I just picked up a 3rd monitor. I'll have 1 lcd widescreen in the center, and two regular format lcd monitors on either side.
I currently have an EVGA Nvidia 8800gtx card, and understand I need to pickup another PCI-Express video card.

I sort of prefer to get another nvidia, so I dont need to worry about driver issues and such. Ive read they can be bridged, and in most cases a slower card can be used. I dont recall the numbers but I believe my 2nd pci-express bus is slower than the one the 8800gtx is currently in.

so, how do I go about doing this? get an nvidia slower card? (recommendations?) bridge them? or dont bridge them?
etc

If by "bridge" you mean SLi, you can't SLi different cards.

If you've got a slower slot (i.e. on my board lane #1 is x16, #2 is x4) it'll be fine.

I just grabbed a cheap 6600GT from eBay and then put that in the other slot for the second monitor.

Thanks...
so running two cards in sli mode has no advantage/disadvantage from running two card (not in sli) when using sftth for 3 monitor setup?

Im currently running two monitors off the 8800gtx (I only 'use' one monitor for lfs though)

SLi = Max of two monitors.

You can't SLi two different cards anyway.

It won't help your current situation.

Thats what I needed to know.
So I will go with nvidia, to keep both cards in the same family. Heck maybe I can always sli them later when theyre super outdated.

I will run them separate for 3 monitors.

thanks.

Uh SLi now does multi monitor now so you can use all the four ports. Look it up in google. Newer driver revisions do support the feature. And jack is right on one thing you can only go sli on the same family like for instance you can go sli on two 9800gtx's, 2 8800gt and so forth and so on. Getting 2 cards to run like a 9800gt and a 8880gts (G92) is technically possible but no better performance boost what so ever(maybe minor but that's just it basically).

EDIT: go here http://forums.guru3d.com/ and lots of people with sli know-how will help you out with your current situation

Quote from anik360 :

Uh SLi now does multi monitor now so you can use all the four ports. Look it up in google. Newer driver revisions do support the feature. And jack is right on one thing you can only go sli on the same family like for instance you can go sli on two 9800gtx's, 2 8800gt and so forth and so on. Getting 2 cards to run like a 9800gt and a 8880gts (G92) is technically possible but no better performance boost what so ever(maybe minor but that's just it basically).

EDIT: go here http://forums.guru3d.com/ and lots of people with sli know-how will help you out with your current situation

You can multi-monitor - but still only run 2 monitors with SLi.

If you get another 8800GTX, you'll pay £130, and get no performance increase over a 6600GT. If you want to SLi your slower second lane will hold you back.

Spend £15 on a second hand GFX card and save the £115 for another upgrade.

maybe I should wait for another gfx card release or get a 4890 although my 8800gt with 670/1000/1700 oc is dancing with crysis with moded cfg's nicely . Hey jack maybe you should OC yours

EDIT: should have mentioned the crossfire bit though....

I actually tried to flash mine to become a 9800GT the other day

I would OC - but if the most demanding things I do are LFS and BF2 I can't see a point.