Recommendation for PC
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A lot of cards will drive two monitors. For three monitors, you need two cards. For that money, you may be able to buy a Mac Pro, which will run windows. That's what I run 3 monitors on, although I've run 3 on a standard PC too.
Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. "Iam doing the browsing center project in vb.net using c# coding" - this is why I don't answer questions much anymore. Oh, and Microsoft doesn't want me to.
I am sorry I have a really tight schedule so I don't want to spend time configuring an environment I know nothing of. =Saurabh
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I can't imagine needing three monitors, but I'm not a gamer, nor do I do a lot of fancy graphics. For motherboards I've always had great luck with SuperMicro boards, and until I have a failure, I won't install anything else. I built my first SuperMicro system around 1996 and have never found a reason to change brands since. On the flip-side, I've had occasion to repair a number of Tyan, ASUS, and Intel systems and have never walked away with that warm fuzzy feeling of a job well completed. I've never been called out to fix a SuperMicro system. That's not to say that the next one won't be a flop, but I'd be very surprised if that happened. A couple of tips I might offer from my experience: Run from any integrated video - do it yourself, Oversize the power supply - few of us will need less in the future, Add extra fans to the case - A cool CPU is a happy CPU.
"A Journey of a Thousand Rest Stops Begins with a Single Movement"
Thanks for the tips. -Saurabh
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System will be used for volume rendering for medical imaging. I am not going to do that part so I am not sure about exact details. About resolution of monitors I don't want each monitor to have very high resolution, I think it should be sufficient to have about 1600x1200 (don't know exact figures). One card for primary monitor and one card for other two monitors will do just fine. I am confused between ATI ot nVidia. Can you suggest something? Which brand and which model is good in your experience? I am pretty sure I am going to buy a quad code Intel with 4 GB or more RAM. Thanks a lot, -Saurabh
Saurabh.Garg wrote:
I am confused between ATI ot nVidia. Can you suggest something? Which brand and which model is good in your experience?
DirectX or OpenGL? Generally nVidia is first to the market with OpenGL updates and ATI is first to the market with DirectX/Direct3D updates. Otherwise they are "similar" in features. I am one of those purists who like nVidia, I have one nv280 at work, and two at home. At home I have a 790i board, Intel quad core, 8 gig of RAM, and dual 280's. If it were me, I would find out on the density required for the 3d volume. Although you can fake it with level of detail, if you need the higher memory of the 280 it may make the difference more than just the speed. And with medical imaging, you may not want to "fake it" with level of detail. Especially since you will not be doing the software work, speak with the programmer, or the company who did the graphics, which ever applies.
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Many, if not most, newish graphics cards have dual output - so you can connect two monitors to the same card. If you add a third card, make sure it is of the same type (e.g. use all ATI cards) so the driver is the same - I've had problems when trying to support two completely different cards in the same machine. Not sure how 'good' a card needs to be for volume rendering - how much of the workload is the card going to take over? Which brand of mobo & cpu - it's down to features/cost really. With $3500 to spend you'll be able to build a pretty nice machine (or does that include the three monitors?) I would decide on Intel v AMD first. Then look at the best price/performance for the CPU choice. Next, write a list of features you need from the mobo (sound onboard? SCSI? Raid support, multiple network - number of slots (which is important depending on your video cards)) and look at the various offerings top match that list and your processor of choice. If you get a board that supports CrossFire (for ATI) or Sli (for NVidia) then you can put in two PCIe video cards, each with two outputs and (I think - I haven't done it myself) run four monitors (or, obviously, 3, 2 or 1). If you are going crossfire make sure you check out the speed of the multiple PCIe slots - the 2nd slot speed is sometimes hard to determine from the board specs, and can be slow (comparatively) Also bear in mind that if you are using LCD screens, the resolution you need to run at is determined by the screens, which will normally be lower than the maximum supported by the graphic card - which means it can be possible to save money on buying a slightly less powerful card as you only need to support your monitor(s) native resolutions. See http://game.amd.com/us-en/content/images/crossfirex/CF\_combo\_chart\_July08.jpg (It appears you can run four monitors with a dual PCIe motherboard - with crossfire turned OFF " the CrossFire platform will work with ATI SurroundView™ multi-monitor technology to enable up to 5 separate displays when not running in CrossFire mode."
Take a chill pill, Daddy-o .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
maxxx# wrote:
If you add a third card, make sure it is of the same type (e.g. use all ATI cards) so the driver is the same - I've had problems when trying to support two completely different cards in the same machine.
