• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

dual video cards in Asus P5W

A

arossphoto

Junior Member
I want to build a new system and the primary use will be Photoshop and other 2D imaging apps. I had planned on using the P5W DH Deluxe motherboard and an Intel Core 2 Duo CPU.

I will also be running two CRT monitors and I would like to colour calibrate both of them. From what I understand I need two separate cards to do this. The sales person at my local shop says if I want to run two cards in the P5W they both have to be Crossfire. Does anybody know if this is absolutely true? Can't I run two standard PCI-Express cards in this motherboard?

Since I'm not into gaming or 3D apps I don't want to spend a fortune on video cards.

Any advice would be much appreciated. The video card is the only thing stopping me from building this system.

Thanks,

Andrew
 
They must both work with Crossfire, and for some models, one of them must be a Crossfire master card. And of course they must be the same model.

I think.
 
I appreciate the quick replies, but this really sucks! So, just to confirm, if I'm running one card it can be any old PCI-Express card or SLI or Crossfire. But it I want to run two cards, even it's it's just for Photoshop, I have to spring for two expensive identical Crossfire cards?

Does anybody know of any SLI motherboards that have all the features of the P5W?

Thanks.
 
The nForce 500 boards are releasing in a week or so and will have all the features of the P5W and then some. It will feature SLI.
 
Does anybody know anything about HIS video cards? I've been searching for an inexpensive Crossfire card that is quiet and I found this one that fits the bill:

HIS Radeon X1300 Pro iSilence

I know the Radeon X1300 chip gets good reviews, but I've never heard of HIS and I can't find much info on them.
 
Originally posted by: iAtticus
The nForce 500 boards are releasing in a week or so and will have all the features of the P5W and then some. It will feature SLI.
Click to expand...

Is there any info available online for specific boards that would be worth waiting for?

Thanks.
 
The 975X chipset from intel is hardware compatible with SLI as well as crossfire. As for drivers, only the crossfire is compatible. There are hacked drivers out there that allow SLI cards to be used on the 975X chipset as well.

For your application however, the video cards will not be running in crossfire or SLI, so neither modified drivers nor high end video cards are required. An ATI or Nvidia will run fine.

I would suggest a better videocard than the X1300 though. The X1300 series incorporates hypermemory. This means some of the memory bandwidth which is normally fully dedicated for CPU is now split between the CPU and the video card. This will slow down overall system performance. Unless there's a budgetary limitation that prevents you from using any higher end videocards, I suggest you go with midrange cards such as the 7600 or the x1600. Even the 6600 series will be powerful enough if you do not do any gaming.
 
Originally posted by: Talcite
For your application however, the video cards will not be running in crossfire or SLI, so neither modified drivers nor high end video cards are required. An ATI or Nvidia will run fine.
Click to expand...
I'm soooo confused 😕 An earlier poster here said "They must both work with Crossfire" and that's what the guy at the store said as well. I just don't know who to believe, and there doesn't appear to be anyway to contact Asus with technical inquires unless you already own the product.

I know for my applications crossfire and SLI are not important, but how can I confirm that the motherboard will work with two cards that are not crossfire. I also hate to spend a lot of money cards with features that I won't be using.

Originally posted by: TalciteI would suggest a better videocard than the X1300 though. The X1300 series incorporates hypermemory.
Click to expand...

Do all X1300 cards do this? I've looked at few cards that fit my budget and I don't see any mention of hypermemory. If I have to buy two cards I'd like them to be in the $100 range each. I'm also trying to build an energy efficient and quiet machine, so loud fans don't appeal to me either.

Thanks again for all the advice, and I hope I can figure this out soon. I never imagined the video card(s) could be such a pain in the butt!

Cheers,

Andrew






 
Thanks again for all the advice, and I hope I can figure this out soon. I never imagined the video card(s) could be such a pain in the butt!
Click to expand...

Its a PITA because there are so many possible configurations possible. The board manu could do a better job of outlining the feature set, but I am downloading the manual off the ASUS page for the P5W DH deluxe which perhaps spells it out for sure.

*Likely any PCIe graphics card(s) will work fine.
*Crossfire cards are only required for Crossfire support (which doesn't support multiple displays anyway).
*I believe you can Color Caibrate the individual heads to your satisfaction on a single; dual head graphics card anyway, so you'll probably only need 1 card. I can use different color profiles for each monitor, and configure Gamma, Brightness and Contrast for R,G,B for each within the Catalyst drivers for each as well.
*X1300 cards come in a variety of memory configurations w/ and without turbo cache IIRC (I think only the IGP version is the only one that can have no local memory at all)

I'll look over the manual (and suggest you do as well) and see if I see any specifics.
 
