Nvidia, one of the world's largest graphics card manufacturers just released two new cards, the Quadro4 400 NVS (4-display ports) and the Quadro4 200 NVS (2-display ports), that are aimed at traders in the financial community. They support Microsoft Windows XP, 2000, Me and NT operating systems, have been fully tested with all major financial applications and are optimized to work with Intel and AMD computer configurations. These cards use the latest in technology, which supports either flat panels or analog CRT displays.

I installed one of the Quadro4 400 NVS cards for 4-display monitors on my computer, and it was fairly simple. I opened my computer and took out the old graphics card and inserted the new Nvidia card into a PCI slot on the computer's motherboard. I closed the computer and connected cables from the card to my four monitors. I then turned the computer on, and MS Windows recognized the card as new hardware and asked for a hardware driver. I inserted the Nvidia CD and instructed MS windows to go to that CD to get the hardware driver.

I initiated software installation by clicking the Nvidia setup icon on the CD. I was guided through the software setup with several questions and options, and it took approximately 20 minutes to complete. I set the color display configuration to True Color (32-bit) and screen resolution to 1280 by 1024 pixels. This was the natural resolution of the monitors I was using. It's possible to set the color mode and screen resolution independently for each monitor. This would be advisable if you use differently sized monitors.

When I used this graphics card, the four screens connected to my computer became one large screen. I could open any program and drag it across the screens with my mouse and place it anywhere. I had four screens to display various eSignal trading charts, news and quote screens. I even had room to display a chat room, spreadsheets and my order execution program for trading, all at one time!

What I liked about this multi-monitor card is its flexibility. A trader can start out with either the 2- or 4-port display card and, at a later time, can install additional cards for a maximum of 16 monitors, depending on available slots in his/her computer.

The screens displayed from this card were stable and crystal clear for excellent multi-monitor viewing. Once you use a multi-monitor system like this for trading, you'll never be satisfied with a one-monitor system again!

For more information, go to www.tradersworld.com. Larry Jacobs' articles also appear in Traders World magazine, and he can be contacted via email at publisher@tradersworld.com.