The best-bang-for-the-buck triple-monitor video card right now is the ATI HD5750, which costs around $130.
EDITED TO ADD:
A splitter can only clone the signal for one monitor into two identical signals. You will not be able to drive the monitors independently using a splitter.
And no, you cannot use the onboard. It is automatically disabled in the presence of a separate vid card to prevent a hardware resources conflict.
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