Cheap card for dual monitors

[Guest]

I currently have a dual monitor setup - two Acer 22" 1680x1050 LCDs - running through a single GTX 260. I plan to sell the 260 and upgrade to something of the GTX 4xx series in the next couple of months. I would also like to purchase a nice 22-24" 1920x1080 LCD for gaming. Would it be possible to connect the 24" to the GTX 4xx and then connect the two 22"s to a cheaper dual DVI card? I'm not interested in gaming on different screens, just the center 1920x1080. If so, which card would be the best value for this application? I assume something like a GTX 260 would be overkill for running two monitors for non gaming purposes. Thanks in advance.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that my motherboard doesn't appear to have any VGA input or I would have tried that. All I have currently is my dual DVI GTX 260.

 

[Timop]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121360&cm_re=8400GS-_-14-121-360-_-Product
$30, you don't need anything more if its driving monitors.

Whats your Mobo anyways?

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the quick reply but I actually don't know what mobo I have. Is there a scan like crucial.com that I could run? I'm pretty sure it's by EVGA but I can't find any serial numbers. It's a bit crowded with the CPU and GPU.

 

[Orac]

Even if the motherboard had a vga output, you typically can't use onboard video output and a graphics card video output at the same time. You could keep the GTX260 and get a DVI-I to VGA adapter if your current monitors don't have a DVI input.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812816053&cm_re=dvi_to_vga-_-12-816-053-_-Product

 

[Timop]

Get CPU-Z and it should tell you.

 

[Guest]

Okay thanks, useful program. The mobo is nVidia nForce 790i Ultra SLI - so I guess I could go with that cheap card Timop suggested but I'd rather keep it simple and go with a dual DVI over VGA (I can find one I'm sure). I think that answers my question though - I can infact use two different cards - a high end one for gaming on one monitor and then a cheaper one for non gaming on two different monitors. Orac I'm not clear on what that adapter would solve basically right now I have (2) DVI inputs and need atleast one more for a 3rd monitor. Thanks.

 

[Timop]

Your monitor doesnt take VGA?

If you get an AMD card, things are gonna be messy.
But If you stay with 2 Nvidia cards I'm almost sure you can set the other two in extended mode with the supplementary card.

 

[Guest]

Hmm they are identical and both have VGA and DVI outputs I just didn't know if things would stay consistent if I went both DVI and VGA. I now realize that the card you linked to was made by Nvidia so good find, that should work. Thank you very much for your help .

 

[Orac]

Sorry, I wasn't sure that current monitors have DVI capability and vga was needed.