Adding secondary graphics card for third monitor


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I have a Dell OptiPlex 960 with a dual-head ATI Radeon HD 4670 card (powering two monitors) installed in the PCIe x16 slot. I'm wanting to add a third monitor to my setup, and I'm aware that using the on-board graphics card is not an option. I have three slots that aren't being used: PCIe x1 and two PCI slots. With that being said, what are some options that will allow a third monitor? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

FYI: I am running Windows 7 64-bit.

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You want:

http://www.amazon.co...&pf_rd_i=507846

or if you have a bit more money to spend:

http://www.amazon.co...7369579&sr=8-12

Neither will do very good for demanding games (pretty obvious), but anything 2D/video/... should work really well.

(or should you want to stay in the HD4000-series: http://www.amazon.com/Radeon-HD4350-512MB-DMS59-Retail/dp/B0038LWTUW/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1327369773&sr=1-1 - but both other ones offer quite a lot more bang for buck)

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Gawd, don't get a USB 'video card'. I can't believe anyone who has ever actually *tried* to use one would ever suggest it to anyone else. You'll hate the performance.

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Gawd, don't get a USB 'video card'. I can't believe anyone who has ever actually *tried* to use one would ever suggest it to anyone else. You'll hate the performance.

Agreed! You could replace the card you have with one that supports 3 monitors out of the box cheaper than some of those USB solutions that have been suggested. This http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814102960 Sapphire 6450 can do three monitors without displayport and is cheaper than any of those USB solutions.

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I appreciate all of your replies. The USB video card may be appropriate if I were using it with a laptop, but I don't think it's the best solution in this case. This machine is used strictly for software development, and I'm not too concerned about price (my work is paying for it). I do have a couple old PCI cards that aren't being used; could one of those possibly work if I had the appropriate drivers installed? Also, would there be any BIOS settings that I'd need to change if I were to go that route? I'd only use one of the existing cards that I have temporarily, until I find a card to replace or add to my current one.

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Gawd, don't get a USB 'video card'. I can't believe anyone who has ever actually *tried* to use one would ever suggest it to anyone else. You'll hate the performance.

we use them at work, and they work great! of course you can't game with them, but for desktop apps there's no performance problems

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I appreciate all of your replies. The USB video card may be appropriate if I were using it with a laptop, but I don't think it's the best solution in this case. This machine is used strictly for software development, and I'm not too concerned about price (my work is paying for it). I do have a couple old PCI cards that aren't being used; could one of those possibly work if I had the appropriate drivers installed? Also, would there be any BIOS settings that I'd need to change if I were to go that route? I'd only use one of the existing cards that I have temporarily, until I find a card to replace or add to my current one.

You could try the PCI one, but it'll perform extremely bad. The PCI bus is very, very slow. I'm not even sure you'll find proper drivers for it.

I'd really just go with one of the ATI cards I linked earlier. That'll be just plug and play really.

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I haven't tried an old PCI card that I have yet (ATI 7000 64M), but I was looking around online and found that it wasn't compatible with Windows 7. Is there any way to get it to work for the time being? Installing older drivers, etc?

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