Dual card setup possible????

[blashyrkh]

Hello everyone, I need your help with something that has been bugging me.
I recently bought an HD monitor so I can enjoy my movies in full 1080p. I got the LG L246WH-BN 24" TFT (really nice monitor).
Here is my question.
I got a 7800GTX which provides zero acceleration to x264 or any other HD format which means that my poor 3800+ single core has to go into overdrive to keep the frames up. Playing 720p, the CPU is at 40-50% while viewing 1080p the CPU is at 90-100%!! I was thinking of buying a 8400GS which provides hardware decoding.
Is it possible to have my 7800 AND a 8400 simultaneusly in my system? I will hook them up both in my monitor (has 3 signal inputs) and possibly switch to the 8400 when viewing video and back to the 7800 for gaming??
Is this possible? Am I making any sense?

Help me please.

P.S. Don't recomend me to buy a new GPU as I spent 460E for the monitor and I'm broke atm.

 

[blashyrkh]

damn it guys!!!
I thought you were all geniuses or something...
I guess I'll have to change my 7800GTX eventually.

 

[evongugg]

http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/02/04/best_cards_february_2008/page7.html#summary

Your 7800 is better than the 8400.
You hook up one video card to one monitor.

 

[geofelt]

Yes, you can, the 7800 and 8400 both use the same NVIDIA driver. I assume you have two pci-e slots so you can add a second card. A PCI slot is also possible, though your choice of cards will be limited. In the bios, you will have to identify the card to be used for booting.

 

[Heyyou27]

Yes you should be able to easily; I run an 8800GTX and an 8600GT for multimonitor use, but your 8400 will have to be the card hooked up to your monitor.

 

[blashyrkh]

But if I have only the 8400 hoocked to the monitor (to provide hardware decoding for HD content), playing games will suck big time!!!
Can't I hook them up both and just switch the signal source from the monitor?
My problem isn't that I want multimonitor. I have one 24" and thats good enough. I just want to play games on my 7800 and watch HD movies on a 8400 so as not to burden the CPU with the decoding since the 7800 has no such feature.

 

[geofelt]

Your plan should work.
Use the monitor input selection option to pick the vga card that you want to work from.
I do not know if the 8400 will offload enough cpu cycles to help enough.
You will need another monitor cable unless it came with the monitor.

Of viewing HD is acceptable now, even at a high cpu cost, then don't do anything, and use the money for something else.

 

[blashyrkh]

Yea, I guess you're right Geofelt.
My 7800 is showing its age so maybe I should invest on a 3870 or maybe a 8800GT which both have hardware decoding for HD, plus twice the performance of my 7800.