Unusual Graphics Card question

[mirrion]

So, it's my understanding, with some browsing, that it IS possible to run 2 different graphics cards in the same motherboard to effectively add additional output for your PC (as long as you're not on Vista).

I'm wondering, if anyone can shed some light on this:

I'm about to order a new Video card (Nvidia 460 GTX) to replace my current one (9600 GT). The 9600 is finally getting a little sluggish on a few games, so it's time to step up (I'm already running far superior hardware otherwise).

Is it possible that if I run both Cards in Windows 7, I can allocate each card's resources to a task?

I'm not looking to SLI link them and combine their power, I'm hoping to give each card a task (I presume by which monitor the task defaults to, or is opened on), and run two things without spreading it across one card. For instance, if I'm running WoW or Black Ops on my primary, can I run HD video on the secondary? I've found in cases where your card is given a task (such as game) additional tasks will not utilize the card (run a DVD in Power DVD, check the settings while you're running a game and in most cases, you no longer have Hardware DVD accelleration). Rather than put this decoding strain on my processor, can I delegate it to the the second card?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[Gman450]

I'm running WoW or Black Ops on my primary, can I run HD video on the secondary

I am not sure of that, but I do know that your GTX 460 can be used for graphics in a game and the 9600 GT can be used for Physx, so that it doesn't put much stress on your primary one

PS: Only if the game supports physx, it would be great such as Mafia 2, a heavy physx game.

So my final answer, yes, you can put two Video Cards in the same mobo.

 

[mirrion]

I'm running WoW or Black Ops on my primary, can I run HD video on the secondary

I am not sure of that, but I do know that your GTX 460 can be used for graphics in a game and the 9600 GT can be used for Physx, so that it doesn't put much stress on your primary one

PS: Only if the game supports physx, it would be great such as Mafia 2, a heavy physx game.

So my final answer, yes, you can put two Video Cards in the same mobo.

Yeah, I'd thought as much. The PhysX answer gives me hope this might be viable. I'm also not certain exactly how the 460 decodes video anyway, I know some of the older 6 and 7 series Geforce cards actually decoded video off the GPU and didn't generally suffer from only being able to single-task Video Decoding and 3D rendering. The 460 is also overkill for most of my game (CoD games, being the exception), so it may not really ultimately be an issue with a single video card. I just know I like to have something playing on the second monitor when I'm waiting on something in a game.