I'm building a DAW right now and want 3 monitors.
How do you have yours connected to your tower?
Do you have one or more video cards?
From what I've seen I can connect one to my mobo's D-Sub port and buy a video card with 2 D-Sub ports.
I also have DVI-D and HDMI ports on my mobo but I'm not sure I could connect all 3 directly like that.

Any advice?

Mike 

perhaps you can but without knowing the mobo cant comment further.
my video card has 2x hdmi connectors, 1 x Digi and 1 vga  and i can connect 4 monitors successfully.

I'm running 2x 27" Samsung via hdmi (another via hdmi-dvi converter) to the first card. Another Dell 21.5" via vga (D-sub) to the second card. And the cards are mixed (with 2 different drivers) - see my signature area.


I made a mistake when I purchased the newer card - thinking the new card can support 3x monitors (as it has got 3 outputs) - but only after installing, I realized it only allows 2 outs at any time. 


Since, I've already got an older card - instead of buying a third card with more outputs, I just plug in both (to test) and they work fine together.


Not sure how many you can connect to the motherboard's out - what is the board model ?


You can also check out the new ultra wide monitors (21:9) 2560x1080.

If you're buying a graphic card, make sure the spec is clear on how many monitor it supports, rather than just counting the number of outs.

The above posts are quite correct.

I used to have 3 monitors, but chose to reduce that to 2.

My computer has 2 video cards, each of which can support multiple connected devices, and the motherboard has additional video connectors with on-board video, so I could really load up If I wanted to.

Many cards support up to 2 connected monitors, and some either 3 or 4, but you need to review specs, because some only allow EITHER HDMI or DVI.  All of the cards I have seen allow the VGA connector to be used, which is also fine for Sonar use.

If you have not yet purchased the display screens, I recommend you consider using HDMI TV's for monitors, as you can get 32" HDTV's for around $200 or less, which is cheaper than an equivalent computer display.  (the computer displays produce a better picture, but for Sonar I am quite happy with the picture).

I hope the above helps - having multiple screens is fabulous.  I have mine set up so that the console is on one screen and the track pane and rest are on the main screen.  My screens are a 32" HDTV and a 46" HDTV - the larger one is my main.

Bob Bone

mudgel


perhaps you can but without knowing the mobo cant comment further.
my video card has 2x hdmi connectors, 1 x Digi and 1 vga  and i can connect 4 monitors successfully.

My Mobo.  http://www.microcenter.com/product/386359/GA-Z77X-UD5H_LGA_1155_Z77_ATX_Motherboard

Mike

I use three monitors, two side by side for my main work view and a third across by my keyboards which I either float a window on or use my Monitor manager to mirror an existing window. (Saves me turning my head - )

I have two graphics cards, neither of them anything fancy ATi 5450s. If you do go the two card route I'd check that they will work together okay before buying. I personally couldn't get two cards to work together until they were the same type, I know others have but it wouldn't work for me.

Yeah I've read that it should be a matching set.
Thanks.

Mike

I'm using 3 monitors, which I really like. 

2 identical 18" ones in between my near fields and one that's a TV, which is beside my piano.
At 37", it's also big enough to see from my V-drums, which are across the room a bit. 

Makes my 2 DAWs nice & big.


I bought an ASUS GeForce card for about $75.00 [nothing fancy or expensive] which runs the 2 in front of me, and I plug the one to the TV into the Mobo, which is also an ASUS. 



Highly recommend 3 monitors.

chefmike8888


Yeah I've read that it should be a matching set.
Thanks.

Mike

Probably a bit irrelevant but I only had the issue with Windows 7, the same two cards worked fine under XP. Go figure.....

I am running 3 monitors across 2 cards.

Non matching cards as well, ATI radeon HD5700 and a Nvidia GeForce GTX 660.

Works great!