1 Good card or 2 ok cards? DVI vs DisplayPort

[TLE0629]

Hey all,

I am looking to build my own computer and will be using two monitors. I have been looking at the 5830 with two DVI ports on the card. I am not a heavy gamer. Question - which would be better - the 5830 with two DVI ports (~$250) or two cheaper cards that would equal the $250? The reason I ask, going with two cards, I could use the displayport for each monitor.
So, better card with 2 DVI ports or 2 cheaper cards to make use of the display ports?
I am looking at the NEC EA231wmi monitors.
Also the i7-930 with the ASRock58 Extreme MB.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Todd

 

[jay2tall]

If you are not a heavy gamer I wouldn't bother with a 5830. The 5770 is a nice mainstream card to get and is much smaller and uses much less power than the 5830. It is also around $150. Honestly, I would never run more than one card in my system unless I had to. I also don't believe there is really a graphical advantage to using displayport over DVI or HDMI. So use one display port and pick another output for the 2nd monitor. Seeing you are getting IPS panels, you probably won't be doing much gaming anyways. 14MS might not be the best experience in fast paced games. IPS panels are usually used more for graphics programs because of their color accuracy and their awesome picture.

If you are not doing any gaming and do not intend to. You may want to look into a workstation card. Depending on what applications you are using they may take advantage of those features. Workstation card drivers are better at rendering images and can actually outperform highend desktop cards in certain areas. The FX580 has 2 displayport outputs just for you.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133273
http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_quadro_fx_580_us.html