Dual Video Cards to run 3 or 4 monitors

[h0llow]

I have a Gigabyte AMD 790 motherboard which has 2 pci express slots. I'm using a nvidia 260 in it right now. Is it possible to add another nvidia video card on the other pci express just to have another monitor on the screen? or would it auto assume crossfire or something and damage it all up? I'm not looking to SLI/crossfire hence obviously the board wont do it. I just like more monitors

 

[ardurren]

i dont think so man, im pretty sure you would only be able to get a visual signal from one at a time (if the 2nd worked at all) i would assume 3 or more interactive screens would require sli

ardurren

 

[ShadowFlash]

You can do what you want using multiple cards, however all windows OS's after XP require using the same driver applied to each card, but not neccesarily the exact same hardware. I know this isn't much of an issue with nvidia. The slicker way to go however is....
http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/gxm/th2go/
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815106011
At $300, it is a bit pricey, but the benefits outweigh the cost IMHO. This will allow you to seemlessly blend all the monitors into 1 screen, which will work on most, if not all games for some ridiculous widescreen gaming. Check youtube for demos. With this, you have the added benefit of going full SLI ( or Xfire ) later for performance, instead of dealing with multiple non-SLI cards, and the headaches that go with it. Just make sure to get the "digital edition", as the anaolg one dosen't support higher resolutions.

 

[IzzyCraft]

You can just get another nvidia card something like a pci card doesn't even have to be pcie slap it in there and set up a master and slave. One card more or less does all the calculations the other just does rendering for 1 2 of those monitors.

Funny you say would need sli considering up until just last winter sli didn't even support dual monitors although if you want a game to stretch all the way across the screens sli is recommended.

 

[ShadowFlash]

Multiple cards are a very cost effective option, and yes it definately works. I don't know why ardureen would think that SLI would be needed, as that pretty much kills the ability to do this. The main benefits of the matrox, are the ability to span games, not wasting a slot, running your card in the "single display" performance mode instead of dual display mode, giving the option to go SLI later if desired, and the nifty bezel management feature. It all depends on what you want to use all those monitors for. for everyday tasks, a simple additional card will do, but for app spanning ( and gaming ) a triplehead2go can't be beat. The only thing I don't know is whether an additional card used for simply displaying more monitors could also be used as a dedicated physics engine. If money is a factor, get the cheap additional card now, upgrade to the tiplehead2go later, and use the 2nd card for physics then.

 

[ardurren]

You can just get another nvidia card something like a pci card doesn't even have to be pcie slap it in there and set up a master and slave. One card more or less does all the calculations the other just does rendering for 1 2 of those monitors.

Funny you say would need sli considering up until just last winter sli didn't even support dual monitors although if you want a game to stretch all the way across the screens sli is recommended.

my response was purely speculation i apologize that the info was obviously innacurate but i did not claim to be certain at all..

 

[h0llow]

yeaa i heard about that product.. its pretty cool. but yes the price is up there. im probably going to end up buying a cheap pcie gfx card. i just wasn't sure if anything would get damaged since its two nvidia cards going into a AMD 790 bridge mobo. lol as long as my gtx260 is used for games and having 2 vid cards for 3-4 monitors to do other things with. then im happy

 

[EQPlayer]

Yeah, just slap like a 9400GT in there and you should be good.

 

[Onus]

What 790 board do you have? If it has integrated HD3300 graphics, you can use that in addition to your existing GPU to display on another monitor.

 

[ShadowFlash]

What 790 board do you have? If it has integrated HD3300 graphics, you can use that in addition to your existing GPU to display on another monitor.

You could try it, but mixing nvidia and AMD never really works out right. In XP it might work OK, but not in Vista. I think it's possible in Win7, but I've never tried it. I've seen it discussed a bunch of times here at tom's....
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/264249-33-graphics-cards

 

[h0llow]

Its a Gigabyte GA-MA790GP-UD4H.. but i have a old 6800 i can slap in so I'm good .. or if i really want to.. ill buy a cheezy 9500 so I'll have two DVI's to work off of from a decently good card.