Linux: 3 Monitor PCI-e Graphics card (without tremendous pain)?

Posted by N Rahl on Super User See other posts from Super User or by N Rahl
Published on 2011-01-04T15:42:27Z Indexed on 2011/01/04 15:55 UTC
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As we are all painfully aware, the only way to get multiple monitors AND compositing (Compiz) on Linux is to use a single graphics card that can drive both (or in my case all three) screens.

I bought a Radeon 5750 specifically because it claims to able to drive 3 monitors. I can plug in 3 monitors (2 DVI, 1 HDMI) and the Catalyst Control Center shows all 3, but only 2 can be enabled at a time. I'll post the exact error message here soon, but it's very useless.

So I'm going to assume that either the 5750 doesn't support 3 monitors, OR, more likely, ATI couldn't be bothered to add that support to their Linux drivers.

So this is a multipart question:

First, can anyone suggest a PCI Express Graphics card that can run 3 screens on linux without tremendous pain? I'm looking for something where you install the driver and all three screens "just work". Does such a card exist?

Second, if you have a 5750, have you been able to get it to do 3 monitors?

I'm running Ubuntu 10.04 at the moment.

Thanks, Nick

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