2 cards vs 1?

[alinford]

I run 4 1920x1200 monitors, and am looking to do a new build for adobe CS5 apps, and web browsing, with no gaming at all.

Would it be better for me to get a 2gb Radeon 6950 which can handle all 4 monitors, or should I spend the same amount of money, but on 2 1gb cards that can each run 2 monitors? I will be doing new case, mobo, ps, etc, so space for 2 cards should not be an issue.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102929

 

[geofelt]

If you are not gaming, then get a pair of the cheapest cards you can find.
Perhaps a pair of these @$35 each.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130605

If you will be using a sandy bridge cpu, you could use the integrated graphics to power two of the monitors.

 

[alinford]

So, the more expensive cards do not help on photo editing and lots of multi tasking?

 

[geofelt]

So, the more expensive cards do not help on photo editing and lots of multi tasking?

Correct.

Expensive cards are good for fast action displays like first person shooters. They can refresh the display many frames per second.

To display static content like web pages or even hd movies requires only a minimal card.

For CS5 and multitasking get all the ram you can get. Ram is cheap look at 16gb. More of your work product can be kept in ram, avoiding the slower hard drive.

There is a Nvidia capability called CUDA which can be used by some apps to speed up processing. Check to see if your apps have that capability and what the requirements might be.

 

[Jeteroll]

No, generally not. You should buy them to power your 2 monitors. The only other benefit that they could have is to help you with some of the apps that use hardware (GPU) acceleration. If this will help you with your apps, and is available in them, you might want to look into a better card, but otherwise, cheap ones will do. But make sure that you buy plenty of ram, especially if you plan on video editing and rendering in high-def, as this is a very RAM intensive process. Look into getting a good amount, at LEAST 12gb, more is recommended. As for a GPU I would recommend this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102933 they are $37 with a rebate and got good reviews, additionally, they are much better than others at the price range.

 

[alinford]

Is there any advantage to getting dual DVI so that I can plug directly into 4 dvi ports instead of using an adapter on the VGA or HDMI ports for monitors 3 and 4?

 

[DeadT]

I would definitely go for the dual DVI over 1 DVI and 1 VGA. In my experience VGA has a softer (less crisp) output then DVI or HDMI. For some people its not noticeable but I notice it easily. I also always notice compression easily so maybe its just me haha. Anyway I think its worth it.

DT