Current components:
I have a GA-p35-ds3p motherboard and Q6600. PSU is a 500W Ultra. I have a PCI GeForce fx5500 so two monitors are dark
Time to fix that.
Usage/Gaming:
I mostly care about having snappy windows performance. I don't even own a 3d game but I don't want to spend money and still be totally incompatible with 3d games. I am not going to be competing with others if I get a game so I just need to be able to have fun playing something on my own if I pick something up. If I do play some games I would expect to play on a single monitor (1680x1050 or 1280x1024).
I want to span my desktop across all 3 monitors (not sure if that would require all video cards to be from same chipset mfr).
Experience:
I am as technical as they get in a lot of areas but not this one. I have not used ATI hardware in a million years. My assumptions tend to be based on NVidia usage.
Budget:
$200 total. Seems in line with my usage aspirations. Lower is better.
Ideas so far:
1) Since the mobo does crossfire, I could get a couple x1650 pros and connect 'em someday when I want to game. I assume I can drive 3 monitors from two of these cards when I'm not in crossfire mode. Wondering if changing modes requires fiddling with cables or bridges? There seems to be a lot of variations among x1650 cards, a specific part recommendation would be helpful.
2) Get a single, better ATI card and leave the crummy fx5500 in place. Drive 2 monitors off the ATI and one off the geforce pci. the PCI card would suck but maybe it won't matter since that monitor would never be used for gaming? Preserves my options for crossfire at a later date.
3) I am assuming SLI is a no go on this mobo.
4) Get a GeForce 7300GS and leave the fx5500 in. Forget about crossfire/sli and live with the performance of the 7300 for single monitor gaming. (probably fine given my limited aspirations for gaming I would think).
Thanks for helping me
I have a GA-p35-ds3p motherboard and Q6600. PSU is a 500W Ultra. I have a PCI GeForce fx5500 so two monitors are dark
Time to fix that.Usage/Gaming:
I mostly care about having snappy windows performance. I don't even own a 3d game but I don't want to spend money and still be totally incompatible with 3d games. I am not going to be competing with others if I get a game so I just need to be able to have fun playing something on my own if I pick something up. If I do play some games I would expect to play on a single monitor (1680x1050 or 1280x1024).
I want to span my desktop across all 3 monitors (not sure if that would require all video cards to be from same chipset mfr).
Experience:
I am as technical as they get in a lot of areas but not this one. I have not used ATI hardware in a million years. My assumptions tend to be based on NVidia usage.
Budget:
$200 total. Seems in line with my usage aspirations. Lower is better.
Ideas so far:
1) Since the mobo does crossfire, I could get a couple x1650 pros and connect 'em someday when I want to game. I assume I can drive 3 monitors from two of these cards when I'm not in crossfire mode. Wondering if changing modes requires fiddling with cables or bridges? There seems to be a lot of variations among x1650 cards, a specific part recommendation would be helpful.
2) Get a single, better ATI card and leave the crummy fx5500 in place. Drive 2 monitors off the ATI and one off the geforce pci. the PCI card would suck but maybe it won't matter since that monitor would never be used for gaming? Preserves my options for crossfire at a later date.
3) I am assuming SLI is a no go on this mobo.
4) Get a GeForce 7300GS and leave the fx5500 in. Forget about crossfire/sli and live with the performance of the 7300 for single monitor gaming. (probably fine given my limited aspirations for gaming I would think).
Thanks for helping me
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