Question regaurding video cards vs. monitors

[Danash]

Been boxing for a few weeks now and reading these forums everyday. I have got myself into a bind i think.

Up till now been using 2 monitors with one gpu. I have revcently bought a third monitor and a 2nd graphic card in hope to utilize three monitors. I currently use 8800 GTS 640mb and I just bougjht a 9800 GT. Did some research before the purchase and I thought they would be able to use the same drivers. In "My Computer" properties in the hardware tab I click device manager and under the corrosponding drop dowsn I can see both cards under "display adapters" where it says what drivers they are currently using and that they have no conflicts. So i guess my questions is

Is there a special way to make your os recongize two cards? ( I have SLI disabled in BIOS and I am not using that weird bridge looking adapter that looks like it goes on top of two cards in SLI mode)

Do both cards have to be the same series (As in eight with eights nines with nines)?

Any advice would help. Thankyou in advance. In the meantime I will continue searching keywords in nvidia forums and these.

If it helps I am running 4gb ram, P5N32-E SLI, 8800 gts (640-p2-n821-ar) and trying to connect a 9800 gt (BFGR98512GTOCE)

currently have main monitor plugged into one and another in the second card. Third is still sitting in the box. I wanted to make sure it was even possible to do before the unwrapping.

- The Orcyorcs - Spinebreaker - Horde - 5X Shamans - 1 - - -50 and growing - - - 80

[moosejaw]

Edit: I see this is your first post so.... Welcome to the community!



You are good to go with 2 cards. I would put the 9800 in the first slot and 8800 in the second. They will use whichever driver you load and the OS will install the driver seperately for each card. As far as I know you don't need same series cards if you are not doing SLI.

There will be some performance hit on the monitors hooked to the secondary video card when running 3d apps. There has been much discussion about this topic in the past. Try doing some searches and see if you find that topic. Considering we use the extra monitors for slaves and limit the frame rate, I think the reduced performance isn't a big deal.

Personally I think the quantity of video ram helps a lot on the card with the 2 monitors. The more ram it has the higher the resolution it can render before it runs out of gas. So if the 9800 has more ram I would change my mind and say run the 2 monitors from that card and put it second. Then again feel free to test out different configurations to see what may work best for you.

Good luck and happy boxing.

[Danash]

Thanks for the reply. Yea I been using the search feature all evening here and at nvidia forums doing some reading and I finally figured it out. I think what got me worried was a post I read on nvidia's saying that the should be same series. After some re-aranging of card/slots I figured it out finally.

Yea my first time posting within the community and thankyou for the hearty welcome. I hope to be a very active member. I was trying to lay low until I got my team into Outlands but I guess I was a little impatient with my new toys this evening. Haha now I guess I have to go out and create avatar/siggy now. Anyhow thanks again. And woo-hoo cant wait now to login , was sick of 4 on one window. Also got my authenticator in the mail the other day so I even get to hook that up tonight.





-- The Orcyorcs - Spinebreaker - Horde - 5X Shamans - 1 - - -50 and growing - - - 80

[moosejaw]

Kick a$$. No worries about posting for sure. Constructive questions are always welcome, Trolls get bashed by Fursphere (not me, I try not to bash) .

I ran 2 video cards for a long time and backed up to one card when I started using Innerspace. A few days ago I installed the 4870 and SSD and use 2 monitors, but I am only soloing right now.

I did port into Dalaran today and it loaded up very fast (under 5 seconds) with only one client but with increased video settings it was eating 1.3 gb of memory footprint 8| . When I box I run a lower resolution and video settings. So the normal footprint is only about 600-700 mb.

Good luck and happy boxing.