can i have dual monitors on 1 gtx 660?

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terminator123

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Sep 16, 2014
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okay i like to play arma 3 and other games

so if i run two monitors on my GTX 660 will it affect my gameplay performance or fps or no? or can i run another monitor on onboard
 
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terminator123

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Sep 16, 2014
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so gaming with two monitors on 1 graphics card will be fine?
I only want to run arma 3 on 1 MONITOR.
and the other monitor on WEB browsing and notepad

is this okay and will it work fine with two monitors dude?
 
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menetlaus

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Jul 19, 2007
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I think we are both right depending on the use.

If two monitors and game is being displayed on both (3840 x 1080 - 2 x 1080P displays side by side) - big FPS hit vs single 1080P.

If two monitors and game is being displayed on one with static/windows content on the other one - then negligible FPS hit - though might have some ram issues if game is using heavy AA/AF and less than 1GB available to the GPU.
 
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MeteorsRaining

MeteorsRaining

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VRAM is NOT an issue with non-gaming monitor. Unless the GPU needs to render frames (which it hasn't have to do so vigorously with secondary monitor), it will not affect FPS in any way. You can keep a secondary 1440p monitor running Youtube at same time while running Crysis3 on primary 1080p and you'll not see any considerable frame drops. 1-2 FPS maybe.

You can't game on two monitors at the same time, imagine where the cursor will be in FPS games. You however can mirror the game's image on secondary, which again will not take away VRAM as it's just a copy paste and nothing's being computed. A 128MB video card can run a 1440p monitor just fine, VRAM becomes an issue while gaming, where GPU needs space for data to be put quickly for rendering and developing frames and transmitting it to the monitor. When not gaming, it just needs to pass on the data and frames to the monitor, which doesn't take any considerable amount of VRAM.
 
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menetlaus

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VRAM absolutely could be an issue, multi-monitor or not. Case in point, if (Game X) needs 2.3GB of VRAM in game to render a 1440P scene with 16x AF and 8x AA at ultra settings - a 1GB graphics card is not going to be able to handle it. Same scenario with dual monitors, one for gaming and one non-gaming - you would need more VRAM than you would without the non-gaming monitor so again a 1GB GPU won't be able to do it.

Yes, in the above example the GPU was not able to play the game in either case, but if you tweak the above #'s so the game needs the GPU's full 512MB or 1GB of ram (with a single monitor) then there will be times where running a second non-gaming monitor causes problems due to insufficient VRAM, that didn't occur with only the one monitor in use.

Though if you note, I said *might* have issues *if* the game is using all available VRAM - not that it is a likely scenario, just something to be aware of when making the decision.
 
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Mousemonkey

Mousemonkey

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Sep 3, 2006
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Actually you are totally and completely wrong mate, forget all your pixel counting nonsense as Nvidia don't allow gaming on two monitors. No matter what you do or how many cards you have if you are are using two monitors then the gaming will only run on one of them.
 
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menetlaus

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I will admit, I have never put together a multi monitor setup... but did I buy into a bunch of hype and the following links/quotes are all bull and multi monitor gaming setups can't be done with nVidia hardware? Or... wait a min, just re-read your post - are you saying that SLI doesn't exist to allow use of multiple GPU's (to drive multi monitor setups)?

"Once it became clear that 3D gaming simply wasn’t going to be the Next Big Thing, NV decided to switch focus and develop its own multi-monitor solutions." quoted from: http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/149864-triple-monitor-madness-gtx-titan-gtx-680-and-radeon-7970-go-head-to-head-at-5760x1080

"How To Setup NVIDIA Surround on GeForce 600 Series GPUs." Article posted on http://www.geforce.com/whats-new/guides/how-to-correctly-configure-geforce-gtx-680-surround#1 and contains quote "it is now possible to run an entire Surround setup on just the one graphics card. In this guide, we’ll show how to correctly configure 2D Surround and 3D Vision Surround systems using all available ports and connectors, and combinations of video cards, be that one card, two cards in 2-Way SLI, or three cards in 3-Way SLI."

Google has many, many more similar links.
 
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menetlaus

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To actually answer OP's question, you most likely will not notice any performance difference between arma 3 with only a single monitor attached to the system and if playing arma 3 (or really any game) on the same system setup with a second monitor showing the desktop/internet or other simple 2D content.

It is not 100% certain (at least not in my mind) but not something I would really worry about. A 660 GTX is not that powerful a card by current standards so the graphics settings (AA/AF being the biggest VRAM users) aren't likely to be turned up high enough to make it run out of VRAM. Even if it did, turn AA or AF down a step and that would free up enough to allow the addition of a second monitor.
 
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MeteorsRaining

MeteorsRaining

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menetlaus, Monkey is not saying you can't put surround setup from a single card. He's saying you can't play game on 2 monitor setup, since, surround allows 3, 5, 7 monitor setup, 2 is not an option. AMD allows 3, 5, 6, 7 monitor setup, surround on 2 is not an option and the idea itself is conflicting. Imagine where the cursor would be on shooter games with 2 monitors :)
 
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terminator123

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Sep 16, 2014
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Oh right okay then well thanks! Ill plan on getting a monitor then! if it comes to the worse ill just send it back i guess..
 
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MeteorsRaining

MeteorsRaining

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You're wrong, again. Secondary monitor will not take up VRAM. If you can play Ultra on 1080p, you can hook up a couple 1440p secondary and not difference ANY difference in games. Unless you game on the other 1440p monitors, you will not need extra VRAM for them.
 
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terminator123

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Sep 16, 2014
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Oh right okay cool well ill look into still buying a secondary then if im not going to have any performance/or not much performance loss in gaming :) thanks.

 
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