Is this possible?

[Anomaly1964]

Let's say you have one video card, a GTX 570 and two monitors, is it possible to have a game running on one and have your desktop open on another?

 

[happy medium]

With some games, and sometimes if you have the game running in window mode.

 

[OVerLoRDI]

with SLI enabled no. But if you have one card rendering you should be able to do other fun things with your 2nd screen. I used to have a 3 monitor setup with 2 video cards. My primary monitor with a 5850 played games while my other 2 monitors, on a 7600GS would play tv shows.

 

[Cookie Monster]

Yes its possible. I use dual monitors, where the first screen is for games and the other screen can be for any video playbacks, monitoring, chatting etc. I use displayfuzion also and it has a nifty feature to force programs to open on any of the two screens that I choose. But 99% of the time, 3d programs load on the primary monitor identified by the OS (i use windows 7).

Its also ideal to have a cheapo GT430/240 or anything low end from nVIDIA so that the GTX570 can enter its idle power mode (the secondary monitor should be attached to the second card).

 

[MustangSVT]

Yes, its do able.

but not possible whatsoever with Starcraft 1 on one monitor. infact, if the game is running at lower color mode, it will mess up the other screen.

starcraft runs at 256 colors xD

 

[imaheadcase]

It depends on the game. Lots of games won't let you (makes the other monitor just go black). It really is a toss up. Even newer games still won't let you.