Build pc with 6 dvi outputs?

I am trying to build a pc with 6 dvi outputs, I have already built a machine that does this using a radeon hd 4850x2 graphics card, but unfortunately it seems that this is unvailable to buy from anywhere in the uk currently. has this card maybe been discontinued? As i can't source this card I was wondering if there is another graphics card available that will give 4 dvi ouputs so as I can get the total of 6 needed usin g another normal 2 port card? Thnaks

Solution 1:

ATI now produces the newer 5870 Eyefinity 6 Edition which supports 6 outputs in 1 card

Another possibility is the 4870 X2

Solution 2:

Can't you just install 3 cards that each have dual DVI ports?

I think the only requirement would be having enough slots in the motherboard, but I think having 3 separate PCI-E 16x slots is becoming more common.

NewEgg.com seems to be one of the few sites that allow you to search motherboards by number of PCI-E 16x slots.

UPDATE: Yes, I actually did this recently and it worked great. We wanted to avoid DisplayPorts because they can get so loose and flaky and as soon as one is unplugged, Windows recalibrates the multi-monitor setup and everything goes haywire. With DVI ports they can be screwed in which is so much better.

We looked at getting a Matrox card (or two) with multiple DVI ports but they are quite expensive. Instead we bought 3 dual-DVI video cards (ATI 5770's), a motherboard with 3 x PCI-E slots, a large gaming case (Antec) to support 8 expansion slots (necessary because of the double-slot requirement of the GPUs and the strange layout of the PCI-E slots), and an extra GPU power supply so the graphics cards could have their own dedicated power supply to ensure enough steady power.

(Because of all the extras that were necessary, it probably wasn't much cheaper than buying the Matrox cards, but I suspect full-screen video rendering performance will be better on the ATI's than on Matrox.)

So far it's worked pretty well. Windows 7 detects the six displays pretty easily. I'm not real keen on ATI drivers and software so might avoid them in future (try nVidia perhaps), and have had some crashing problems on our Adobe Air app, but that could be completely unrelated to the hardware or drivers.

Anyway, hope my experience helps somebody else out there.

Simon.