Dual Screen Widescreens?

[jcorbin]

I've currently got dual 17" Hitachi LCDs. My second LCD is dying on me slowly (usually won't turn on...have to power on\off a bunch). Since the other LCD must be about 4-5 years old, I think it's time to buy new.

Mostly what I do is CAD and I have found with some of the current electronics cad software, my dual 17" are starting to become rather cluttered. Occasionally, I play a video game like CS:S, but it's not the main thing I do.

I am looking at some benq 20.1" widescreens. I've posted a link below. I'd like to dual two of them (twinview), but I'm not sure if my video card(s) will supprt them. I know each of these widescreens requires 1680x1050 resolution. So total desktop resolution is something like 3360x1050. For video cards, I have two XFX 7800GT 256MB's in SLI. Each one supports 2560x1600.

So are dual video cards additive? IE: could I put one widescreen on each card? Or put both widescreens on my primary? Does the SLI thing screw this up?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824014105

Thanks in advance
James

 

[imported_waldo]

I woul dassumet that sli or one on each would be fine. SLI shouldn't screw it up, but you may get better performance in this situation putting one on each card. But I am not sure you can span the desktop with tath setup.

 

[Amplifier]

It will work no problem, I have the same card/duel monitors.

 

[Matt2]

dual monitors will not work with SLI I thought? I think it will work only if SLI is disabled.

 

[jcorbin]

Originally posted by: Amplifier
It will work no problem, I have the same card/duel monitors.

In your setup, do you plug one monitor into the first card primary and the second monitor into the second card primary?

 

[jcorbin]

Originally posted by: Matt2
dual monitors will not work with SLI I thought? I think it will work only if SLI is disabled.

Yep, as long as the software SLI is disabled, dual monitors work fine. Once you enable SLI, the second monitor will be blanked.

 

[neomits]

Another scenario. Is it possible to have SLI coming off dual 7800GTs and then use a PCI card to run a secondary monitor? Will this allow the use of SLI AND a second monitor?

 

[jcorbin]

I don't want or require SLI to be enabled while I'm dual-monitor-ing so it's a non-issue. I'm just wondering (given the resolution capability) if I will be able to run both off of a single card or I'll have to plug both into the primaries of both cards.

Thanks

 

[pkme2]

My Matrox Parhelia runs 3 LCDs now but I plan to upgrade 2 of the units to a 2405 in a few months. The break between is a little annoying during video editing.
2 LCDs, one for video playback and workspace will fit my needs.