Semi-complicated series of multimonitor questions.

[BoycottValvoline]

OK, here's the situation. I need three monitors, two to be run in portrait mode 1200x1600 and below them a primary monitor running in landscape 1280x1024. Currently I have a nVidia 7600 GT PCIe x16 dual DVI out running the portrait monitors and an nVidia MX 420 single VGA out running as my primary. Other than rendering video on a regular basis, I don't game or do anything else that uses a lot of GPU resources.

1a) Does using my nVidia MX 420 as a primary GPU mean that when rendering video my 7600 GT will sit around idly?

1b) Will switching my primary monitor before rendering improve how fast videos render? Or moving the application to a monitor which is plugged into my 7600 GT help?

2a) If I must switch my primary monitor to my 7600, on a full time basis, is there a program that would allow me to run a monitor in portrait mode from my 420 without any annoying lag?

2b) If my 420 won't cut it, what's the cheapest nVidia card with one DVI port that has nVidia driver supported monitor rotation.

3a) I'm planning on upgrading one of my 1200x1600 monitors to a 30" 2560x1600. This requires Dual DVI-D (which my 7600 supports) but when running a monitor from that card am I still able to run a second monitor from it's other DVI port?

3b) Do I need to buy a special DVI cable for a 30" to work properly in 2560x1600? I'm not sure if the Dell 3007WFP comes stock with it.

Thanks in advance for answers to any and all questions,

Josh

 

[tungtung]

As far as I know when you render video for production it's your CPU that's doing 100% the work.
So using that MX card shouldn't slow your system at all when rendering.

With regard to the dual DVI honestly I am clueless on this, but from what I can tell you might not need any special cable, I mean I haven't seen any local computer store selling a "Dual DVI cable" at all. So I'm guessing the cable used is the same. But this is only a guess, someone with those 30" screens should be able to answer this better.

 

[bovinda]

Sorry to be so OT, and in the 3rd post no less, but I have to ask because you piqued my curiosity...why boycott valvoline?

 

[BoycottValvoline]

LOL, long story short, I took my car there for a routine oil change. Oil change took longer than expected as they were training some new guy during the process.

Next day, the oil light came on. Took it back and they said the oil filter they used was bad so they replaced it and topped me off. Next day the oil light came on again. So I took it back a third time, and they said that their were multiple leaks around some gasket and some other place (you can tell I'm car savvy) and that the car was "probably not worth repairing." When I asked them what could cause this they replied "natural wear-and-tear."

I didn't feel like getting into it with a bunch of car guys considering I wouldn't know wtf I was talking about. So I just drove home and talked to some friend's who knew or thing or two. General consensus was that they made some kind of gross error likely involving over-tightening some screws or something to that degree. Either way, a car that has no oil problems one day, and then has "unrepairable" problems the next, doesn't sound a whole lot like "wear-and-tear."

So, I told the story to a friend of mine who's a lawyer. He informed me of the steps I should take in order to receive compensation. The process sounded long and tedious and I wasn't sure I wanted to go through all that hassle for a $2500 used car. I mulled over it as the days passed and finally decided to just change my screen names to BoycottValvoline and get my $2500 through dissuading others from using their services.

This happened about two years ago and I have since forgiven the company. Had I been proactive and taken steps, I likely would have received full compensation and maybe even some kind of a "free oil changes for a year" gig. So to blame them absolves myself of responsibility. This is my only remaining screen name from that era.

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: BoycottValvoline
OK, here's the situation. I need three monitors, two to be run in portrait mode 1200x1600 and below them a primary monitor running in landscape 1280x1024. Currently I have a nVidia 7600 GT PCIe x16 dual DVI out running the portrait monitors and an nVidia MX 420 single VGA out running as my primary. Other than rendering video on a regular basis, I don't game or do anything else that uses a lot of GPU resources.

1a) Does using my nVidia MX 420 as a primary GPU mean that when rendering video my 7600 GT will sit around idly?

