4 monitors from one machine?

[Clovis]

My video card (XFX 8800 GTS) has dual DVI ports which I use to run twin 22" widescreens. I use one monitor for the main character and the second monitor with the 4 slaves boxed into it, each taking up a quarter.

My wife has the same card and my motherboard supports SLI - If I were to take her card and replace it with an upgrade, and run the two SLI with a total of 4 DVI ports (2 on each card) - would I be able to hook up 4 monitors? I think I read somewhere about the first card being the only one to output when running SLI.

Otherwise, what other solutions are out there to run more then 2 monitors from one machine?

Thanks,



-Clov

[Alptraum]

If your motherboard has 2 slots for your graphics cards yes, slip the 2nd card in, restart and go into your Nvidea control panel, select multi-monitor settings I believe and configure your screens how you wish...1 giant vertical span although fun isn't very practicle...or just set them up 1,2,3,4 and be sure to get the latest software drivers to avoid FPS issues inside wow.

Im currently running 3 8800 gt's driving 6 24's off one of my gamming rigs, you can not setup SLI and use more then 1 monitor.
good luck and welcome to the club.

My video card (XFX 8800 GTS) has dual DVI ports which I use to run twin 22" widescreens. I use one monitor for the main character and the second monitor with the 4 slaves boxed into it, each taking up a quarter.

My wife has the same card and my motherboard supports SLI - If I were to take her card and replace it with an upgrade, and run the two SLI with a total of 4 DVI ports (2 on each card) - would I be able to hook up 4 monitors? I think I read somewhere about the first card being the only one to output when running SLI.

Otherwise, what other solutions are out there to run more then 2 monitors from one machine?

Thanks,



-Clov

[Clovis]

So, sorry - are you saying if you run SLI you are limited to using only 1 monitor?

Can you run multiple video cards in one machine, none-SLI just for the multiple monitors?

[zanthor]

If your motherboard has 2 slots for your graphics cards yes, slip the 2nd card in, restart and go into your Nvidea control panel,

Personally I'd suggest shutting down before you put the new card in...

One issue with dual video cards is if you try to run on the 2nd video card windows reverts to software rendering instead of hardware, huge performance hit. Many deatils about this in the forums here, search around a bit.

[Souca]

One issue with dual video cards is if you try to run on the 2nd video card windows reverts to software rendering instead of hardware, huge performance hit. Many deatils about this in the forums here, search around a bit.

Wow, so that's why I got worse performance. I have a 3 slot mother board and am running a GTX 280 and two 9500GTs. I recently picked up a third 22" and had decided to drop down to 3 monitors and not use the two 17" (desk was really crowded already). When I put a monitor on each card, I found that I got worse performance on the GTX 280 than when it was driving two of the 22"s with 5 WoW clients. I eventually switched back to that setup and ended up with better frame rates, but damn if it didn't puzzle me.

You have any links to more info on this? Is it a issue with nVidia drivers, DirectX or just Windows? I run Vista x64 if it matters.

- Souca -