Thanks, it is good to know quirks like this.
maxxx# wrote:
Not sure how 'good' a card needs to be for volume rendering - how much of the workload is the card going to take over?
I didn't wrote the code for the volume rendering but as I understand bulk of work is done in the card. So it needs to have lots of on board memory and certain newer OpenGL extensions. Thanks for other valuable suggestions also. I have set my mind on Intel and most likely nVidia for graphics card. So I was really looking for specific recommendations. I have no idea about different brands of mobo. Any advice which brand is better and which should be avoided? -Saurabh
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Saurabh.Garg wrote:
I am confused between ATI ot nVidia. Can you suggest something? Which brand and which model is good in your experience?
DirectX or OpenGL? Generally nVidia is first to the market with OpenGL updates and ATI is first to the market with DirectX/Direct3D updates. Otherwise they are "similar" in features. I am one of those purists who like nVidia, I have one nv280 at work, and two at home. At home I have a 790i board, Intel quad core, 8 gig of RAM, and dual 280's. If it were me, I would find out on the density required for the 3d volume. Although you can fake it with level of detail, if you need the higher memory of the 280 it may make the difference more than just the speed. And with medical imaging, you may not want to "fake it" with level of detail. Especially since you will not be doing the software work, speak with the programmer, or the company who did the graphics, which ever applies.
OpenGL exclusively. I also prefer nVidia over ATI, so with OpenGL I guess it will be nVidia. I will check with how much density they need for the 3D volume. nv280 looks good to me. Is it possible to have more than 1GB memory in nv280? -Saurabh
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Saurabh.Garg wrote:
I am confused between ATI ot nVidia. Can you suggest something? Which brand and which model is good in your experience?
DirectX or OpenGL? Generally nVidia is first to the market with OpenGL updates and ATI is first to the market with DirectX/Direct3D updates. Otherwise they are "similar" in features. I am one of those purists who like nVidia, I have one nv280 at work, and two at home. At home I have a 790i board, Intel quad core, 8 gig of RAM, and dual 280's. If it were me, I would find out on the density required for the 3d volume. Although you can fake it with level of detail, if you need the higher memory of the 280 it may make the difference more than just the speed. And with medical imaging, you may not want to "fake it" with level of detail. Especially since you will not be doing the software work, speak with the programmer, or the company who did the graphics, which ever applies.
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I need to build a good PC with 3 monitors and very good graphics card for a new project. I haven't used multi-monitor before so how does it work? Are all monitors connect to same card or do I need to get multiple cards. Actually I need one really good graphics card for volume rendering, so I am thinking of buying one very good card for center monitor and couple of good cards for remaining two monitors. Is this possible? Also which brand of motherboard and CPU should I buy? My budget is about 3500 USD but I might be able to increase it. -Saurabh
Matrox have specific cards for medical imaging and moreover they have special products that allow even to have four monitors in only one card. Try to contact them and see what you can get... The brand of motherboard... this is like the angel's sex... everybody has it's own preferences... Hope to help...
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Matrox have specific cards for medical imaging and moreover they have special products that allow even to have four monitors in only one card. Try to contact them and see what you can get... The brand of motherboard... this is like the angel's sex... everybody has it's own preferences... Hope to help...
Trouble is, those cards tend to cost a lot more than two dual head cards that do the same job.....
Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. "Iam doing the browsing center project in vb.net using c# coding" - this is why I don't answer questions much anymore. Oh, and Microsoft doesn't want me to.
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A lot of cards will drive two monitors. For three monitors, you need two cards. For that money, you may be able to buy a Mac Pro, which will run windows. That's what I run 3 monitors on, although I've run 3 on a standard PC too.
Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. "Iam doing the browsing center project in vb.net using c# coding" - this is why I don't answer questions much anymore. Oh, and Microsoft doesn't want me to.
For that kind of money, he can build a machine that's quite a bit more than a Mac Pro.
