Mixing Cards

[Gronnie]

Hi guys, my rig is in my sig.

Would it be possible to get a 7950 or 7970 to run my 2560x1600 Dell U3011 and then use one of the 6670 cards that I own to run the secondary monitors or do both cards have to be the same?

Will not be running Crossfire or Eyefinity, just extended desktop.

I am just getting into gaming, and will only game single screen on the U3011. The only game I currently own is Dota 2 that I got a free code for from a friend, and if I buy a 7950 or 7970 I believe it will come with Crysis 3 and Bioshock.

 

[tarmc]

should work just fine.


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[Gronnie]

Any recommendations for a 7970 that won't heat up my case too much? I don't want my CPU to get too hot causing me to have to lower my overclock, as the overclock makes video encoding a lot faster.

 

[tarmc]

the gigbyte 7970 looks awesome (using gigabyte 670 oc) heat shouldnt really be an issue


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[Gronnie]

I'm thinking about going with the Gigabyte AMD Radeon HD 7970 OC 3GB GDDR5 DVI-I/HDMI/2x Mini-Displayport PCI-E 3.0 Graphics Card GV-R797OC-3GD unless someone has good reason for me to go with something different?

 

[tarmc]

looks awesome. the gigabyte wf run cool and quiet from my experience


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[2is]

Assuming the same or similar clock speeds, all 7970's are going to produce essentially the same amount of heat. Some may RUN cooler then others because of a more efficient cooler, but that just means it's able to release more of the heat into the case then another cooler. The only way to keep the internal case temps down, is to get a card with a blower style cooler that exhausts at least some of the hot air out of the case. Unfortunately those types of coolers are typically louder.

That said, if your CPU gets pushed over the limit by a bit of extra heat from a video card, you're doing it wrong. "it" being your overclock or your case/CPU cooling or all of the above.

 

[tarmc]

a side fan to push air at the cards, and an exaust in back and all should be ok.

 

[Gronnie]

a side fan to push air at the cards, and an exaust in back and all should be ok.

Perfect. My case (Corsair 500R) has a 200mm fan on the side and then a rear exhaust fan, as well as the fans for my H100i are set to exhaust on the top.

 

[tarmc]

Perfect. My case (Corsair 500R) has a 200mm fan on the side and then a rear exhaust fan, as well as the fans for my H100i are set to exhaust on the top.

very awesome, ive got an antec 900, 120 side intake, 120 back exaust with rad for h70, and a 200mm on top. my 670 usually runs 65-70c while gaming

 

[arsta]

How would it work when you play a game? Would it run on BOTH cards, depending on the monitor? How would the resources split? Just wondering.

 

[lehtv]

It will only use one card to run the game, the one connected to the primary monitor. To use more than one card for gaming you need to Crossfire or SLI them, and they can't be just any two cards. Typically people use identical make&model for dual GPU setups

 

[arsta]

It will only use one card to run the game, the one connected to the primary monitor. To use more than one card for gaming you need to Crossfire or SLI them, and they can't be just any two cards. Typically people use identical make&model for dual GPU setups

So basically you'd see your desktop on one monitor and the game on the other? Would that be of any use? Just wondering.

 

[wand3r3r]

If you want to overclock freely check which cards are voltage unlocked.

 

[tarmc]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lehtv

It will only use one card to run the game, the one connected to the primary monitor. To use more than one card for gaming you need to Crossfire or SLI them, and they can't be just any two cards. Typically people use identical make&model for dual GPU setups

So basically you'd see your desktop on one monitor and the game on the other? Would that be of any use? Just wondering.

pretty much how it works


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[lehtv]

So basically you'd see your desktop on one monitor and the game on the other?

If using the monitors in extended desktop mode then yes, you would see the extended part of the desktop on the secondary monitor while gaming.

Would that be of any use? Just wondering.

A friend of mine used to have an IRC (internet chat relay) on the smaller monitor while gaming so he could chat with friends at the same time. I'm sure you could think of other uses as well, like a video stream or something. Or facebook.