Can SLI be turned off and on?

[crypton]

I'm looking at upgrading my computer. I will primarily (90% of the time) be using it for development (Visual Studio, PhotoShop, Macromedia Flash, SQL Server, etc) and most will be open at the same time, so I'm looking to get 4 monitors.

My plan was to get a mb with two pcie 16 slots, and get 2 dual head cards, which would give me 4 monitors. My question is, is there a way to disable 3 of these monitors and then run teh two graphics cards in SLI mode? This would be awsome for the 10% of the time I'll be playign games. I"m looking for an easy switch, like software, rather than having to boot up into the bios every time I make a change.

Thanks!

 

[chuckshissle]

Yes you can.

There should be an option in the display menu of the graphics card you are using. I'm using BFG 7800GTX SLI with 84.21 forceware and I can find it in the "performance and quality" settings, under it a selection of "hardware accelaration" of either want "single display" mode or "muliple display" mode wether running 2 to 4 monitors. It's all I have to do when switching, but now I only use one LCD.

But I think that varies on the brand/model and the forceware you are using. I'm refering the method based on my BFG 7800GTX SLi with 84.21 forceware.

Here's what mine looks.

 

[sirheck]

yes i can do it with my asus a8n32sli deluxe mobo through
nv display.

but i have a msi k8neo4sli mobo that has a switch card
which requires removal of one or both of the gpu,s to switch.

most newer mobo,s dont have this card anymore.

 

[crypton]

Thanks so much for your quick and detailed reply, I really appreciate it. Are you pretty happy with the BFG 7800GTX SLI? I could probably budget 2 of those into my system, although it might be overkill since I probably won't play any of the games that would get close to using all the features.

 

[chuckshissle]

The 7800GTX is fine, but the 7900GT or X1800XT is better for it outperforms the year old 7800GTX and also it's the same price or cheaper. I use SLI since I run all games 4xAA and highest quality settings.