Can someone recommend a cheap mac graphics card so that I can add a third monitor? I don't need any fancy 3d acceleration. I really just want to store ichat, rss feeds, and twitter on this other monitor. The computer in question is a Mac Pro (tower).
3 Answers
I use the Gefen USB to DVI adapter (which uses the DisplayLink chip) to add a 3rd display to my MacBook Pro. It works great!
http://www.gefen.com/kvm/dproduct.jsp?prod_id=4517
DisplayLink Mac drivers are here:
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When you do Expose effects (like showing all windows), does the framerate suffer? Or is that fine?– weotchFeb 4, 2010 at 18:29
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I just tried Expose and it works fine on the 3rd monitor. The latest DisplayLink drivers are much improved. You don't want to run video on the 3rd monitor and you'll notice some lag when you drag windows around quickly, but it works fine for web browsers, text editors, mail, etc. Feb 5, 2010 at 3:17
To expand upon Nifle's answer (I don't have comment privileges yet)...
A USB-to-DVI adapter is a good solution if you are going to be primarily using the 3rd monitor for office type uses (email, word processing, browsing, twitter, etc). For example, gaming would not be a good use for a USB-to-DVI adapter.
Also, if you go this route you will want an adapter based on a DisplayLink chip.
You could use an external USB graphics card.
A quick Google search turns up quite a lot of hits. One obvious advantage is that it's practically guaranteed to work in your next computer too.