Questions about dual monitors and dual video cards

[zylander]

Ive been running a single 7900gt in my system which powers my 2405fpw. The 7900gt has a zalman vf700 and is running at 700/810, and the highest temp Ive seen is 75c.

Ive been wanting to run dual monitors, so I plugged my old 6600gt into the second PCI-E slot and hooked up my old L90D+. Well, with both thoes cards in there, the 7900gt has barely any room, and under load it reached 85c and was still climbing before I shutdown rthdribl.

My questions are;

1. Is it ok to put my 7900gt in the lower PCI-E slot and still run it as the primary card?

2. What is the max safe temp for a 7900gt?

3. Just out of curiosity, how do you control the heat if your running two 7900gts in SLI? There is NO space in there and just my one was getting hot, what happens when you got two in there?

 

[sisq0kidd]

Why not just run both monitors off of your 7900gt?

 

[Fraggable]

I imagine you'd need a side intake fan to be able to cool the card well with a VF700, otherwise you'll need some other kind of cooler for the card. Maybe an AC Silencer that exhausts out the back of the case but you'd have to make sure the inake fan wasn't blocked by the 6600GT.

I think the stock cooler for the 7900GT is a single-slot, that would work fine in SLI as long as it wasn't OCed too much. VF700's aren't really designed for SLI setups.

 

[zylander]

Originally posted by: sisq0kidd
Why not just run both monitors off of your 7900gt?

Because I want to run the second monitor at a different resolution and I cant seem to figure out how to do that on a single card. All I can do is either clone or span, but that just forces my 2405 down to a smaller resolution to match my L90D.

Originally posted by: Fraggable
I imagine you'd need a side intake fan to be able to cool the card well with a VF700, otherwise you'll need some other kind of cooler for the card. Maybe an AC Silencer that exhausts out the back of the case but you'd have to make sure the inake fan wasn't blocked by the 6600GT.

Well I normally have a big slot fan under my 7900gt which keeps it cool, but with the 6600gt in there the slot fan cant see the 7900, which is why I was wondering if there are any problems with running my primary 7900 down in the second slot, Can I?

 

[Fraggable]

Originally posted by: zylander

Originally posted by: sisq0kidd
Why not just run both monitors off of your 7900gt?

Because I want to run the second monitor at a different resolution and I cant seem to figure out how to do that on a single card. All I can do is either clone or span, but that just forces my 2405 down to a smaller resolution to match my L90D.

In that case, go download Ultramon. It's a must-have for multiple monitors anyway.

 

[sisq0kidd]

Originally posted by: zylander

Originally posted by: sisq0kidd
Why not just run both monitors off of your 7900gt?

Because I want to run the second monitor at a different resolution and I cant seem to figure out how to do that on a single card. All I can do is either clone or span, but that just forces my 2405 down to a smaller resolution to match my L90D.

Originally posted by: Fraggable
I imagine you'd need a side intake fan to be able to cool the card well with a VF700, otherwise you'll need some other kind of cooler for the card. Maybe an AC Silencer that exhausts out the back of the case but you'd have to make sure the inake fan wasn't blocked by the 6600GT.

Well I normally have a big slot fan under my 7900gt which keeps it cool, but with the 6600gt in there the slot fan cant see the 7900, which is why I was wondering if there are any problems with running my primary 7900 down in the second slot, Can I?

I am in the exact same situation you are in. I have a 7800gtx and a 2405 with a 17" crt. I run ultramon with my 2405 at 1920 x 1200 and my 17" crt at 1024 x 768.

No need for a second card.

 

[zylander]

Thanks guys, I just got ultramon running and have both my monitors setup and working properly, heres a pic;

Text

 

[zylander]

One other thing, is there any way to get the pixles of both monitors to line up? If I drag a window from the 2405 to the L90D it does not line up. Is there any way around this either wil ultramon or though the nvidia drivers?

 

[krotchy]

FYI, SLI is only capable of running 1 monitor. 2 cards and 4 DVI slots, but only 1 monitor still

 

[Fraggable]

You can line up the monitors by using the display properties in Windows. Right-click the desktop and click properties, then click the Settings tab. You can drag the monitors around however you want them.

 

[sisq0kidd]

I think he means in terms of pixel-per-pixel line up.

I think that's impossible unless your vertical resolutions are the same, which they are not.

You're going to have to deal with one monitor's resolution being smaller than the other. But you do get to choose where exactly the side monitor aligns.

 

[sisq0kidd]

Originally posted by: krotchy
FYI, SLI is only capable of running 1 monitor. 2 cards and 4 DVI slots, but only 1 monitor still

I don't think he's looking to run SLI.

 

[Fraggable]

Originally posted by: sisq0kidd
I think he means in terms of pixel-per-pixel line up.

I think that's impossible unless your vertical resolutions are the same, which they are not.

You're going to have to deal with one monitor's resolution being smaller than the other. But you do get to choose where exactly the side monitor aligns.

Oh I see. Not possible as far as I know.

 

[zylander]

Originally posted by: Fraggable
You can line up the monitors by using the display properties in Windows. Right-click the desktop and click properties, then click the Settings tab. You can drag the monitors around however you want them.

Cool thanks, I had no idea you could do that. I was able to get them a little closer.

Originally posted by: krotchy
FYI, SLI is only capable of running 1 monitor. 2 cards and 4 DVI slots, but only 1 monitor still

Ya Im not actually looking to do SLI, that question was just out of curiosity. But is that really true that you can only run 1 monitor with two cards in SLI? Thats pretty odd.

 

[tuteja1986]

In that pic , what is the space thingy you have on dell 2405FPW :? is it eve online :? I need to know ;(

 

[zylander]

Originally posted by: tuteja1986
In that pic , what is the space thingy you have on dell 2405FPW :? is it eve online :? I need to know ;(

Thats a program called Rthdribl, it stress tests video cards, you can find it here.