what video cards do you like for multiple (3+) monitors?

[dingfelder]

what video cards do you like for multiple (3+) monitors?

I am moving from windows to gentoo, and have everything working on 1 monitor.

I use 3 monitors on windows, so getting gentoo to do the same is one of my last steps.

My new box is low profile and has pci-express instead of AGP, so I can not use my old video cards.

Can anyone recommend a good video card(s) that are well supported for gentoo (kde) using the latest codebase?

3d support is not important for me. (this is primarily a working java & c++ software development system, no games etc)

I could use 2 cards if necessary, using 1 pci and 1 pci-express, or could use a 3 head pci-express is one works well.

Low cost would be nice, but stability and functionality is the most important.

Thoughts?

[Lupin_the_3rd]

Matrox cards are popular amongst the non-3D, multiple monitor crowd. Well supported in Linux too.

Almost any (maybe all?) modern NVidia cards can do dual monitors with ease. (I don't know about three). Also well supported in Linux.

Avoid ATI cards, they're known for old and buggy drivers - Linux users are apparently 2nd class citizens in ATI's eyes.

Do your homework before making a purchase of course, just trying to point you in the right direction here.
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[RoundsToZero]

Since you don't need 3-D, anything that's supported by open source drivers will be fine. nv OSS works fine on all but the most recent cards (and 2-D support is added quickly for them I think). radeon OSS is good for at least up through r300. I don't think you can get three ports on any modern consumer video card (except for Matrox as mentioned which is like $300), but just get two cheap ones. You'll have to use vanilla Xinerama instead of fancy TwinView/MergedFB, but since you don't care able acceleration it won't matter. In fact if you get nVidia, don't even bother with the proprietary drivers. If you get ATI, definitely don't. OSS drivers will be fine for what you want and you won't have any problems with them.