Tech nerds - Video Card Question re:SLI

[ACMarina]

Hey guys,

I'm working on a computer right now for a guy I work with. He wanted a new board and chip, and I was thinking the A8N-SLI would be a good idea since I have several of them around. Here's the kicker, though -

He wants to run 3 monitors. Two are main display monitors, and he wants a third monitor over to the side to watch the RadarLab HD feed he subscribed to. If I get two video cards that allow dual monitors, can we hook up monitors one and two on the primary and the third on the secondary?? He's not a gamer, so he wouldn't even be *using* SLI as it's intended - can I do this?? I've never tried and only have two monitors myself..

Thoughts?

 

[bitslammer]

Just be careful which hardware you choose. On my system I have 2x Nvidia GeForce 7600 cards in SLI mode. Once SLI was enabled there was no more dual monitor option. From my understanding it's an Nvidia driver issue.

For a little more info:

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=22820

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=35594

 

[bfg9000]

If he's no gamer, either a Matrox Parhelia or any two cheapo video cards (one with dual outputs) will work fine.

Heck, even one PCI-E card plus one or two old PCI video cards from 1996 will work, so going for a SLI board is completely unnecessary.

http://www.realtimesoft.com/multimon/guide/
http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=357&pgno=0
http://www.multiplemonitors.org/Pages - about MMI/MMI - getting started.html

 

[ACMarina]

I *already* have the SLI board, and I'm under the impression that if I don't set the cards up in SLI mode that they'll function independently. Anybody??

 

[bitslammer]

I *already* have the SLI board, and I'm under the impression that if I don't set the cards up in SLI mode that they'll function independently. Anybody??

Yes my board is SLI capable and I can simply uncheck the SLI option on the video control panel and have dual monitor with no issues.

 

[Bravo25]

not to hijack the thread, but since this is a video post...

Does anyone know how to get 2 independent desktops on one large monitor? Not virtual, but 2 independent ones that display at the same time?

 

[nate4096]

@ Bravo25:

The display would have to support that. Many newer plasmas or lcds have a side by side display option but the resolution would be so low. I don't know why you would want to do that but hey it's possible.

 

[z96Cobra]

I've never tried it, but could you do one monitor on each video card, and then use the motherboards on-board video (if it has it) to run a 3rd monitor?

Roger