Need advice to connect 4 monitors (currently 2)

[indijones2008]

I currently have 2 X 22" monitors connected to ATI Radeon HD 3450 graphics card (PCI-E). My PC is 7-8 yrs old running on AMD chipset but has 8gb RAM. The motherboard has only 1 PCI-E slot. I would like to connect 2 more monitors (19"), and wanted to add one more graphics card to run those 2 monitors. I've read that using 2 different kind of graphics card would turn each other off, and was looking for the same kind of card that I have now. But since I have only 1 PCI-E slot which is occupied by the current graphics card, I'm totally at a loss about what to do. I've already tried DVI splitter cable but the card won't allow to run more than 2 monitors at a time no matter how I tried. My on-board graphics port is disabled by default, and there's no option to turn it on through BIOS setting. I want to keep the current graphics card and add another one to the PCI slot. Any advice would be highly appreciated. I need this setup for work, not for gaming. Thanks!

 

[king3pj]

I currently have 2 X 22" monitors connected to ATI Radeon HD 3450 graphics card (PCI-E). My PC is 7-8 yrs old running on AMD chipset but has 8gb RAM. The motherboard has only 1 PCI-E slot. I would like to connect 2 more monitors (19"), and wanted to add one more graphics card to run those 2 monitors. I've read that using 2 different kind of graphics card would turn each other off, and was looking for the same kind of card that I have now. But since I have only 1 PCI-E slot which is occupied by the current graphics card, I'm totally at a loss about what to do. I've already tried DVI splitter cable but the card won't allow to run more than 2 monitors at a time no matter how I tried. My on-board graphics port is disabled by default, and there's no option to turn it on through BIOS setting. I want to keep the current graphics card and add another one to the PCI slot. Any advice would be highly appreciated. I need this setup for work, not for gaming. Thanks!

If you only have one PCI-E slot you can't connect two GPUs. They each need their own slot. The only way I know of to do this if you can't use on board graphics to drive one or two monitors is to buy a new GPU that supports 4 monitors. Unfortunately it looks like the cheapest options I can find (GT 1030, RX 550, RX 560) only support 2-3 monitors.

It looks like this GTX 750 Ti for $100 supports 4 monitors. You can connect two through DVI and two through HDMI. If all of your monitors only support DVI you will need to buy two HDMI to DVI adapters.
https://smile.amazon.com/Gigabyte-GeForce-Graphic-Cards-GV-N75TD5-2GI/dp/B01BC1M4YA/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1510539132&sr=1-1&keywords=gtx+750+ti

If you have trouble finding a 750 Ti with 4 outputs in stock you can get a 1050 Ti for about $150. Just make sure the model you choose supports 4 monitors. Some of the mini models only have 3 outputs.

Another option is to look for a single used, older era GPU that supports 4 monitors.

 

[indijones2008]

I currently have 2 X 22" monitors connected to ATI Radeon HD 3450 graphics card (PCI-E). My PC is 7-8 yrs old running on AMD chipset but has 8gb RAM. The motherboard has only 1 PCI-E slot. I would like to connect 2 more monitors (19"), and wanted to add one more graphics card to run those 2 monitors. I've read that using 2 different kind of graphics card would turn each other off, and was looking for the same kind of card that I have now. But since I have only 1 PCI-E slot which is occupied by the current graphics card, I'm totally at a loss about what to do. I've already tried DVI splitter cable but the card won't allow to run more than 2 monitors at a time no matter how I tried. My on-board graphics port is disabled by default, and there's no option to turn it on through BIOS setting. I want to keep the current graphics card and add another one to the PCI slot. Any advice would be highly appreciated. I need this setup for work, not for gaming. Thanks!

If you only have one PCI-E slot you can't connect two GPUs. They each need their own slot. The only way I know of to do this if you can't use on board graphics to drive one or two monitors is to buy a new GPU that supports 4 monitors. Unfortunately it looks like the cheapest options I can find (GT 1030, RX 550, RX 560) only support 2-3 monitors.

It looks like this GTX 750 Ti for $100 supports 4 monitors. You can connect two through DVI and two through HDMI. If all of your monitors only support DVI you will need to buy two HDMI to DVI adapters.
https://smile.amazon.com/Gigabyte-GeForce-Graphic-Cards-GV-N75TD5-2GI/dp/B01BC1M4YA/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1510539132&sr=1-1&keywords=gtx+750+ti

If you have trouble finding a 750 Ti with 4 outputs in stock you can get a 1050 Ti for about $150. Just make sure the model you choose supports 4 monitors. Some of the mini models only have 3 outputs.

Another option is to look for a single used, older era GPU that supports 4 monitors.

Thx for the reply. I was wondering if it's possible to add another 2 monitor PCI (not PCI-E) compatible ATI Radeon graphics card and run both PCI-E & PCI compatible cards simultaneously.

 

[king3pj]

It looks like PCIE has been the standard since about 2003. I think you are going to have a hard time finding a GPU that supports PCI.

I would also be surprised if your motherboard still has an old PCI slot. It might because I don't have as much experience with older motherboards but my guess is that it is just a smaller PCIE x1 slot for things like WiFi cards instead of a PCIE x16 slot that is used for graphics cards. I'm not aware of any GPUs that work with a PCIE x1 slot.

I still think your best bet is to forget trying to run two GPUs. It will be much simpler to buy a new or used GPU that supports 4 monitors by itself.

 

[indijones2008]

Thx for your feedback. Really appreciate it.