holzer Posted February 22, 2005 Share Posted February 22, 2005 i just recently upgraded my pc with a geforce 6600gt with dual dvi (PCIe) and 2 flatscreens. for the mainboard, it had to be an asus and an nforce4 so i had to go with the a8n-sli, which offers 2 PCIe x16 slots, but i don't intend to ever use the sli feature. however, i am planning to buy an lcd projector soon, with dvi input ofcourse. so what i would like to do is the following:geforce 6600 -> connected to one tft and the projector, in clone mode, for gaming and videoanother (cheap) gpu in the 2nd slot -> connected to the other tft, only to extend my windows desktop ontodoes anyone have experience with this kind of setup? is it possible at all? i know in the good old agp days it was possible to add a pci card.. any help would be greatly appreciated Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XtremeMaC Posted February 23, 2005 Share Posted February 23, 2005 yes it is possiblei've done this myself, nvidia's control panel is pretty good at focusing programs on certain monitors. u can easily configure itmy friend who teaches at school does that, well he doesn't play games but monitor #1 he has a pdf up and on the other side he has vs.net everythings fine but things get messed up on screen saver for some reason....ow wait totally got it wrong, u have 2 cards, hmm i dunno but i do still think u should be able to do that, well u can just do it with 1 card u know.how much ram and cpu do u have anyways, its not an easy thing to process the game and other activities, and actually while u're on the game u cannot really use your desktop unless u pause or something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
puntoMX Posted February 23, 2005 Share Posted February 23, 2005 It will work, just not in SLI mode. It´s the same as putting 2 diferent PCI VGA cards in one system . Also you don´t need a PCI-E card for your second VGA card.One thing; to avoid problems use cards that can use the same driver... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
puntoMX Posted February 23, 2005 Share Posted February 23, 2005 how much ram and cpu do u have anyways, its not an easy thing to process the game and other activities, and actually while u're on the game u cannot really use your desktop unless u pause or something.<{POST_SNAPBACK}>Most games will disable "normal" functions of keyboard and mouse. Only by swithing between programs you will be able to use the second screen.But what holzer likes to say I think, is that he likes to use one for playing and when he´s not playing use both for his desktop and other programs (correct me if I´m wrong). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
holzer Posted February 23, 2005 Author Share Posted February 23, 2005 But what holzer likes to say I think, is that he likes to use one for playing and when he´s not playing use both for his desktop and other programs (correct me if I´m wrong).that's what i meant indeed. or well maybe i'd like to have messenger open on the other screen just to keep an eye on it but with an a64 3500+ and 2gb of ram i think i should be able to pull that off It will work, just not in SLI mode. It´s the same as putting 2 diferent PCI VGA cards in one system . Also you don´t need a PCI-E card for your second VGA card.how sure are you about this? not that i don't trust you it's just that i'd like to be 100% positive before spending another 100 euros on a gpu.. in non-sli mode, it's only a x1 slot, i know the bandwidth will do for 2D, but could it be that cards expect at least x8? is the nvidia driver prepared to run that kind of 3 monitor setup? i know back in the old one-output-card days you could add a pci card for a second screen, but is this the same as one for a third screen?on the other hand, i know in sli mode, you can run 4 screens while not in 3d mode.. hmmm.. maybe i should get another gf6600gt after all?! anyways, thx for your help so far! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mekrel Posted February 23, 2005 Share Posted February 23, 2005 They need to be the same cards to work in SLI, or the same cores (ie 2* 6800GT's) with both the same bios.So say if you had a leadtek and XFX card, you would have to flash one to the others bios.That is the weakness of SLI Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
holzer Posted February 23, 2005 Author Share Posted February 23, 2005 @Mekrel:i know, but that's not the idea.. i just want to add another card to connect the other screen to, i have no interest in the actual sli function. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mekrel Posted February 23, 2005 Share Posted February 23, 2005 Than thats fine, you can put two in aslong asmyou run them as single cards Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
puntoMX Posted February 23, 2005 Share Posted February 23, 2005 how sure are you about this? not that i don't trust you it's just that i'd like to be 100% positive before spending another 100 euros on a gpu.. in non-sli mode, it's only a x1 slot,<{POST_SNAPBACK}>Make that a 16x, SLI 2* 8x max.i know the bandwidth will do for 2D, but could it be that cards expect at least x8? is the nvidia driver prepared to run that kind of 3 monitor setup?<{POST_SNAPBACK}>I don´t know it for 3 monitors, but I think it should show 2 screen properties... I know it works for 2 and 4 monitors. So you want to use 3 monitors, but use 2 as "clone" and 1 as the second one? i know back in the old one-output-card days you could add a pci card for a second screen, but is this the same as one for a third screen?<{POST_SNAPBACK}>Yes, it should be, PCI-E is more simular to PCI then AGP. That´s why there are PCI-E controllers for RAID for example (and more will come out soon).What country are you from? Most countries in Europe give your money back in 10 days or so, so why not test it, you have nothing to lose I think . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
holzer Posted March 1, 2005 Author Share Posted March 1, 2005 Most countries in Europe give your money back in 10 days or so, so why not test it, you have nothing to lose I think .you're right... i would just hate buying the projector and then having to return the card and wait to use the projector till i get another one anyways, after looking at prices for cheap pci-e cards, i think i just might save another 100 and go for the sli after all Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now