Member Avatar for Wild Red

I just bought a new computer with only one pci express slot and I want to use 3 monitors. I thought the motherboard had an onboard video card but I was mistaken (bare bones through mail). So I'm stuck with only using two until I get another video card.

My question..... I don't play games so can I buy a relatively low priced (won't say cheap) PCI video card that will work fine for my 3rd monitor? And it won't slow down my computer?

Also could someone recommend a low priced pci express x1 viseo card? I'm looking at a 'HP-COMPAQ - NV GF 8400GS 256MB DH-PCIE X1 VIDADPT SBY' that seems to be OK from what I've read. Thanks a lot for any feedback.

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Member Avatar for jbennet

I dont think you can run two video cards at once anyway, unless you are doing something like SLI?

Member Avatar for Wild Red

j, thanks for the reply. Yes, it's possible to use 2 video cards at once. I was using 2 on my old computer and now I have 2 on my new one. And 3 monitors. I went ahead and ordered a pcie x1 card (the one mentioned in my post) and so far, so good.

Member Avatar for jbennet

Yeah the 8400GS is fine for general stuff
Not really a gaming card but it can handle lighter/older games just fine if you ever need to
Should be fine for you

Member Avatar for Chaky

You can use PCI video card, but make sure that it isn't one that is incapable of working as secondary VGA. I know that some ATI PCI cards can work only as the primary ones. You'll probably have to find a 2nd hand one. I doubt that there are new PCI cards.

Also, in BIOS the default settings for the primary VGA is PCI. You'll need to change that to PCI-e.

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