Hold my beer while I try this

[lurk3r]

Ok, I posted a bit ago about an overheat issue blah blah long story short I'm going to microcenter to pick up a new i7 cpu, EVGA tripple SLI motherboard and 6 gigs of ram.

The question is, can I run my current 8800GT Nvidia card with a new 5770 on this board. I like having two monitors, a 24" for gaming on and a 22" for research/maps/browsing etc. I know there has been some flamewars here about how nvidia is disabling drivers for the physx, but I'm not sure exactly what that will mean (ie if my card could be used as a physx card in conjunction with the 5770), and if it will affect what I'm trying to do.

A link to a good site with helpful information would be much appreciated.

Here's a link to the mobo http://microcenter.com/single_produc...uct_id=0312963

 

[happy medium]

Why is it you can't run 2 monitors with your 5770?
I can with my 5750.

 

[lurk3r]

Why is it you can't run 2 monitors with your 5770?
I can with my 5750.

I'm sure it can, I'm also sure it hurts framerates and my 8800 is an odd enough one that I'll never find its mate (Palit 1Gb fairly fast, nice heat sinks but not too many of them made).

 

[AlucardX]

I'm sure it can, I'm also sure it hurts framerates and my 8800 is an odd enough one that I'll never find its mate (Palit 1Gb fairly fast, nice heat sinks but not too many of them made).

Running a multi-monitor set up has no affect on gaming performance. Once a game kicks on (for me at least) the second monitor goes dark. I just recently switched to ATI, the second monitor may just stay viewing the desktop or whatever was on the screen. Regardless, it has no affect on performance.

 

[slag]

How would that be useful? I mean, lets say for example I'm playing WOW and want to check on something in my browser in my other window. Using the 5770.. oh shit, cant do it.. the screen is dark... which totally defeats the purpose of having dual monitors in games. But with another dedicated card, the screen stays on.

 

[happy medium]

Running a multi-monitor set up has no affect on gaming performance. Once a game kicks on (for me at least) the second monitor goes dark. I just recently switched to ATI, the second monitor may just stay viewing the desktop or whatever was on the screen. Regardless, it has no affect on performance.

Exactly.

 

[happy medium]

How would that be useful? I mean, lets say for example I'm playing WOW and want to check on something in my browser in my other window. Using the 5770.. oh shit, cant do it.. the screen is dark... which totally defeats the purpose of having dual monitors in games. But with another dedicated card, the screen stays on.

Want me to give it a try? Give me a min...

I have wolfenstein running in the backround as I type this, but I can't play it.
Sucks, never knew that. I can watch a movie and be on the internet at the same time?

 

[AlucardX]

Want me to give it a try? Give me a min...

I have wolfenstein running in the backround as I type this, but I can't play it.
Sucks, never knew that. I can watch a movie and be on the internet at the same time?

hehe exactly.

slag this is all with the assumption that you're running the game full-screen. if you run a game in window mode (some games support this fine, don't know about WoW) than Windows will treat it just like any other application in a window. You alt-tab out of it and then you can switch to any other window you want regardless of screen.

anyways, i don't even think you can run 2 different brands of video cards at the same time, it would be a driver nightmare i suspect.

 

[happy medium]

I believe that windows 7 plays much better with 2 cards installed . Mabe someone else can confirm this?

 

[Binky]

If you run the game in windowed mode, you should be able to access the second monitor.

 

[NumericalMethods]

I believe that windows 7 plays much better with 2 cards installed . Mabe someone else can confirm this?

Yup. Seen it. A 4870 and a 8600GT driving 3 monitors through 3 DVIs with no problem in Win 7.

The 4870 was the primary card that did the work for gaming on the primary monitor and the 8600GT was the old card added purely to drive the third monitor.

 

[InfoTiger]

Will it work with onboard GPU?
Addon card plays game, onboard GPU to display everything else?

 

[NumericalMethods]

I don't know if it will work for onboard GPUs. If it is onboard ATI then I guess that there is evidence to show it will work - so maybe worth a try. Intel is a total unknown. It depends on how flexibly the driver is written. I'll have a search and post back if I find anything.

 

[crazylegs]

I've ran 2 monitors games on one and web / msn on the other on my last... 4 or 5 cards including (i think, memory gets alittle fuzzy) X1950XT, 8800GTX, 8800GT, 9600GT, HD4890, windowed mode is your friend. if i do this for BCBC2 i have to alt+tab... both images are always up but cant move mouse off main monitor to get to web... not that you have much time for that in BCBC2 lol!

Its more of a wow thing, so you can zone out and watch sexay pr0ns while the poor raid leader is telling everyone what they should already know

 

[lurk3r]

Will it work with onboard GPU?
Addon card plays game, onboard GPU to display everything else?

A new build recycling my old 8800gt and getting a new 5770 or 5850 depending on what kind of deal I can find, microcenter does not seem to have any decent video cards (bfg 275 for $220, and a bunch of 5770's for ~$170-190).

Wow loves 2 screens, DDO online does too, most 1ps don't really have a windowed mode, but for most mmo's you can still usually fire up a movie/porn, surf the net while you wait for a group to fill, etc.

I did find that Vista will only allow you to use one video driver, so you're stuck with cards that use the same driver. Windows 7 seems to have resolved this (which is find the MSDN was part of the plan).

 

[soccerballtux]

How would that be useful? I mean, lets say for example I'm playing WOW and want to check on something in my browser in my other window. Using the 5770.. oh shit, cant do it.. the screen is dark... which totally defeats the purpose of having dual monitors in games. But with another dedicated card, the screen stays on.

Want me to give it a try? Give me a min...

I have wolfenstein running in the backround as I type this, but I can't play it.
Sucks, never knew that. I can watch a movie and be on the internet at the same time?

well then configure your setup better, because I'm dual monitoring on my 4850 and I have IM and speedfan open on my second monitor. Alt+Enter baby.