confirming that I don't need a crossfire motherboard

[DeadSeaSquirrels]

Ok I'm a real newbie at setting up multiple monitor displays. But I just wanted to confirm that I do not need a crossfire/sli board to run multiple monitors. That in fact, if I did have a crossfire/sli board I would have to explicitly disable that feature to run quad monitors.

I bought two of these cards already:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814161179

and I was hoping to run quad monitors soon, but right now I only have two, and I was going to run them in tandem until I get the extra monitors. But I can't find a motherboard that supports quadcore and also is a crossfire board. So I don't really need a crossfire board I was just hoping to use that feature before i get the other monitors. So will this be a problem?

 

[lopri]

No. The driver control panel will give you an option to enable/disable CF. Disabling CF will let you use all 4 DVI ports to drive 4 displays.

 

[QuixoticOne]

You're correct, not only do you not NEED CF, you must NOT configure its usage if you want to just use it as a 4-head system. The driver has desktop configuration / management options for that sort of setup.

Just beware that not all motherboards that have a x16 *physical size* secondarn PCIE slot actually have enough PCIE lanes routed TO that slot to operate certain high end graphics cards.

For instance my P5K-Deluxe has two x16 physical size PCIE slots, the primary is truly x16 operational, and the secondary actually only has x4 (that is NOT a typographic error) electrical operation. An 8800GT/8800GTX won't even come up in the secondary slot, not even as a basic 2D framebuffer card.

I'm not sure how various other (ATI) cards deal with x16 slots that are LESS THAN x8 in operational electrical configuration. I know the 8600GT will work in the x4 mode slot though it demands an x16 physical slot size to work.

The TYPICAL CF / SLI situation is that you'll have two x16 physical size slots, but one or both of them will revert to x8 width electrical operation if you're using both slots. This is typically compatible with most any GPU board AFAIK. Your main potential problem is if the other slot(s) are less than x8 in capacity.

 

[Billb2]

Originally posted by: DeadSeaSquirrels
I bought two of these cards already:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16814161179

and I was hoping to run quad monitors soon,

What are you waiting for. you can run two monitors off of each of those cards.

 

[DeadSeaSquirrels]

I'm waiting on being able to afford 2 more monitors...

So how would I determine how a motherboard operates those two PCI-E 16x slots? Is there somewhere in the specs that definitively states whether I'd be able to run both cards at native electrical operations?

 

[Billb2]

Originally posted by: DeadSeaSquirrels
I'm waiting on being able to afford 2 more monitors...

So how would I determine how a motherboard operates those two PCI-E 16x slots? Is there somewhere in the specs that definitively states whether I'd be able to run both cards at native electrical operations?

Yes, it will be listed in the specifications for the motherboard.

Just out of curiosity, why do you need 4 monitors?

 

[soccerballtux]

Originally posted by: Billb2

Originally posted by: DeadSeaSquirrels
I'm waiting on being able to afford 2 more monitors...

So how would I determine how a motherboard operates those two PCI-E 16x slots? Is there somewhere in the specs that definitively states whether I'd be able to run both cards at native electrical operations?

Yes, it will be listed in the specifications for the motherboard.

Just out of curiosity, why do you need 4 monitors?

In before you make a self righteous comment along the lines that anybody who has that much money to waste needs to spend it on other things and get a life, or something. I'd love to have 4 monitors for circuit design CAD work.
~~~

@OP, if both PCI-E slots are 16x, the color of the connector will be the same. If one is one color and the other is another color, then one of those is [usually] 4x; even though it fits the 16x sized card.

There's ~10% drop using Xfire with a 16x and 4x. Not massive, but definitely not something to sneeze at.

 

[DeadSeaSquirrels]

It's for day trading software. I am experimenting with day trading a bit. I work in the industry right now, and I am in the beginning stages of trying my hand at day trading. Obviously if I was rich I'd just pick up 2 30" monitors and call it a day. But right now 22" monitors are cheap so that is what I'll be running. I got 2 already and might get 2 more later on if things go well. I might even upgrade to a 30" if things go very well, but we'll see.

I think in my case, I'm impervious to the "getting a life" offense. I'm no using this so I can pretend I'm flying a plane in a flight sim, and need peripheral views.

Edit: I just saw a foxcomm board that was crossfire capable, but with two different colors for the PCI-E 16 slot...is it possible to be a crossfire board but also have PCI-E 16 slots that would run at slower speeds?

 

[soccerballtux]

Aye; take http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813127030 for example; can run Crossfire, but the 2nd slot is 4x; ergo ~10% performance loss (that's what the users there were saying, and is what I seem to recall reading somewhere here).

What Foxconn model was it?

 

[DeadSeaSquirrels]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813186101

Now final question, because the crossfire capability is not really my main concern (I just want to run quad monitors one day), will the dual PCI-E 16x slots still run at a reduced speed when not running crossfire? If not then I guess this whole reduced speed issue is moot for me.

 

[Billb2]

Originally posted by: DeadSeaSquirrels
It's for day trading software. I am experimenting with day trading a bit. I work in the industry right now, and I am in the beginning stages of trying my hand at day trading.

Been there, done that. If you're just trading for yourself as I was you'll find 4 monitors to be, well, overwhelming with the amount of data they spew at you. I had a 4 monitor setup (2 x19"and 2 x 17") and went back to two. You can only use them one at a time and with a fast PC and fast internet you just didn't need that much real estate.

But then, I suppose you have to try it and find out if it'll be good for you.

Yes, there are quite a few boards that have CF, but with 1 x 16 slot and 1 x 8 (or x 4) slot. But then for the type of graphics you'll be looking at, a $20, 16meg PCI card would be more than adequate. Reports, charts and graphs are pretty low res stuff, not anything like games.

 

[v8envy]

You're going to laugh at what I used during my 14-30-90 minute strategy day trading days.

A projector + 2 monitors.

I used the projector on a wall in my office, with tickers and graphs for broad markets and indexes. 1024x768, behind the two monitors. On monitor 1 I would have quotes & news tickers and charts for my current position(s), monitor 2 to run options analysis and other software.

Powered by tv out + vga from my ti4200 plus some ancient PCI video card. That way I could still see broad trends reversing through peripheral vision (woah, wall just went RED!) and focus on what I needed to focus on.

It worked real well until trading burnout.

EDIT: to the OP. You may wish to re-think 2x midrange gaming cards. They're noisy and distracting. Consider some dual headed yet passively cooled 7300GS or 2400 series cards. You don't want to use your trading machine for gaming and vice versa.