Advice on 3rd Graphics card...

C

ChrisG

Member
Hi All.....just a quick question for the techies among us. I have the following PC, but need to add a 3rd graphics card (as I need the slots for 3 more video outputs....yes a total of 8 screens).....could anyone have a look at my Specs and see if I can easily slot in a 3rd card (probably a Geforce 760 or so).....

PCS DEFENSOR 7203B BLACK CASE
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i5 Quad Core Processor i5-4670K (3.4GHz) 6MB Cache
Motherboard ASUS® Z87M-PLUS: m-ATX, USB3.0, SATA 6.0, XFIRE
Memory (RAM) 8GB KINGSTON DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card 2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 750 Ti - DVI, mHDMI, VGA - 3D Vision Ready
2nd Graphics Card 1GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GT 610 - DVI, HDMI, VGA - 3D Vision Ready
3rd Graphics Card NONE
1st Hard Disk 1TB 3.5" SATA-III 6GB/s HDD 7200RPM 32MB CACHE
2nd Hard Disk NONE
RAID NONE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive 24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
2nd DVD/BLU-RAY Drive NONE
Memory Card Reader INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply CORSAIR 450W VS SERIES™ VS-450 POWER SUPPLY
Processor Cooling Super Quiet 22dBA Triple Copper Heatpipe Intel CPU Cooler
 
keynes

keynes

Multiverse Poster
I don't think you can with your morherboard. Are you able to use the gtx 750 ti and the gt 610 at the same time at the moment to power your screens? I though that was not possible
 
steaky360

steaky360

Moderator
Moderator
Your motherboard does not support 3 graphics cards so you'd be unable to simply add another one to increase the number of displays.

Only advice I can think off immediately is to change both to graphics cards with 4 outputs (most are dual slot which may not fit in your current case). You could switch to AMD cards though which in general have more outputs.
 
Rakk

Rakk

The Awesome
Moderator
steaky360 said:
Only advice I can think off immediately is to change both to graphics cards with 4 outputs (most are dual slot which may not fit in your current case). You could switch to AMD cards though which in general have more outputs.
Click to expand...
Though the power supply may well need upgrading since its only 450W
 
C

ChrisG

Member
Thanks for the quick reply. I currently have 5 screens connected to the computer. 3 on the 750Ti, my main card, and 2 on the 610 as that one only supports 2 screens. So I am now thinking of swapping the 610 for another 750ti or higher spec which supports 3 screens and should end up with 6 screens. I might have to put a larger power supply in anyways as I am using about 15 USB ports and sometimes get a USB overload.....

Is it easy to swap the 610 for a higher spec...is that just a matter of pulling the old one out and putting the new one in?? Any recommendations which card to go for?

Cheers,

Chris
 
Androcles

Androcles

Rising Star
if you're going to swap the 610 out for a 750 and you want more than 6 monitors and can't use a third card you would need a monitor splitter o f some kind, like the Matrox TrippleHead2Go DP which is a piece of hardware that allows three monitors to connect to a single output on your graphics card.

As to the power supply, with a 450w PSU you are probably just teetering on the edge with the limits as it is, putting a second more powerful GPU in may be too much, I would definitely recommend a better PSU.

Swapping the graphics cards shouldn't be too much of a problem, you already have the Nvidia drivers running, you should be just able to switch them out.
 
C

ChrisG

Member
Thanks for the advice!!....never heard of that triplehead2go!, Definitely will have to look into it, could be a very good solution. Is replacing or adding the power supply a difficult job??

Here are some pics of why I need more video outputs......



 
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DeadEyeDuk

DeadEyeDuk

Superhero Level Poster
I was going to question why no one had yet asked what on earth you need them for :)

I suppose the next question would be, what exactly are we looking at in those pictures? (still trying to get head around the need for 8 screens!)
 
Androcles

Androcles

Rising Star
I'm assuming the altimeter, RMI, heading indicator etc. are small monitors, hence needing lots of monitors.

And no, changing a PSU is not that hard as long as you're sensible and take your time with it, most of the connectors will only go in one way a nd a few of them will only go in one socket, it's pretty self explanatory.
 
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steaky360

steaky360

Moderator
Moderator
I agree with Androcles, its not necessarily a difficult job to replace a PSU :) Just take some pictures before you start so you know what ports had stuff plugged in and as he said, just take your time.
 
C

ChrisG

Member
It's a full working simulator of an F-16D cockpit, I have one screen for the main 46" screen, two screens for both MFD's, one for the HUD-repeater, one for the HSI, VVI and AOA, but need a few more to get the Altimeter and Machmeter working (which are currently real instruments) and possibly two more 46" screens.

I found a little card on the net called Add2PSU where you can easily daisy-chain multiple PSU's. So I went ahead and ordered one, together with another PSU, giving me a total of around 900....hopefully that should do......
 
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