Have a question about running two monitors. I use one for the game and second one for TS etc. I am thinking about buying a new video card, can I run two cards with one monitor on each card if they are different cards not sli/crossfire.
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Two Monitors/two Video Cards?
Started by Gatth, Oct 13 2014 06:36 AM
11 replies to this topic
#2
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- Giant Helper
- 900 posts
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- LocationSt. Clements, Ontario
Posted 13 October 2014 - 01:59 PM
I'm not sure about 1 monitor per card when you have 2, but I know you can run 2-3 monitors on a single card, I have a single Radeon HD 6970, before that a GTX 560TI, Both 2GB GDDR5 and I was able to run a game on 1 monitor and MSI Afterburner, TS and other stuff on the other monitor. Just make sure the card got the proper connections for the monitors you want to hook up to it.
in other words, if you want to get a new card to upgrade, you can sell your old card to go towards the new one unless you want to take the old card out and keep it as a backup.
in other words, if you want to get a new card to upgrade, you can sell your old card to go towards the new one unless you want to take the old card out and keep it as a backup.
Edited by Lord Letto, 13 October 2014 - 02:01 PM.
#3
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- The Hammer
- 48 posts
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Posted 13 October 2014 - 02:32 PM
Actually, you can do different things, depending on what you want.
I currently have two monitors set up connected to the same video card, which is set up to run CrossFire with my second identical card. The two connections are DVI+ and DVI-, though the + one is converted to VGA via an adapter just because my bigger monitor for whatever reason doesn't have DVI input(though it has a couple other ports).
In the same system, I could simply connect one monitor to the other video card instead. In that case though, I couldn't run the setup in Crossfire mode, though just one of these cards is still enough to run MWO just fine in high settings. They are Radeon HD6790s, not that old but not brand new either.
The general rule is that if you want to combine video cards in Crossfire/SLI, you can only output via one card as the other cards outputs don't work anymore. Now, of course if that card has multiple connections, it would very likely be able to support multiple monitors. Some cards even have this single port called a dual-link DVI, which is meant to be connected to a splitter that has two DVI- ports. For example, the new NVidia Geforce GTX980 has one of these, along with an HDMI and 3 DisplayPort ports. It supposedly supports up to 4 monitors at once.
So, to confirm your original question. Yes, you can have two different non-SLI/crossfire cards, running separately whatever monitors they each individually support. Though, depending on what your current card is, you may very well be able to already run multiple monitors on it. If you tell us exactly what it is, or at least if it is the original card that came in your computer, what computer you have, then I can confirm what ports it has, and whether(and how) you can use it for multiple monitors.
I currently have two monitors set up connected to the same video card, which is set up to run CrossFire with my second identical card. The two connections are DVI+ and DVI-, though the + one is converted to VGA via an adapter just because my bigger monitor for whatever reason doesn't have DVI input(though it has a couple other ports).
In the same system, I could simply connect one monitor to the other video card instead. In that case though, I couldn't run the setup in Crossfire mode, though just one of these cards is still enough to run MWO just fine in high settings. They are Radeon HD6790s, not that old but not brand new either.
The general rule is that if you want to combine video cards in Crossfire/SLI, you can only output via one card as the other cards outputs don't work anymore. Now, of course if that card has multiple connections, it would very likely be able to support multiple monitors. Some cards even have this single port called a dual-link DVI, which is meant to be connected to a splitter that has two DVI- ports. For example, the new NVidia Geforce GTX980 has one of these, along with an HDMI and 3 DisplayPort ports. It supposedly supports up to 4 monitors at once.
So, to confirm your original question. Yes, you can have two different non-SLI/crossfire cards, running separately whatever monitors they each individually support. Though, depending on what your current card is, you may very well be able to already run multiple monitors on it. If you tell us exactly what it is, or at least if it is the original card that came in your computer, what computer you have, then I can confirm what ports it has, and whether(and how) you can use it for multiple monitors.
#4
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- Wrath
- 10 posts
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- LocationPEI
Posted 13 October 2014 - 02:43 PM
My current card is a evga 750ti. I am currently running two monitors on it. I plan on upgrading to a bigger card since i went and bought a asus 4k ultra hd monitor.and cant run at full uhd with this card.
#5
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- The Howl
- 90 posts
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Posted 13 October 2014 - 03:00 PM
I don't know if you can run different cards and different monitors on the same motherboard. Probably not cost effective anyway. Might as well just run two monitors on one GPU. Any modern GPU can do that nowadays. www.newegg.com is running specials on AMD GPUs and some Nvidia GPUs. Discounts probably will expire soon though.