From the motherboard manual;

Non-Crossfire mode

*Orange slot (PCIe16x_1) PCIe x16 graphics card; speed X8
*Black slot (PCIe16x_2) Other PCIe x16 card; speed X8** (dual screen)

** The speed of the primary PCIe X16 slot (PCIeX16_1) changes to x8 mode after you install any device in the secondary PCIe slot (PCIeX16_2).

---------------------------------------------------------------

Looks like any 2) PCIeX16 cards will work (if you even need 2). I'd get one, if the color calibration isn't sufficient (doubt it, dual head cards are common in graphics workstations) grab another...looks to me any decent dual head PCIe graphics card will work for your needs.
 
You can get a X1600pro for under $100. ATI also has just come out with the X1300XT which is actually better than the 1600pro and cheaper too. The new X1650pro would be the best perforning cheap option as it is still around $100 (The other two cards i mentioned should be $60-$80)
 
Originally posted by: Talcite
The 975X chipset from intel is hardware compatible with SLI as well as crossfire. As for drivers, only the crossfire is compatible. There are hacked drivers out there that allow SLI cards to be used on the 975X chipset as well.

For your application however, the video cards will not be running in crossfire or SLI, so neither modified drivers nor high end video cards are required. An ATI or Nvidia will run fine.

I would suggest a better videocard than the X1300 though. The X1300 series incorporates hypermemory. This means some of the memory bandwidth which is normally fully dedicated for CPU is now split between the CPU and the video card. This will slow down overall system performance. Unless there's a budgetary limitation that prevents you from using any higher end videocards, I suggest you go with midrange cards such as the 7600 or the x1600. Even the 6600 series will be powerful enough if you do not do any gaming.
Click to expand...

yep...975x chipset supports both sli and crossfire.
 
Originally posted by: rbV5

Looks like any 2) PCIeX16 cards will work (if you even need 2). I'd get one, if the color calibration isn't sufficient (doubt it, dual head cards are common in graphics workstations) grab another...looks to me any decent dual head PCIe graphics card will work for your needs.
Click to expand...

Thanks very much. That's what I wanted to do, but I didn't want to buy one card now and then find out that I had to buy two different cards later.

I read lots of complaints about loud fans on many of these cards. Is it possible to upgrade the fans if I find it's a problem?
 
Originally posted by: arossphoto
Originally posted by: rbV5

Looks like any 2) PCIeX16 cards will work (if you even need 2). I'd get one, if the color calibration isn't sufficient (doubt it, dual head cards are common in graphics workstations) grab another...looks to me any decent dual head PCIe graphics card will work for your needs.
Click to expand...

Thanks very much. That's what I wanted to do, but I didn't want to buy one card now and then find out that I had to buy two different cards later.

I read lots of complaints about loud fans on many of these cards. Is it possible to upgrade the fans if I find it's a problem?
Click to expand...

Its certainly possible, however a quick search turned up a number of ATI X1300/Nvidia 7300GT models with passive cooling (Heatsink only) if you have decent case cooling, thats the way to go if noise is an issue.

I noted that even the models using turbocache look to have sufficient onboard memory to drive any CRT panel at full resolution so you wouldn't need to rule them out. If you are rendering high resolution video at all, you still may want to avoid those models as many also seem to have narrower 64bit data path for the memory bus which could perhaps be an issue, but there were plenty of sub $100 models with even 256 MB onboard memory and passive cooling to pick from.

 
Originally posted by: secretanchitman
Originally posted by: Talcite
The 975X chipset from intel is hardware compatible with SLI as well as crossfire. As for drivers, only the crossfire is compatible. There are hacked drivers out there that allow SLI cards to be used on the 975X chipset as well.

For your application however, the video cards will not be running in crossfire or SLI, so neither modified drivers nor high end video cards are required. An ATI or Nvidia will run fine.

I would suggest a better videocard than the X1300 though. The X1300 series incorporates hypermemory. This means some of the memory bandwidth which is normally fully dedicated for CPU is now split between the CPU and the video card. This will slow down overall system performance. Unless there's a budgetary limitation that prevents you from using any higher end videocards, I suggest you go with midrange cards such as the 7600 or the x1600. Even the 6600 series will be powerful enough if you do not do any gaming.
Click to expand...

yep...975x chipset supports both sli and crossfire.
Click to expand...

I keep reading about these "hacked drivers" that support SLI for 975X chipsets, but does anyone actually have them or know where to get them?

 
Originally posted by: arossphoto
Does anybody know anything about HIS video cards? I've been searching for an inexpensive Crossfire card that is quiet and I found this one that fits the bill:

HIS Radeon X1300 Pro iSilence

I know the Radeon X1300 chip gets good reviews, but I've never heard of HIS and I can't find much info on them.
Click to expand...


