low power, low heat GPU to run secondary monitor

[ViviTheMage]

I have a GTX 680 right now, and in another post here I have some flickering on my second monitor, easiest solution is to buy a cheap/lower power/low heat GPU to run it.

Is there a decent $40> GPU that would fit the bill? I have a few PCI fanless FX5200's with VGA laying around, but those might be underkill? haha

I basically use the second monitor for firefox, skype, putty, cmd prompt, and sometimes videos, but really that is it.

 

[kalrith]

I don't know about modern gpus, but I think the 9500GT is really low heat and power. I used to use one as my HTPC GPU and sold it to a friend who wanted to run a third monitor.

Something like a 4550 would be another cheap and low-power, low-heat choice. I periodically see those for less than $15 AR. I'm running a single-slot fanless version in my HTPC right now.

If I were you, I would try the FX5200 for free before buying something else.

 

[ViviTheMage]

Yeah, I might as well try running that 5200 first just to see if it's worth a damn.

How do drivers work exactly with one GTX 680 and then a very low end one?

 

[kalrith]

I have no idea, but I'm guessing you just install the latest drivers, and it'll work for both of them.

That's one thing I didn't consider. You should definitely go with nvidia. That will keep you from having both nvidia and amd drivers.

 

[ViviTheMage]

Yeah, does feel weird doing a 5200 drivers and 680 drivers, haha... sure it wont freak out?

 

[blckgrffn]

I have no idea, but I'm guessing you just install the latest drivers, and it'll work for both of them.

That's one thing I didn't consider. You should definitely go with nvidia. That will keep you from having both nvidia and amd drivers.

Right.

210 is another choice, sometimes they are just freaking giving them away AMIR and they are much more current that the 5200, even if they are nearly as worthless in games... I imagine they use less power as well. They should have flash video acceleration, etc.

 

[ViviTheMage]

I will probably pick up this card then :

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004W3F9XO...W2ANNKW293X4Z&

 

[Plimogz]

Anybody else find it incredibly lame that a brand new 500$ card doesn't satisfactorily drive two monitors simultaneously?

 

[KingFatty]

Yes, what is the issue here with the 680 and the dual monitors? Can you try to increase the memory clock at idle, maybe the 680 downclocks the memory speed too low for dual monitor? Or maybe it will be fixed in the next driver release (is there a logged/acknowledged bug report already for this issue?).

It would be disappointing to buy a 2nd card to solve this problem, when Nvidia may just solve it for you on the next driver (or maybe there is an updated BIOS you can flash to the card that increases the idle/2D memory speed for dual monitors - can you test by running the card in 3D mode or something to get the card out of idle speed and see if the 2ndary monitor still flickers?)

 

[ViviTheMage]

Anybody else find it incredibly lame that a brand new 500$ card doesn't satisfactorily drive two monitors simultaneously?

very, very lame.

This is my post on my issue :

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2236437

Yes, what is the issue here with the 680 and the dual monitors? Can you try to increase the memory clock at idle, maybe the 680 downclocks the memory speed too low for dual monitor? Or maybe it will be fixed in the next driver release (is there a logged/acknowledged bug report already for this issue?).

It would be disappointing to buy a 2nd card to solve this problem, when Nvidia may just solve it for you on the next driver (or maybe there is an updated BIOS you can flash to the card that increases the idle/2D memory speed for dual monitors - can you test by running the card in 3D mode or something to get the card out of idle speed and see if the 2ndary monitor still flickers?)

How do you force 3D mode, or increase idle/2D memory?

 

[KingFatty]

What if you run a windowed 3D application on one monitor, to get the video card to go to 3D memory speeds, that worked on AMD video cards but I don't know how the 680 treats multiple monitors or if putting 3D on one monitor will increase memory clock speed for everything.

To increase the memory speed at idle/2D, again I'm familiar with AMD and just using a different BIOS (or extracting your current BIOS, editing it to change the idle clock speed, then flashing that edited BIOS back to the card), but I'm not familiar with how the 680 handles idle clocks or if this is even the issue where it was on AMD cards how they used a too-slow memory speed for idle when you plugged in multiple monitors (it worked fine on one monitor, but with multiple monitors you had to use a faster memory speed)?

I had a gigabyte AMD card, and they were very good about emailing me an updated BIOS that had faster idle clocks so that my multiple monitors didn't flicker. However, my card consumed slightly more power as it should have to prevent the flickering.

 

[ViviTheMage]

Yeah, I think i'll bug EVGA about this.

 

[OVerLoRDI]

You will want to get a card that is supported by newer driver packs from nvidia. Running two different nvidia drivers could be nasty. An easy solution would be to get and old passive amd/ati card, assuming you are on windows 7.

 

[ViviTheMage]

If it's going to be nasty, why would getting a really old one be a good idea? haha...maybe EVGA has a solution.