4 PCI Graphics Cards, 1 board and a hammer

sfuk

Inactive User
Joined
Feb 27, 2008
Messages
146
Reaction score
2
Location
Bedford, UK
OK

The latest Project.

Can I fit 4 cards in the same desktop on the pci bus and get 4 seperate desktops.

Help

ps - hammer is for anti frustration purposes
 
if i understand what u mean

u dont need 4 graphics cards for 4 desktops why don't u have a look at XP Cube? have a wee searh mate but it gives u 4 or 6 desktops cant remember correctly

Cheers
MFCGAVMFC
 
ah i see what you are doing but i wish to output to 4 monitors. Each monitor is to have a seperate application running on its own desktop. sorry if i did not make it clear earlier. I have looked at quad head graphics cards but am trying to keep costs low.
 
Windows really isn't designed to run multiple desktops in that way. Usually (its not really multi-user in that way), the best you can do is have one large destop with an application open and running in each portion. You still have only one keyboard/mouse though so unless your applications are non-interactive you may have problems.

You might be better of with a Linux type OS where you can run multiple desktops at the same time (although I think 4 KDE sessions would push even a fast PC - you might be able to run some of the simpler gui's though)
 
Last edited:
as said above windows isnt really designed for it - it is possible tho - you've seen my setup lol - would suggest you go for 2 cheap nvidia cards - doesnt matter what really as long as they are twin headers and match your slots - would NOT suggest trying to get 4 seperate cards to give a single desktop each lol - and I really wouldnt want to try with non-nvidia cards lol

utils like ultramon help to keep everything organised once you have the physical hardware running

the cost of the graphics cards is negible compared with the cost of the screens and mounts lol
 
Last edited:
SuSe Linux seems to handle it no problem, i had three screens running from that no problem, but Linux SUCKS if you ask me :)

Whenever i install Linux I spend all my time setting it up to look and perform like Windows - go figure that one out! :)

The windows problem is all down to driver support, maybe one of the 3rd party driver devs have a solution.
 
So what you are saying is that it cant be done or that it can be done.

Here is my setup.

P4 dual core running at 3 ghz
2 gigs of ram
windows XP pro

What i want to do is add 3 low end graphics cards into the PCI bus and use each one as a sperate desktop.
 
i know on one of my old motherboards you could add something called a riser card that quadrooples the amount of slots you have lol. i had one slot, cant remember what kind, but the old graphics cards used to go in them, after putting the rise card in i could put 4 graphics cards, not that i did.

altho it was a Pentium 1 133mhz lol
 
Back
Top