Suggested graphics card upgrade for my computer

[luxlunae]

So I'm looking for an under $300 upgrade that would work with my existing motherboard:
MSI X58 PRO-E SLI / CROSSFIRE MOTHERBOARD

I'm currently using:

ATI RADEON 5770 1GB DDR

I was planning to put the second graphics card in the second slot but from poking around and reading some of these threads perhaps that isn't the best idea?


The processor is :

OEM INTEL i7-930 2.80GHZ 8M LGA 1366

if it makes a difference.

I'm using two hdmi capable monitors so I'd love two hdmi ports.

[Bollwerk]

a GTX 570 is right on the edge of $300. I see a few on Newegg that are just under $300, some with rebates.
As for dual HDMI, you won't find many cards with that, but it's not a big deal, since you can get adapters for like 2 bucks (http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=104&cp_id=10419&cs_id=1041902&p_id=2029&seq=1&format=2).
But if your monitors already have DVI connectors, there is no point to converting to HDMI.
You get no benefit from the conversion.

[luxlunae]

I ordered this and its coming in today.

Should I swap it with my existing graphics card or put it in the second slot and plug a monitor into each. If I do that, does it matter which card is in which slot? For example would I need to have my second monitor on the heavier duty card because it runs 4 wows at once rather than 1?

[daviddoran]

Not sure if you can mix and match AMD/ATI and Nvidia cards in a single system, but I never tried.

The only need to have multiple video cards (other than SLI/crossfire) is to run more monitors than the primary GPU is capable of supporting. I have a similar setup, same CPU, same chipset etc. I run 3 graphics cards, and 6 monitors. Whenever I'm gaming, only the primary GPU actually renders the graphics, the other cards just output the frames created by the primary. Only when I enable SLI (and thus lose 3 of my monitors due to SLI not supporting multi monitor other than surround, which my monitors do not support) does the secondary GPU get utilized.

Since the new GPU you ordered is way ahead of the old one, I would simply swap it out, and keep the old one for a spare/backup.

[luxlunae]

Ok I'll do this.

[shadewalker]

Not sure if you can mix and match AMD/ATI and Nvidia cards in a single system, but I never tried.


Yes, you can mix and match

[crowdx]

Not sure if you can mix and match AMD/ATI and Nvidia cards in a single system, but I never tried.

The only need to have multiple video cards (other than SLI/crossfire) is to run more monitors than the primary GPU is capable of supporting. I have a similar setup, same CPU, same chipset etc. I run 3 graphics cards, and 6 monitors. Whenever I'm gaming, only the primary GPU actually renders the graphics, the other cards just output the frames created by the primary. Only when I enable SLI (and thus lose 3 of my monitors due to SLI not supporting multi monitor other than surround, which my monitors do not support) does the secondary GPU get utilized.

Since the new GPU you ordered is way ahead of the old one, I would simply swap it out, and keep the old one for a spare/backup.

So based on the above, are you saying the any crap card will work for additional monitors and that the main card is doing all the processing and the seconday card is just displaying what it processes???

[Bollwerk]

So based on the above, are you saying the any crap card will work for additional monitors and that the main card is doing all the processing and the seconday card is just displaying what it processes???
No. It doesn't work like that.
If you have more than one card, then each card will process whatever is output from it, unless you have Crossfire/SLI, which is NOT recommended for boxing.

It's also worth noting that you need Windows 7 to mix and match cards from different vendors, from what I've been led to believe.

[crowdx]

No. It doesn't work like that.
If you have more than one card, then each card will process whatever is output from it, unless you have Crossfire/SLI, which is NOT recommended for boxing.

It's also worth noting that you need Windows 7 to mix and match cards from different vendors, from what I've been led to believe.

So I just got my 7970 delivered this morning, based on this post, I should be able to run my main account on the new 7970 card which would only have a single game processing load? And the older 6970 card would do all the processing of the two monitors my slaves are shown on? Correct?
Effectively providing similar performance to soloing if I exclude cpu and memory demands on the system for the extra accounts?