HIs is ATi but but HIS is made in europe I think

most of the time they use better vga coolers

edit: why would you want to crossfire those cards anyways :?
 
you DO NOT need SLI or crossfire.

You can install the 2 video cards without having SLI or crossfire enabled.

SLI and crossfire use 2 GPUs to drive on display for faster gaming performance, IIRC you cant even use dual displays with either one.

You have to install 2 cards and use them seperately, so you dont want crossfire or SLI.
 
Originally posted by: w00t
edit: why would you want to crossfire those cards anyways :?
Click to expand...

It wasn't my idea, and I was obviously given the wrong information by salespeople and posters on various forums, including this one (see the first response to my original post).

I honestly didn't even know what Crossfire was. I just want to run two monitors for photoshop use and I've been told that if I want to colour calibrate both monitors I need two separate cards. Maybe people didn't read or understand my question, but as soon as I started talking about two cards in the P5W all the initial replies I received from various sources said I needed two identical Crossfire cards.

Thanks to everyone who clarified this for me.

Cheers,

Andrew

 
Originally posted by: arossphoto
I honestly didn't even know what Crossfire was.
Click to expand...

You're on Anandtech. There are some very good articles about it in Video.

Any modern graphics card should be able to "dual-head" two CRTs, providing it has a combination of 2 D-sub or DVI outputs (DVI outputs can be converted to D-sub by an adaptor). Both ATi and NVidia drivers include special features for all the different ways of handling 2 screens from the same GPU. Installing a second graphics card (of any variety) would allow you to handle more than 2 screens.

An x1300 series card should be fine for Photoshop/2D work.
 
Originally posted by: betasub
Any modern graphics card should be able to "dual-head" two CRTs, providing it has a combination of 2 D-sub or DVI outputs (DVI outputs can be converted to D-sub by an adaptor). Both ATi and NVidia drivers include special features for all the different ways of handling 2 screens from the same GPU. Installing a second graphics card (of any variety) would allow you to handle more than 2 screens.

An x1300 series card should be fine for Photoshop/2D work.
Click to expand...

Support for two monitors is one thing, the other question that I'm trying to solve is the calibration and creation of separate and unique profiles for each monitor. I use the Monaco Optix XR calibration device and software, and according to their support forums you must have two separate video cards to do this. However, other people have told me that this information is dated and is not necessarily applicable to PCI-Express cards.

Here's a post from another photography related forum: "if the graphics card driver exposes each output as a discrete adapter (as ATI tends to do) they will work fine. The fundamental problem is when a card exposes itself as a single adapter with two outputs - then it's difficult to configure different profiles for each."

So now I guess I have to find out how you determine if the "graphics card driver exposes each output as a discrete adapter".

I've been looking for good, passively cooled, cards with dual dvi outputs and this Asus card seems to be one of the best.

<a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?l1=2&l2=6&l3=0&model=1097&modelmenu=1">
EN7600GT SILENT/2DHT/256M</a>

Any comments on this card? I think it's overkill at the moment, but it may mean I won't have to worry about upgrades in the future when I move to LCD monitors. If both monitors can be calibrated it might be worth the investment. However, it they can't, and I find out later that I have to buy a second card to calibrate two monitors, it's way too expensive.

Thanks.

 
I checked out the Monaco calibration site and forums. I noted they listed 2 cards or more required for dual monitor calibration on a windows platform, and one or more on a Mac platform.

They also mention LUT support for the video card's drivers. I ran the LUT utility from Sequel Imaging and my x1800 CF edition card supports LUT downloads with Catalyst 6.8 drivers.

I read a post from 2004 regarding a Matrox Parhelia and calibrating 3 displays in windows. The reply stated that you can't do it on a windows platform due to the fact that windows doesn't support multiple color profiles on a single card....however,

Like you already alluded to in your post, Catalyst drivers show each individual head seperately. Using standard windows color management tools in Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 advanced display properties, I can load a seperate color profile for each connected monitor (3 in my case currently). I would assume you could use the profiles generated by Optix XR for each display.

I use multiple displays with this PC when Crossfire is not enabled (Crossfire does not support multiple displays.)

Currently I have 2) Radeon X1800 cards installed on ASUS A8R-MVP (ati chipset) The X1800 primary Crossfire Edition card has a 22" CRT and a 17" LCD (connected analog) and the X1800 XT has a 55" CRT RPTV connected using YPbPR

Still not a definative answer, but it at least appears it may be possible to use a single dual head card and calibrate each head seperately. I'm not familiar with current Nvidia or Matrox drivers.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top