I use 2 ATI Radeon X1950 Pros .... to drive my central 1920x1080 plus 2 19" monitors, 3 total. Note that you need a power supply that has two outputs for the cards (antect true power trio 650w), and I recommend the ASUS P5WDG2 mobo w/6600 dualcore cpu.

ken

Thanks guys. Ken, do you know if those ATI Radeon X1950 Pros already have the processors on them the Vegas might use for acceleration in the future?

no idea re onboard processing, but they're great, top of the line and have crossfire enabled support (for gaming) and so far have worked great w/vegas ... the spec sheets might tell more re onboard what they do etc.. I know my current rig has speeded up my renders significantly from my old win2k 2.8 system I had.. eg a multiple of the render speed...

wish I'd gotten this rig last year, I handbuilt it myself.. also get a big lian lee case, I got all parts from newegg.com, I have another thread somewhere on the forum here w/specific parts.. works great

ken

kencalhoun:
How do you end up setting your Vegas displays on the monitors?
JJK

I use the main vegas timeline on the central widescreen monitor, sometimes stretched to both the widescreen and the one of the right, and keep the video preview window in the far left monitor. I also always keep a windows explorer window open on the right monitor, to drag a/v clips from it directly to the vegas timeline..

ken

I use three monitors with this card:
Videocard: Nvidia PCIE 16 quad 256 MB RAM
Monitor: 3 Acer 24” LCD 1920x1200

My projects are 720p

-Paul

Here's a link that will show you all the Qudro FX line from nVidia.

looks like the 560 is the cost effective way to go. as long as HD-OUT means what I think it means (HD Video signal out) and assuming that this is what you wanted the 3rd monitor for.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/IO_11761.html

Dave

Edit - here's a snipit from from the FX560 on B&H's website explaining multiple monitor hookups, "The card provides a maximum analog resolution of 2048 x 1536 per display. The card features 1 single-link DVI-I port that can output a digital resolution of up to 1900 x 1200 pixels and 1 dual-link DVI port that can output a digital resolution of up to 3840 x 2400 pixels. This lets you connect multiple high-resolution displays to your computer with ease."

Thanks everyone.

So if the 2 x DVI outs on that FX560 were driving my 17" LCDs, how would one configure Vegas to use the HD-OUT for the 24" LCD? It couldn't then be done as a "Windows secondary display" could it?

Not sure yet exactly what a dual-link DVI port is.

Would HD-OUT mean HDMI? Would the Samsung 244T have HDMI? Should I buy an HD TV instead of a computer display (but the affordable ones are still only 1366px wide)?

Apologies for my ignorance while I'm getting up to speed with this.

The HDTV output is an overlay at either 720P or 1080i and your HDTV will automatically size to that signal. I run a 720P signal from the MY-HD-120 card to my Sony 23" HDTV /monitor which is rated at 1366 x 768 and it works just fine. On the computer input to the HDTV if you exceed the 1366 x 768 limit you will get a warning on the HDTV saying "NO NO". I also run the HDTV output from my Matrox video Parhelia card to the same tv and the Matrox overlay output is set to 720P. So what is being done here is that "PC Video" and "HDTV Video" are two different entities. Vegas will not send it's preview video out the "overlay" but it will send it out the "1394" or "second monitor" depending on what you have selected in the options. If you do a "render to player" the player (Microsoft Media Player) will play on the second monitor preview window and the HDTV overlay output even though the media player has problems playing m2t files which is what you get from Vegas HDV renders. The media player will play in the preview window and the HDTV overlay weather you are in "1394" or "secondary monitor" mode, as long as your video card software has the overlay turned on. As discussed in previous threads you must use dual video cards for 3 (or 4) separate monitors or one video card for two monitors and one HDTV. I have a 720P component distribution unit that selects four different 720P videos to feed the HDTV. The newer HDTV's have many inputs of HDMI, component, S-video, composite, and DVI-I. Also HDMI video switchers will not switch PC video (I just tried it) so you cannot use an HDMI switcher as a KVM switch.
Keep in mind that most of the LCD 24" monitors have ratings of 1920 x 1200 which is 16 x 10 even though the screen size is 16 x 9 so unless I am wrong here (I usually am) you cannot view 1920 x 1080 video on these monitors. However, if you use a small 32" HDTV rated at 1080P with PC input it will display 1920 x 1080 at 60HZ refresh. Most of the newer video cards will handle this resolution, and there again is another paradox---do you wait for the new Vegas/AMD render capability?
JJK

"Do you wait for the new Vegas AMD render capability?"

Do you mean the 64bit vegas that we know is coming? or the "Vegas/AMD" super secret power up that is all but speculation and rumor?

It's not wise to speak in certainty of things that are only rumor as a general rule of thumb.

Dave

Thanks for that detailed info JJK.

As discussed in previous threads you must use dual video cards for 3 (or 4) separate monitors

In other words there are no graphics cards around with 3 x DVI outputs. That's as I thought. Just wondered as I think there used to be Matrox triple head cards around.

or one video card for two monitors and one HDTV.

Such as the NVIDIA Quadro FX 560 that FrigidNDEditing mentioned? Anyone know of a good manufacturer/model for the board?

> Keep in mind that most of the LCD 24" monitors have ratings of 1920 x 1200 which is 16 x 10 even though the screen size is 16 x 9 so unless I am wrong here (I usually am) you cannot view 1920 x 1080 video on these monitors.

Can anyone confirm or not whether this is true? I always assumed I would be able to monitor the full 1080 res pixel-for-pixel at the correct 16:9 aspect ratio if I bought a 1920 x 1200 LCD computer display.

However, if you use a small 32" HDTV rated at 1080P with PC input it will display 1920 x 1080 at 60HZ refresh. Most of the newer video cards will handle this resolution

Sony are selling a couple of sizes of "2.1 megapixel" HDTVs (1920 x 1080) here in Thailand now. Perhaps one of these would be a better bet than a computer display but I think they're a lot more expensive.

The Samsung 244T computer monitor that is available is shown here. Inputs are 15 Pin D-Sub, DVI-D, S-Video, CVSB and Component. Would I need HDMI input if I wanted to run it off the FX560?

Can anyone confirm or not whether this is true? I always assumed I would be able to monitor the full 1080 res pixel-for-pixel at the correct 16:9 aspect ratio if I bought a 1920 x 1200 LCD computer display.
It should display 1920x1080 with 80-pixel wide black bars at the top and bottom of the screen (=letterboxing).

I use two PCIE cards: one with a 7950 GT (2x DVI) and one with 7600 GT (1XDVI, 1xVGA) to drive 2x 24" TFTs and one 40" HDTV. Works great.

It may not be a good idea to run a monitor at 1920x1200 using the VGA connection. When I tried this, I noticed flickering lines and other anomalies not seen when using DVI.

> I use two PCIE cards: one with a 7950 GT (2x DVI) and one with 7600 GT (1XDVI, 1xVGA) to drive 2x 24" TFTs and one 40" HDTV. Works great.

Thanks ro_max. This sounds like a good solution. What brand are your cards?

The one with the 7950 GT is a Gainward card, the 7600 GT is some no-name brand model (at least I don't remember the name) that I just picked up at a local store (it was on sale).

AFAIK the type of graphics card and its performance is not that much of an issue as far as Vegas is concerned. Unless you need GPU performance for other applications besides Vegas, you can probably save good money by going with a budget model. Just make sure that whatever you pick has the appropriate connections and supports the resolutions you need/want.

Rather than choosing a high-end model now, I would wait and see whether and to what extent Vegas may make use of GPU performance in the future and then pick out the appropriate graphic cards (i.e. those supported by Vegas).