Windows 7: 3 Video Outputs?

I have a simple question. Would Windows 7 allow me to have 3 video outputs?

At the moment I have a 22" Dell monitor and a 42" Westinghouse monitor connected to my on-board video outputs and works great. The 22" I have connected through VGA (haven' got around to getting a DVI cable yet), and my 42" monitor I have connected through the HDMI output.

Gigabyte motherboard has (1)VGA, (1)DVI and (1)HDMI output.

I have been thinking of purchasing a video card lately, since I've noticed that when I play some HD movies on my 42", it tends to sometimes lag a bit on scenes with a lot of action. I have 4GB's of RAM and my CPU never goes above 17% while watching the movie, so I can only assume this has to do with the on-board video card struggling a bit to display the data fast enough.

I already have another matching 22" Dell monitor and would like to run a dual display with the 22's and still have the 42" available. So if I get a video card, would I be able to run my 42" monitor off of that and then the dual 22"s off the on-board video?

Thanks

Simple question results in simple answer: no.

It can't be done because one of the outputs shares it's resources with another. So going by that, only 2 can work simultaneously.

The new 5xxx line can do all three I believe. I can't tell you per exact model, but possibly they all can.

The HD 3200 should not lag. It is designed precisely for HD video. Perhaps your system can be tweaked in other ways to get best overall performance. Ensure you're using the latest video driver with latest chipset mobo drivers.

The answer to this: "So if I get a video card, would I be able to run my 42" monitor off of that and then the dual 22"s off the on-board video?"

is simply, yes. Get another ATI HD card for easiest/best results. You could attach one 22" and 42" to new card and leave one 22" on the HD 3200. Or if 5xxx, put all three on card and disable onboard HD 3200. Or do exactly as you asked.

Thanks for the quick response.

Guess I'll just have to deal with my current setup then.

As torrentg said, yes you can quite easily. My motherboard has the identical chipset as yours (NB780G/SB700) and do just that,



The one on the left is my 32" Westinghouse TV connected to the onboard HD3200 (and I don't get the lag you're describing), and the other two (22" and 19" Acer LCD's) are connected to my HD4830. To do it is just a matter of enabling the SurroundView option in the bios, that and only works if the video card is an ATI card. From your motherboard manual (mine says the same thing),

That's awesome.

Actually, torrentg said it couldn't be done. I'm glad to see you were able to figure out how to do it. So I take it you're running your dual monitors via DVI from your HD4830 then?

No, I gave you many ways on how to do it.

You need another card though.

"is simply, yes. Get another ATI HD card for easiest/best results. You could attach one 22" and 42" to new card and leave one 22" on the HD 3200. Or if 5xxx, put all three on card and disable onboard HD 3200. Or do exactly as you asked."

Oh, I misunderstood what you said. I guess the way I had explained it was backwards since I said I wanted to hook one monitor to the video card, and the other 2 monitors to the on-board video when it should be backwards. 2 monitors to the video card and then 1 to the on-board video.

Got it!

Thanks...