need advice for PCI-E video card

[SemperFi]

I have an Abit SLI motherboard sitting in the case waiting for the Opteron 165 I ordered a few hours ago. First off I didn't buy the board to run in sli mode. I am not a gamer but every now and again I give it a whirl. The reason I bought the SLI is to have the 2 16 pipe interfaces. I like to run dual monitors. I thought having the 2 16's onboard I could have a better card than a pci.

I am a video card dummy. The card I was looking at is card at newegg. It has a dvi and a vga connector and if I understand correctly I can hook a monitor to each. The thing being it will be showing the same desktop. Not a dual desk top. Is that correct? What I figured is I will buy a cheaper PCI-E for the second monitor and it will be better than having a pci video card probobly for about the same price.

I would like to have a better card for my main display so if I do some gaming. I mean with the rig I am putting together I can't have 4 pipeline card on my main display. I mean that would be a crime.

 

[Captante]

First of all, as far as I know you can't use the second 16x PCI-E slot for anything except SLI (at least I've never heard of anyone doing so) but the good news is that to run dual moniters you won't need a second video card at all... the X800 you posted a link to should come with a DVI to VGA adapter that will allow you to run two analog moniters & if its not included, the most it will set you back is $10 additional.

 

[SemperFi]

You may be right about the connectors. I just figured they are starting to the smaller PCI-E 1x connectors on the MB's and newegg has one with 3 PCI-E connectors. I just figured it was an individual slot that was capable of working independantly.

Secondly the 2 connectors on that card will work for me as is. On my current monitors one is dvi and the other vga. I just thought that they output the same video. I actually want 2 desktops. I want to be able to watch video on one while surfing the net on the other monitor. Am I able to do that if I hook both monitors to the same card? Like I said earlier I am a video card dummy. I just want to make sure I can do this with one card.

 

[ninja098]

Yes, one card with two outputs will do what you want. You will be able to drag windows between the two monitors, watch a movie on one monitor and read email on another, etc.

 

[Leper Messiah]

Originally posted by: Captante
First of all, as far as I know you can't use the second 16x PCI-E slot for anything except SLI (at least I've never heard of anyone doing so) but the good news is that to run dual moniters you won't need a second video card at all... the X800 you posted a link to should come with a DVI to VGA adapter that will allow you to run two analog moniters & if its not included, the most it will set you back is $10 additional.

You can actually with new mobo's. I know gigabyte at least has a mobo that will allow you to run 2x 16x PCI-E cards (in 8x) mode to do up to 4 monitors.

 

[Captante]

Originally posted by: Leper Messiah

Originally posted by: Captante
First of all, as far as I know you can't use the second 16x PCI-E slot for anything except SLI (at least I've never heard of anyone doing so) but the good news is that to run dual moniters you won't need a second video card at all... the X800 you posted a link to should come with a DVI to VGA adapter that will allow you to run two analog moniters & if its not included, the most it will set you back is $10 additional.

You can actually with new mobo's. I know gigabyte at least has a mobo that will allow you to run 2x 16x PCI-E cards (in 8x) mode to do up to 4 monitors.

Interesting... not that I'll ever be doing it, but if anyone else asks I'll know the answer!

 

[Captante]

Originally posted by: SemperFi
You may be right about the connectors. I just figured they are starting to the smaller PCI-E 1x connectors on the MB's and newegg has one with 3 PCI-E connectors. I just figured it was an individual slot that was capable of working independantly.

Secondly the 2 connectors on that card will work for me as is. On my current monitors one is dvi and the other vga. I just thought that they output the same video. I actually want 2 desktops. I want to be able to watch video on one while surfing the net on the other monitor. Am I able to do that if I hook both monitors to the same card? Like I said earlier I am a video card dummy. I just want to make sure I can do this with one card.

Your all set with the card as is then... dual moniter works best if both sreeens are set to the same resolution, but aside from that it will be easy to set up... good luck.

 

[i4edge]

Hi,

I have a similar problem, but more complex. I was going to get the Asus A8N32-SLI board not to run SLI but to just get two PCIe 16 graphics cards. One to run each of my 20" monitors at 1600x1200 using their DVI ports.

Can I run both off one card with two DVI ports? Do any support two monitors at 1600x1200?

Can I run two 6800gs on the same rig without using SLI.

I was supposed to have th computer built last week so behind....

Can use a 2d card but will be running some games.

 

[bearhug]

Originally posted by: i4edge
Hi,

I have a similar problem, but more complex. I was going to get the Asus A8N32-SLI board not to run SLI but to just get two PCIe 16 graphics cards. One to run each of my 20" monitors at 1600x1200 using their DVI ports.

Can I run both off one card with two DVI ports? Do any support two monitors at 1600x1200?

Can I run two 6800gs on the same rig without using SLI.

I was supposed to have th computer built last week so behind....

Can use a 2d card but will be running some games.

Did you ever get an answer?

 

[Lonyo]

Originally posted by: i4edge
Hi,

I have a similar problem, but more complex. I was going to get the Asus A8N32-SLI board not to run SLI but to just get two PCIe 16 graphics cards. One to run each of my 20" monitors at 1600x1200 using their DVI ports.

Can I run both off one card with two DVI ports? Do any support two monitors at 1600x1200?

Can I run two 6800gs on the same rig without using SLI.

I was supposed to have th computer built last week so behind....

Can use a 2d card but will be running some games.

Yes (pretty much all video cards euppost this, you only need dual link above 1920x1200 IIRC) and..
Yes (90% sure). Just set the slots to 2x 8x and don't enable SLI and AFAIK you can use 4 monitors.

 

[lifeblood]

I had an ATI 9800 Pro with two connectors that I ran with two monitors on it. It ran flawlessly as two seperate desktops. My only sugestion is to get a video card with two DVI connectors and use converters if you have analog displays. You will be glad you got DVI in the future when displays become DVI only.