Question About Running 2 PCI-E Video Cards In Non-SLI

[Lordhumungus]

I was wondering if anyone here has experience with running two PCI-E video cards in an SLI motherboard but in a non-SLI configuration. I currently have a DFI Lanparty NF4 SLI-DR Mobo with 1 78000GTX installed in the main slot. I am hoping to add an additional cheapo PCI-E vid card to support a 3rd monitor. What I had in mind is something like this. I read in my motherboards manual that when in single VGA mode the mobo cuts the available bandwidth down to 2x on the secondary PCI-E slot, so I am wondering if the above video card is capable of running with such limited bandwidth. For what it's worth performance of the second card isn't really a concern as its only job is to power 1 POS LCD running at 1024x768 viewing mainly web pages and so forth.

As a side note I am trying to get a PCI-E card for budgetary reasons as they now seem cheaper than standard PCI video cards. Also, if anyone has any better solutions or recommendations for getting another video card in the machine I am all ears. Thanks for the help!

 

[Mavtech]

I know it is possible to run dual cards in non-SLI and more than 2 monitors. I think you are fine using that 6200 as the 2nd card. We do it at work using a PCI E card along with the integrated graphics.

 

[Lordhumungus]

Thanks for the response Mavtech. Anyone else have any opinions or solid evidence that this will work? I've done some research around the web but not really come up with anything conclusive, mostly just people saying they think it should work or they remember reading such and such somewhere but can't find the link.

 

[RaphaF]

I'm pretty positive that it would work fine. Recently, I purchased a Geforce 8800GTS and accidentally used it at 1x PCI-E speed. I didn't notice anything wrong until I ran demanding games such as Oblivion and NWN2. As far as 2D is concerned (web browsing etc), everything was fine.

In fact, gaming experience wasn't even THAT bad. I'd say it was comparable to my old 7800GTX. Of course that's quite a performance drop, but it's still plenty of juice for most applications. As confirmed by several Anandtech forum members, 8x is enough for current top-end cards, so 2x should be fine for low-end cards+applications.

See this thread for reference:

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=31&threadid=1990519&enterthread=y

 

[aka1nas]

They do sell 1x X1300 cards, and even 1x PCI-E is more bandwith than regular PCI-based cards had. I imagine it's plenty for 2d and doesn't hurt 3d performance that bad considering how slow such cards typically are to begin with.

 

[Lordhumungus]

Well, you guys gave me enough confidence to go ahead and give it a try, so I have one of the 6200's on the way. I'll post how it turns out once I get it and if I am feeling fancy I may even throw down a benchmark or two just for fun. Thanks again guys.

 

[Capt Caveman]

You'll be fine. I ran a x1900xtx and x800xl at the same time for a little while with no issues.

 

[BoboKatt]

Could someone explain to me please if by using a second video card in the secondary PCI-e slot (in an SLI 2 X 16 mobo like my eVGA 680i), if the entire video rendering gets done on the second card for whatever I place on that monitor? Do you just enable the ?extend my monitor? in the display options and then drag whatever application over to the other monitor? I cannot imagine any other option.

In other words would you still be able to say play a game on the primary video card and monitor at full 100% speed and have other crap up on the second monitor which is connected to the dedicated secondary PCI-e card? In other words graphic wise you are not sharing performance correct?

I have an 8800GTX as my primary and I tried to install my ATI x1900XT in the other SLI slot last night. Miraculously it worked flawlessly. I played one game on the primary video card/monitor and had a movie playing on the secondary video card/monitor with email, 3 webpages and my newsbin pro.

However I can only assume that the CPU is still doing both operations so all slow downs if any are as a direct result of running multiple apps and CPU cycles... right?

I wonder if I would get a better integration if I had 2 Nvidia cards. It seems that with both the Nvidia drivers/control panel and the ATI Catalyst control panel, both sets of drivers/apps refuse to see each other or work together in tandem. In other words both sets of control panels don?t give their specific options for 2 distinct cards. For instance Nvidia wont let me enable DualView? but rather just the option of expanding my desktop.