I'm running a 30" and 24" on ATI Radeon HD 5450 video card. After looking up some reviews, the card doesn't seem too good and just a cheap option that came with the computer.

I just bought 2 20" for portrait mode to go with the 30". That video card doesn't have 3 slots for all 3 monitors.

Can I just get another cheap video card to run the additional monitors or should I upgrade my card for the 30" and use the old card to run the dual 20's?

I was pointed to this card. Any good?
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...&sku=P450-6772

I have done some gaming in the past and wouldn't mind having better graphic options if I do get back into it. Not sure if that's a video card or other component issues.

There's a chance I might just build a new system using my SDD, monitors, but upgrading the motherboard and CPU. If that effects the decision for a card that is more likely to not be outdated next year or have more longevity?

Thanks guys, I'm a noob in this area, hopefully I'm asking the right questions.

Are you trying to run 3 or 4 monitors? That card looks as if it will do both but if you only want 3 monitors you can probably get a card just as powerful minus the extra slot for a cheaper price.

For about $25 extra you can get a more powerful version of that card but it only has one HDMI and DVI slot but 2 display ports.

You can't run multiple monitors off of different video cards that aren't in SLI/CrossFire, so you would need to either by another HD 5450, or upgrade. How much money do you have to spend? You can get two GTX 6850s for ~$150.

EVGA 01G-P4-2650-KR GeForce GTX 650 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card

each with 2DVI and 1 HDMI ports. This card is a decent upgrade over the Radeon 6770, and $20 cheaper (with free shipping!).

Also, what PSU do you have? For SLI and 3 monitors you would probably want a 650+ watt Gold PSU.

EDIT: comparisons
This website compares the specs between two cards, pretty useful to compare. Looks like the Radeon has a lot more shaders, which can be useful, but the geforce is much more efficient and quiet.

I actually just realized my card has a hdmi VGA and dvi so I should be able to run all 3 monitors on the one card but only two at a time will work. I'm so confused. I can change 1 and 2 in the screen resolution so I know they work, but the 3rd monitor is always greyed out. Any ideas? I'm way past my limited knowledge in this department.

This is total bs. You can run multiple monitors off of different video cards. SLI/CrossFire has nothing to do with it.

If I remember correctly, HD5450 just can't put out three sources simultaneously so it can not be done.

Buy another graphics card or switch to one that can put out three sources.

Too lazy to write: http://www.sevenforums.com/graphic-c...-adapters.html

Thanks. A friend happened to have a USB to VGA adapter so now all 3 are working with the other 2 on the video card. Any reason this would mess something up in the long run? Seems to be working fine.

You might be right, but I was researching this topic becuase I had onboard Itnel HD 4000 graphics with my mobo and though I could run one of my monitors through its DVI output, but all the articles I found online said this would't work and I had to be in CrossFire mode. Would like to see this explained more thorughly.

Ah n/m. For some reason it won't allow 2560x1600 using the hdmi cable, but will with the DVI.

Also the adaptor-VGA monitor is lagging quite a bit.

Back to the drawing board. 1x30 + 1x20 for now.

Well there's no way that USB 2.0 can transfer enough data so it will lag and I don't think there's any reasonable solutions.

HDMI needs to be >1.3 to allow 2560x1600 (capped at 1920*1200 or something), whereas dual-dvi-connection can manage that resolution, which you have. You don't have HDMI 1.3 on your card. That's the reason.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hdmi#Version_1.3
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Visual_Interface

You can't really brake your computer by attaching external non-broken accessories to it via ports (PS. this is not a challenge).

You need an extra graphics card or a newer graphics card which supports 3 monitors. If you want to just attach an extra monitor, you can probably buy very cheap, low power eating Radeon (I prefer same manufacturer, because two display drivers sounds like an extra hassle). If you're into gaming, buy a new one completely and disregard the old one. The one recommend to you does its job fine. Actually you can not get much cheaper single one since nobody offers the necessary technology and connections with them.

Dunno about your power supply, if it's a packet computer, adding the graphic card suggested to you might cause some problems. Your current graphics card is really energy efficient (Yay!) but it also means that whoever build this might have gone really cheap on power supply (Boo!).

Weevil, you can not do any gaming using multiple monitors which are attached to different monitors with non-crossfire configuration (eyefinity) or use both graphics card in a single monitor gaming. That is not a big problem here and I actually wouldn't recommend SLI/Crossfire setups anyways unless using 3 monitors+, but that's another subject.

Could get something like http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...01133&csid=_61

That can run 4 monitors and will play just about any game at 1080p . However if you have a cheap PSU you will need to upgrade it. Also if you have an old or small motherboard it likely won't fit and if you have slow memory or CPU they will bottleneck that card.

If you gave your full system specs including the power supply specs and tols us your budget we should be able to find the perfect card for you.