What would be the best way to run 3 displays on my Mac Pro? The Matrox TripleHead2Go or adding another VGA to my Mac? Would love to know the pros and cons of each choice.
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3 Displays with Mac Pro
- Thread starter CajunCARTFan
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I have the newest iteration of the Mac Pro. I am considering getting the EVGA GTX 285 and nVidia GT 120 to run a three display setup. I game on Windows using Bootcamp and the GTX 285 has better performance than the ATI 4870. I also read that when using Windows you need to have the same type of graphics cards i.e. 2 nVidia's or 2 ATI's, not mixed.
Yes you need 2 identical cards to enable SLI (if the cards are designed for this setup).
Run the 285 on the centre screen. and the other 2 on the 120. You can also run the centre screen one of the others on the 285 as well assuming you have DVI connections.
I'm not planning on running SLI as these cards won't support that. I thought this would be the best way to do it but I wanted to be sure. Thanks for the help. I have 2x20" Dells and 1x26" Vizio that I wanted to run.
I run 2 x GT120's in my mac pro at work. Use 2 24 Cinema Displays and a 20 inch off to the side connected to one of the dvi ports. I could add another if I wanted too.
Some points to consider
ATI cards crossfire and don't SLI. The Apple 4870 doesn't crossfire at all. Only flashed 4870 do in Windows.
2x4870 exceed by far the PCIe spec and can blow your PSU. External PSU is the way to go if you must have.
285 + 120 seems by far the best option IMO.
Yeah I have decided to go with the GTX 285 and the GT 120 option. I can hook my main display to the 285 and the side displays to the 120. I have a DVI to MDP adapter already as I am running 2 displays on the ATI 4870.
My 08 Mac Pro must have some sort of super stock PSU because I run two flashed 4870/512mb cards(CF'd in Vista 64), 4 1tb drive, and 16 gigs of RAM
One card is powered by the two power ports on the mobo, the other is powered via the extra molex and a Y-cable in the OD BayI run two 22" Dells on one card and a 24" Dell on the second and they've run flawlessly to date (knock on wood). I may be setting the gear up for failure but i've not experienced any problems with heating or excessive power draw (as monitored on iStat).
My 08 Mac Pro must have some sort of super stock PSU because I run two flashed 4870/512mb cards(CF'd in Vista 64), 4 1tb drive, and 16 gigs of RAM
I run two 22" Dells on one card and a 24" Dell on the second and they've run flawlessly to date (knock on wood). I may be setting the gear up for failure but i've not experienced any problems with heating or excessive power draw (as monitored on iStat).
Not all 4870 are created equal. The 1 GB RAM versions pull more juice and taking that much power from the ODD bay would be dangerous with one of the cards with more memory.
I absolutely agree! That's why I went with the 512mb boards. I would have gone with dual 4850s but I can't seem to figure out the whole injector, Netkas methods thing (I don't know why but flashing cards was easier for me). I needed three monitors so I went with the flashed 4870s. I guess I could throw back in the 2600 for one of the 4870 if power becomes a problem. I like being able to CF in Windows though. I still would like to figure out how two make the 4850s work just to cut down on the wiring in the case and give me room for a RAID card. I'll eventually go to a one card 5870 setup after all is figured out and made stable.
OP, sorry, didn't mean to lead the thread astray....