SLI gtx 460's + a non 460?

[Carpy2]

Hey community,

I want to run a 2-way SLI gtx 460 build. But I use two monitors and don't want to run into the problem where my second screen goes black.

Can I plug my gaming monitor into the 460's SLI, then plug my second non-gaming used monitor into a gtx 260 that I just have sitting around?


1. Can I run 2-way SLI'd 460's + a gtx 260 not bridged to the 460's all on one motherboard?

and on a side note:

2. What is a really good gaming mobo ($250 or less) that will support SLI and my Intel i5 2500k?

Thanks,
Michael A

 

[purple stain]

Nvidia cards allow you to hook up a maximum of 2 displays to a single card reguardless of SLI.Why don't you just do that?

If you have a suitable PCI-E lane,then yes.

What is your budget for the mobo?

This is a very nice mobo if the sky's the limit for you..

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131700

But if you weren't planning on ever using the GTX260 as a PhysX card(at all) then you could go cheaper and get a mobo with a x4 slot for the GTX260.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157231

 

[Carpy2]

Nvidia cards allow you to hook up a maximum of 2 displays to a single card reguardless of SLI.Why don't you just do that?

If you have a suitable PCI-E lane,then yes.

What is your budget for the mobo?

This is a very nice mobo.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813188073

But if you weren't planning on ever using the GTX260 as a PhysX card then you could go cheaper and get a mobo with a x4 slot for the GTX260.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157231

The reason I want to SLI 460's is because their performance is very similar to one single gtx 580, yet they are $200 cheaper.
But yeah you think I could do what I mentioned above? Run sli'd 460's and a standalone 260?

 

[ilysaml]

@OP
Man, simply you can use 2 monitors whether you SLI or not, so no need for the 3rd card.

 

[Carpy2]

@OP
Man, simply you can use 2 monitors whether you SLI or not, so no need for the 3rd card.

I know, the problem is when you go fullscreen in a game on one monitor, the other one blacks out. That is a major turn off to me because I use that second monitor be it, vent, walk throughs, build orders, etc, while I play. What I am trying to do is bypass the second monitor going black when you are running SLI.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

It's all here:

http://www.geforce.com/Hardware/Technologies/SLI/faq

Can I add a 3rd graphics card in my 2-way SLI enabled PC to connect more monitors?

Yes, you can add an additional graphics card to your PC to connect two additional monitors. The additional graphics card must have a GPU that is different from your SLI GPUs and must be NVIDIA PhysX capable (GeForce 8 series and higher with at least 256MB of memory). For example, two GeForce GTX 2XX GPUs in SLI and a GeForce 9XXX GT is a supported configuration.

http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=158727&st=0

 

[TheMaristBoy]

Unless you'd want that 260 as a dedicated physx card, so why not? but then again the 3rd card is optional

 

[purple stain]

You can also run whatever fullscreen app your using in windowed mode and stretch it to not show the borders.

 

[Carpy2]

Best answer selected by Carpy2.