Can I run two different monitors on two different GPUs and able to have a duplicate/extended screen?

[Sens]

I will be running my 780 ti on my 1440p monitor for gaming, and then I'll be using my 1080p monitor for guides/videos/whatever else I would need during a game or anything. If I hook up the 1080p monitor to my GTX 660, while my 780 ti is hooked up to my 1440p, can I duplicate the screen to both monitors? Like will I be able to see my icon and everything on the 1080p while my 1440p plays a game?

 

[boosted1g]

Yes

 

[delellod123]

you can just hook up both to the 780 ti? why need another GPU?

 

[Sens]

you can just hook up both to the 780 ti? why need another GPU?

Well it would be my current GPU now (660) and the new one (780 ti). The 780 ti only has 3gb of Vram, which I know is enough to support 2 monitors but with games requiring more Vram I'd like to save as much of it as possible.

 

[Sens]

Yes

So I can essentially have my 1080p monitor have a whole separate desktop that I can run applications/browse the web/play a non-graphic intensive game (Plants vs Zombies for example), from my 1440p monitor that will be playing graphic intensive game (Crysis 3 for example) at the same time?

 

[delellod123]

you can just hook up both to the 780 ti? why need another GPU?

Well it would be my current GPU now (660) and the new one (780 ti). The 780 ti only has 3gb of Vram, which I know is enough to support 2 monitors but with games requiring more Vram I'd like to save as much of it as possible.

Only the ram from one GPU will be utilized. Even if both are in ur computer and even if both have a monitor plugged in. The 660 will not to anything. Only take up space. You can dedicate it to physx, but there will be no benefit unless game specifically uses physx. You might as well sell the 660. Cram will not be shared

 

[delellod123]

I mean Vram

 

[k1114]

You can't duplicate to monitors of different res but lots of people extend with different res. Right now I use a 1080p and 1440x900 with 2 gpus (intel and nvidia). Vram gets a bit complicated. The main gpu vram gets used either way for anything that's opened but it is less since it's not showing it. The reason is simple, any gpu acceleration gets processed on the main gpu and there is no way to change it.

 

[Sens]

So I am getting mixed answers here, is it a yes or a no? I just want two separate desktops per screen per GPU, is that possible?

 

[k1114]

Since it sounds like multiple monitors is completely alien to you I'll explain a couple of things. It makes no difference how many gpus you have, it acts the same. There are 2 modes, duplicate and extend. Duplicate will duplicate it and this is looking at exactly the same thing on both. This is mainly used for if you are doing a presentation but you can also use it if you use the same pc from different rooms.

Extend is what you want and let's you do different things on all monitors. You can drag stuff over any monitor so you can have a game on one and browser/whatever on the other. The maximize button maximizes it to a single monitor. Windows will remember which monitor it was maximized on. But there is one caveat; when you select something on the other screen it will minimize a fullscreen game. There is no way around this other than playing in windowed. To get your desktop icons showing on both screens, you'd have to just copy them. Extend does not copy anything and the other screens will just be blank (well besides the wallpaper which you can duplicate or tile). You won't have a taskbar on the other monitor if you are running windows 7. 8 has an option to extend the taskbar but 7 has to use 3rd party apps to do it.

 

[delellod123]

You can't duplicate to monitors of different res but lots of people extend with different res. Right now I use a 1080p and 1440x900 with 2 gpus (intel and nvidia). Vram gets a bit complicated. The main gpu vram gets used either way for anything that's opened but it is less since it's not showing it. The reason is simple, any gpu acceleration gets processed on the main gpu and there is no way to change it.

So I am getting mixed answers here, is it a yes or a no? I just want two separate desktops per screen per GPU, is that possible?

You can do extended desktop or screen mirroring. But it makes no sense to use 2 gpus

 

[k1114]

You can duplicate only if you change the screen res to be the same on both.