3D acceleration in second monitor?

[podspi]

I've been out of the graphics card market for a while (haven't had much time to play games) and recently picked up a Radeon 5670 to play Bioshock and a few other games on. I have a dual-monitor setup, with the 2nd LCD hooked up through my IGP -- a Radeon 4290. The last dual monitor setup I had was a Geforce Ti 4200 + Radeon 7500, so I was relieved (and surprised) when Aero still worked.



I was more surprised when I found out I could play a windowed game (Bioshock, specifically) between screens, on different graphics cards. I know the Radeon 4290 doesn't support Crossfire with the 5670 -- so how does this work? I was expecting no Aero and a black box on the 2nd monitor...😵

Not that I'm complaining 😎 Technology sure has come a long way...

 

[timma]

disable on board IGP,just use 5670 for dual monitor~

 

[podspi]

disable on board IGP,just use 5670 for dual monitor~

The 5670 doesn't have a 15-pin D-sub port, so that really isn't practical. The setup is working perfectly, I'm more interested in how 😕

 

[mizzou]

The 5670 doesn't have a 15-pin D-sub port, so that really isn't practical. The setup is working perfectly, I'm more interested in how 😕

You can drag windows just fine but without software ( softth) or hardware support, you wont be doing or shouldnt be getting resolution fullscreen options including your extra display
Dont know exactly how or why, but its nothing new i dont think.

I had a similar setup vefore, just with an old 6600gt

I beleive your main card still handles the processing ? Im pretty sure there is no graphical benefit like x fure when u have a setup lke that, at least i didnt

 

[NoQuarter]

Pretty sure the card handling the rendering sends the video buffer over the PCI-e bus to the IGP so you are able to cross the window between the 2 monitors. I think the answer is in the Desktop Windows Manager.