It depends what rendering video means. If you mean, Adobe Premiere or Sony Vegas, that wouldn't use the GPU anyway (AFAIK). If you mean, a video renderer such as the Video Mixing Renderer in Windows, the primary DirectX interface should be used. I am not sure how tasks are delegated amongst video cards in XP or Vista, but it inevitably varies depending on your OS and configuration. The primary DirectX interface is probably the video card to which the primary (or video output) monitor is attached.

1b) Will switching my primary monitor before rendering improve how fast videos render? Or moving the application to a monitor which is plugged into my 7600 GT help?

Same thing applies for Premiere or Vegas here: no difference. For video playback, overlay will be infeasible for anything but the primary interface anyway, but VMR9 should not exhibit any performance difference if set up properly. If the 7600GT can accelerate the video (e.g. MPEG-2, H.264, WMV9 HD) in some way and your system is configured to use the video card's acceleration, then yes it will make a difference.

There's also a multidisplay 3D rendering option in the NVIDIA options (multimonitor or single monitor mode).

2a) If I must switch my primary monitor to my 7600, on a full time basis, is there a program that would allow me to run a monitor in portrait mode from my 420 without any annoying lag?

I have no idea. Isn't portrait mode still slow on the 7xxx series or was it fixed? I think that with an acceptable CPU, performance should be fine in portrait mode should VMR not run in accelerated mode, for some reason. Using full H.264 acceleration in portrait mode on a secondary monitor could be a can of worms, but that is up to driver support. I really don't know the current state of the drivers.

2b) If my 420 won't cut it, what's the cheapest nVidia card with one DVI port that has nVidia driver supported monitor rotation.

Not sure. Go for a cheap GeForce 7xxx to be sure.

3a) I'm planning on upgrading one of my 1200x1600 monitors to a 30" 2560x1600. This requires Dual DVI-D (which my 7600 supports) but when running a monitor from that card am I still able to run a second monitor from it's other DVI port?

If at least one of the ports on the 7600GT supports dual-link DVI (~330MHz), then yes. If not, then no. And you can't drive the 30" monitor by two separate DVI ports. You need one dual-link DVI port to drive it. The other monitor can be driven from the other dual-link or single-link DVI port just fine while the other 30" is connected.

3b) Do I need to buy a special DVI cable for a 30" to work properly in 2560x1600? I'm not sure if the Dell 3007WFP comes stock with it.

Dual-link DVI requires a 24-pin DVI cable. More info: http://www.datapro.net/techinfo/dvi_info.html

Thanks in advance for answers to any and all questions,

Josh

 

[bovinda]

Originally posted by: BoycottValvoline
LOL, long story short, I took my car there for a routine oil change. Oil change took longer than expected as they were training some new guy during the process.

Next day, the oil light came on. Took it back and they said the oil filter they used was bad so they replaced it and topped me off. Next day the oil light came on again. So I took it back a third time, and they said that their were multiple leaks around some gasket and some other place (you can tell I'm car savvy) and that the car was "probably not worth repairing." When I asked them what could cause this they replied "natural wear-and-tear."

I didn't feel like getting into it with a bunch of car guys considering I wouldn't know wtf I was talking about. So I just drove home and talked to some friend's who knew or thing or two. General consensus was that they made some kind of gross error likely involving over-tightening some screws or something to that degree. Either way, a car that has no oil problems one day, and then has "unrepairable" problems the next, doesn't sound a whole lot like "wear-and-tear."

So, I told the story to a friend of mine who's a lawyer. He informed me of the steps I should take in order to receive compensation. The process sounded long and tedious and I wasn't sure I wanted to go through all that hassle for a $2500 used car. I mulled over it as the days passed and finally decided to just change my screen names to BoycottValvoline and get my $2500 through dissuading others from using their services.

This happened about two years ago and I have since forgiven the company. Had I been proactive and taken steps, I likely would have received full compensation and maybe even some kind of a "free oil changes for a year" gig. So to blame them absolves myself of responsibility. This is my only remaining screen name from that era.

Huh, interesting story! Sounds like you've handled it admirably. Thanks for explaining.