"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"...the staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - Jason Jystad, 10/26/2001 -
Many, if not most, newish graphics cards have dual output - so you can connect two monitors to the same card. If you add a third card, make sure it is of the same type (e.g. use all ATI cards) so the driver is the same - I've had problems when trying to support two completely different cards in the same machine. Not sure how 'good' a card needs to be for volume rendering - how much of the workload is the card going to take over? Which brand of mobo & cpu - it's down to features/cost really. With $3500 to spend you'll be able to build a pretty nice machine (or does that include the three monitors?) I would decide on Intel v AMD first. Then look at the best price/performance for the CPU choice. Next, write a list of features you need from the mobo (sound onboard? SCSI? Raid support, multiple network - number of slots (which is important depending on your video cards)) and look at the various offerings top match that list and your processor of choice. If you get a board that supports CrossFire (for ATI) or Sli (for NVidia) then you can put in two PCIe video cards, each with two outputs and (I think - I haven't done it myself) run four monitors (or, obviously, 3, 2 or 1). If you are going crossfire make sure you check out the speed of the multiple PCIe slots - the 2nd slot speed is sometimes hard to determine from the board specs, and can be slow (comparatively) Also bear in mind that if you are using LCD screens, the resolution you need to run at is determined by the screens, which will normally be lower than the maximum supported by the graphic card - which means it can be possible to save money on buying a slightly less powerful card as you only need to support your monitor(s) native resolutions. See http://game.amd.com/us-en/content/images/crossfirex/CF\_combo\_chart\_July08.jpg (It appears you can run four monitors with a dual PCIe motherboard - with crossfire turned OFF " the CrossFire platform will work with ATI SurroundView™ multi-monitor technology to enable up to 5 separate displays when not running in CrossFire mode."
Take a chill pill, Daddy-o .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
maxxx# wrote:
If you get a board that supports CrossFire (for ATI) or Sli (for NVidia) then you can put in two PCIe video cards, each with two outputs and (I think - I haven't done it myself) run four monitors (or, obviously, 3, 2 or 1).
I have 2 Nvidia 8800 with SLI and when I tried to do this I was told by the system that because I had enabled SLI I could only use one card and one display port on that card. never looked into it very deep because the graphics were great for me anyway but... seems like a bit of a waste to me...
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System will be used for volume rendering for medical imaging. I am not going to do that part so I am not sure about exact details. About resolution of monitors I don't want each monitor to have very high resolution, I think it should be sufficient to have about 1600x1200 (don't know exact figures). One card for primary monitor and one card for other two monitors will do just fine. I am confused between ATI ot nVidia. Can you suggest something? Which brand and which model is good in your experience? I am pretty sure I am going to buy a quad code Intel with 4 GB or more RAM. Thanks a lot, -Saurabh
nVidia - all the way. Over the years, every time I have tried ATI it has bitten me in the butt. Crash after crash related to video drivers gave me a really bad taste in my mouth... Will never own one again...
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maxxx# wrote:
If you get a board that supports CrossFire (for ATI) or Sli (for NVidia) then you can put in two PCIe video cards, each with two outputs and (I think - I haven't done it myself) run four monitors (or, obviously, 3, 2 or 1).
I have 2 Nvidia 8800 with SLI and when I tried to do this I was told by the system that because I had enabled SLI I could only use one card and one display port on that card. never looked into it very deep because the graphics were great for me anyway but... seems like a bit of a waste to me...
nVidia finally has beta* drivers that finally do multi monitor SLI. If you're not doing high level 3d work you don't want SLI enabled you just have the two cards running in parallel. * traditional still being developed beta, not Google we're looking for weasel words because we don't have any sort of engineering practices to beta
Today's lesson is brought to you by the word "niggardly". Remember kids, don't attribute to racism what can be explained by Scandinavian language roots. -- Robert Royall
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OpenGL exclusively. I also prefer nVidia over ATI, so with OpenGL I guess it will be nVidia. I will check with how much density they need for the 3D volume. nv280 looks good to me. Is it possible to have more than 1GB memory in nv280? -Saurabh
no, and even if you could it almost certainly wouldn't help. Putting more memory on a gfx card than what it was released with is snake oil to swindle noobs. The highest end model of a GPU will be bundled with the most ram it can make good use of before something else becomes the bottleneck.
Today's lesson is brought to you by the word "niggardly". Remember kids, don't attribute to racism what can be explained by Scandinavian language roots. -- Robert Royall
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El Corazon wrote:
dual 280's.
Minesweeper must rock!
xacc.ide - now with TabsToSpaces support
IronScheme - 1.0 beta 1 - out now!
((lambda (x) `((lambda (x) ,x) ',x)) '`((lambda (x) ,x) ',x))my 280's make mine sweeper sooooooo powerful it improved the Iraq situation. But best of all Missile Command was made soooooo powerful that it replaced THAAD in the missile defense shield contracts. :P
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb) John Andrew Holmes "It is well to remember that the entire universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others."
