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Motherboard question for dual video cards

T

TraderDoug2009

Junior Member
I need a four monitor set-up and am planning on getting two pci-e x16 2.0 nvidia cards (not sure which yet) and I'm looking at various motherboards. I don't need SLI since I'll be using multiple montiors, each with their own desktop. So I know I need to disable SLI. But the question I have is that some boards, such as Gigabyte GA-EP45 ED3P(orR) say they have two pci-e x16 slots, but second slot is actually x8. Does it drop to x8 once a second card is put in that slot? Other boards such as those from evga and asus just say they have two x16 slots and don't say anything about them dropping to x8. Do those change to x8 anyway? Is the gigabyte board still a good choice for running two video cards? I'm not a tech person and don't understand the details. I just want to make sure I get the correct mobo and video card combintation. Any explanation or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
 
It depends on the board. The EP45-UD3P drops to 8x/8x when two cards are present. The eVGA 750i is 8x/8x. The eVGA 780i/790i is 16x/16x. You probably won't notice too much of a drop from 16x to 8x depending on your card and application. P45 chipsets will drop to 8x/8x. X48 chipsets stay at 16x/16x. 750i chipsets are 8x/8x. 780i/790i chipsets stay at 16x/16x.

What will you be doing with these video cards? What applications?
 
pctc2, thanks for the answer. That cleared up much confusion. I run a stock and commodity program called TradeStation, as well as another application called thinkorswim, and I have one monitor for a web page/email. Tradestation runs on two monitors and has several open pages, and it downloads data all day. The graphics are only 2-D, and I won't be playing games on this machine. But there are lots of graphics that refresh constantly. My current sytem is very old and being pushed to the limit. So I'm thinking of an E8500 processor. I know Quad is supposed to be better, but the software vendor says a fast two core will run that program better and they say they don't support 4 core yet. But then again, I will be running another program at the same time, so not sure which way to go. Regarding graphics cards, thinking of a 9600 series nVidia. I think that Gigabyte board support crossfire and not sli, but since I won't be enabling that anyway I would think the nVidia boards would fit fine. Since this runs 24 hours a day I want to get quiet fans. Was thinking of the Zalman VGA fans to replace stock fans on video cards. Reviews seem to say most video cards have cheap and noisy fans.
That's where I am at this point. Thanks again for info. Any other thoughts please let me know. Appreciate it. This is my first build attempt.
Doug
 
Well, looks like you wouldn't notice the drop to 8x/8x, so the Gigabyte EP45-UD3P is a great board. I love mine.

nVIDIA cards would run fine, and the 9600GSO would be more than enough for your needs. If you want to run silent, there's actually a Gigabyte 9600GSO that runs passive cooling. You could even run a passive 9500GT by Sparkle since you will only be running 2-D programs. If you think you need more graphics power, Gigabyte sells a 9600GT passively cooled for $100 at the egg.

As for your processor, it doesn't hurt to have a quad and you could just run a Q9550 @ 2.83GHz. Not much slower than a E8500 and has the extra cores in case they ever upgrade their software to support more threads. And if you want to run quieter for your CPU, cooler, check out the Cases & Cooling forum. The would probably suggest picking up a Noctua NH-U12P SSO or Thermalright Ultra120 Extreme with a slow 120mm fan.
 
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