In Search of a video card to run 3 monitors

[AndrewX192]

I'm curious to know what sort of video card I should purchase to power 3 (or possibly 4) 1920x1080 monitors. My first instinct was to purchase a new Nvidia card, as I have had zero troubles with Nvidia cards in a dual monitor setup for the last few years.


But with some quick research, I discovered that Nvidia's twinview does not work with more than two monitors. This is fine assuming that I can do one twinview and one standalone monitor. In my testing, I was unable to get a twinview + 1 setup (when hooking up the same monitor to the machine twice to get the 3rd screen): the two extra screens decided to turn off, and a few times nvidia-settings froze.


Other deciding factors in my graphics card purchase:

1) My new monitors are HDMI only, but I can get HDMI <-> DVI converter cables as needed.
2) I am on Ubuntu 10.04, and am not upgrading until a few months after 12.04 is released.
3) I'm not a gamer - but I do need to be able to power all three monitors without any latency. The most graphics application I will be running for now is Adobe Photoshop in VMWare Workstation (fullscreen on one screen). On the other screens I will be running my programming tools.
4) SLI is a possibility if need be. I am using the MSI Big Bang XPower motherboard and already have the SLI bridge components.

My current system specifications:
Intel Core i7 950 (3Ghz), 24GB DDR3 RAM, Nvidia Geforce 210 1GB.

[AndrewX192]

Status Update / Bump:

I ended up buying another Nvidia Geforce 210 graphics card, and I can get all three monitors working in Ubuntu 10.04, but without desktop compositing (compiz) in a triple "Separate X Screen" setup. I can also do a TwinView + "Seperate X Screen" setup, but when in this configuration gnome's panel doesn't work properly and windows span both monitors when maximized.

I've spent hours looking for solutions, but haven't found anything yet.

[AndrewX192]

Status Update:

I bought an AMD Radeon HD 6770 a few months ago, and was able to get triple monitors working without much trouble.