Need Geeksquad support. Hardware issues

[pinotnoir]

I asked the Geeksquad at Best Buy about multi monitors today and they told me you cannot run 3+ monitors with 2 solo video cards. I think they are wrong but I need to consult the forums for advise.

Here is my problem. My motherboard is an Asus P5W DH Deluxe. I planned on running crossfire with my ATI X1950XTX when I purchased it. First off trying to find another ATI X1950XTX is impossible. I think it fell into a black hole. If I run two video cards on this motherboard it will set them into PCI 8x instead of both 16x. My choice is find another ATI card and run two video cards or buy a new motherboard and 2 video cards. I just purchased vista home to upgrade my xp. There is no way for me to get xp working with multi monitors. I plan on running 2 Dell 22's in Portrait for 4 accounts and the main on my Dell 24inch.

Can someone tell me what hardware I need to buy in order to make this work? I really didnt want to upgrade motherboard, video cards ect.. for this.

[neux]

I am not completely understand details, you mentioned "solo" and also "crossfire"

If Geeksqued mentioned that you can't have more then 1 monitor on two card set as crossfire then they correct!

but if they not set as crossfires but separate, and it also doesn't metter what other model you have as long as they same brand, like HD2900 and XT1950 will work with 4 screens :)

if you just clarify again, crossfire? singles? how many screens total? why do you think XP doesn't work with multi monitors?

[pinotnoir]

The motherboard supports crossfire.. I want to run two video cards seperate to run 3 monitors. If I go with two video cards it puts it to pci express 8x instead of two 16x on that motherboard. I dont know if thats normal or what. When I was talking with the geeksquad today I was asking about two video cards running seperate and they said cant run more than 1 monitor. Maybe they thought I meant SLI or Crossfire.

I have 2 Dell 22's on the way. I have a 24inch dell. I just purchased vista and plan to upgrade my xp. I want to know what the best way to get this done is. I really dont want to buy a new mb, and 2 video cards. If I can run a second card like you suggested that would save me a ton.

[Chorizotarian]

It sounds like they are talking about the limitation that you can't run > 1 monitor while bridging 2 graphics cards in SLI mode. I think Crossfire has the same limitation. Depending on your monitor resoltion and graphics card you should definitely be able to run 2 monitors off a single card while in non-SLI mode, although you will get better perf in 3D games if you use a single card per monitor.

[neux]

The motherboard supports crossfire.. I want to run two video cards seperate to run 3 monitors. If I go with two video cards it puts it to pci express 8x instead of two 16x on that motherboard. I dont know if thats normal or what. When I was talking with the geeksquad today I was asking about two video cards running seperate and they said cant run more than 1 monitor. Maybe they thought I meant SLI or Crossfire.

I have 2 Dell 22's on the way. I have a 24inch dell. I just purchased vista and plan to upgrade my xp. I want to know what the best way to get this done is. I really dont want to buy a new mb, and 2 video cards. If I can run a second card like you suggested that would save me a ton.Ok

I have dual view screens on one Video card, Geeksqued are dumb, I don't need any more proof :P

I need to check out Tom's Hardware site, I know they had some where a post about testing video cards performance wile limiting lines on cards, I know 8800 deteriorated in performance the most when limited connections, but some ATI did as good at 16 as they did at 8. so you shouldn't think about it too much...

[EDIT] Here found it XD
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/03/27/pci_express_scaling_analysis/

I guess you do need 16x for top performance, but I doubt you will even need it for WoW, even with multiple instances, because it more memory intense then GPU.
just load it with 8Gig like in http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/02/15/vista_workshop/ they did and you will be fine XD

btw you also in luck because 3800 dropping in prices too

[pinotnoir]

I have all my ram slots full with 1gig sticks.. I got 4gigs of corsair ddr2 xms2 memory. It looks like I need to start shopping for a second ati video card. Guess I will upgrade to vista tomorrow. What is the difference between the 32bit and 64bit versions? I have the 32bit Home Premium. My two 22inch Ultrasharps are on the way so I better get looking for a video card.

[Wilbur]

Get 64 bit. 32 bit allows for a max of 3.25Gb RAM.

[Nitro]

Get 64 bit. 32 bit allows for a max of 3.25Gb RAM.Just remember that applications typically consume double the footprint on a 64 bit OS so you dont gain any real memory advantage until you have 8+ GB of ram in your 64 bit machine.

[Wilbur]

True, however 64 bit OS is far more futureproof and there is a noticable increase in performance on certain games. READ: Certain games, not WoW.

[Trowabarton756]

True, however 64 bit OS is far more futureproof and there is a noticable increase in performance on certain games. READ: Certain games, not WoW.Unfortunately that all depends mate. It is futureproof but there will always be 32-bit support. As far as the "noticeable" increase I don't see it simply because vista still sucks more resources then is worthwhile for the improvement you get.