#6
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- The Hammer
- 48 posts
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Posted 13 October 2014 - 07:00 PM
Well, he is using a dedicated card, not one integrated on the motherboard, and as is said in the post, there are already two monitors on the single card. Gatth just wants to upgrade due to buying a bigger monitor that the 750TI can't handle at big resolutions.
A possibly cheap solution could be to just buy a second card equal to the one you already have. But, I can't guarantee if that will provide enough power for what you want to do, considering that those are really more midrange cards and it is possible that even in SLI they may not be enough. If it were to be enough though, it is likely the cheapest solution.
Now, this discussion assumes your computer can handle a second card in the first place(as does the above paragraph and my first post). You would still have to have available power and available power connectors from your PSU for the second card. And you would have to have an available PCIE port on your motherboard.
Another solution if you can get enough power in a single card for what you want(likely but wouldn't be in midrange cards), you could buy a nice card. You could then install your new monitor onto that card and keep your older card on your secondary monitor. Windows(and I'm sure Linux and Mac too) can handle this setup just fine. You have to remember though to keep the primary card the one closer to the processor so it is understood via your BIOS and MOBO which card is primary and which is secondary. The catch to this method is simply that you won't be able to combine the two cards via SLI to get extra power, so each monitor will only get power from each card. I'm not sure on the details of running things between both screens either. I've never had problems passing things from one monitor to another like this, and having simple things(web browser, text editor) spanned between the monitors. But I don't think you can have a game on both monitors at once, even windowed, though I could be wrong about that. I understand that this isn't your goal anyway so I just mention it as a detail.
A possibly cheap solution could be to just buy a second card equal to the one you already have. But, I can't guarantee if that will provide enough power for what you want to do, considering that those are really more midrange cards and it is possible that even in SLI they may not be enough. If it were to be enough though, it is likely the cheapest solution.
Now, this discussion assumes your computer can handle a second card in the first place(as does the above paragraph and my first post). You would still have to have available power and available power connectors from your PSU for the second card. And you would have to have an available PCIE port on your motherboard.
Another solution if you can get enough power in a single card for what you want(likely but wouldn't be in midrange cards), you could buy a nice card. You could then install your new monitor onto that card and keep your older card on your secondary monitor. Windows(and I'm sure Linux and Mac too) can handle this setup just fine. You have to remember though to keep the primary card the one closer to the processor so it is understood via your BIOS and MOBO which card is primary and which is secondary. The catch to this method is simply that you won't be able to combine the two cards via SLI to get extra power, so each monitor will only get power from each card. I'm not sure on the details of running things between both screens either. I've never had problems passing things from one monitor to another like this, and having simple things(web browser, text editor) spanned between the monitors. But I don't think you can have a game on both monitors at once, even windowed, though I could be wrong about that. I understand that this isn't your goal anyway so I just mention it as a detail.
#7
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- Wrath
- 10 posts
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- LocationPEI
Posted 14 October 2014 - 05:34 AM
Lots of good info there guys I think I know what I needed to know now! My logic was that a card running a single monitor should perform better then a card running two monitors, yes/no? From the posts I have read MWO does not support SLI/Crossfire so my plan was to buy a big card for the gaming monitor and keep the old card to run the desktop monitor. I guess I will just have to try it and see what happens.
#8
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- The 1 Percent
- 1,986 posts
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Posted 14 October 2014 - 05:46 AM
I don't think you'll notice a difference between everything on the big gpu and an extra card for some low intensity 2d stuff, but you might as well try.
#9
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- The Hammer
- 48 posts
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Posted 15 October 2014 - 11:25 AM
Well, considering you have an old card and want to just buy a newer card, and aren't interested in SLI/CrossfireX anyway, I'd just do one monitor per card.
As far as performance, I'm understanding that yes the performance can drop with a second monitor, on the same card, but if you aren't doing anything graphics intensive it shouldn't be much difference, though I could be wrong on that account. In any case, if you just use both cards like you say you wouldn't run into that problem anyway.
As far as performance, I'm understanding that yes the performance can drop with a second monitor, on the same card, but if you aren't doing anything graphics intensive it shouldn't be much difference, though I could be wrong on that account. In any case, if you just use both cards like you say you wouldn't run into that problem anyway.
#10
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- Elite Founder
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- LocationGallifrey
Posted 15 October 2014 - 11:42 AM
I run dual monitors off of my MSI AMD7850 and I haven't ever experienced any performance issues. I can't speak to having SLI/Crossfire setups, but one card and two monitors shouldn't be a problem at all. Typically when I am running MWO, I have the game open on my primary monitor and Mumble on my second. I have one DVI+ connection and one I had to convert from display port to DVI+. Bought the card without realizing that I was going to need dual DVI ports..........
#11
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- Legendary Founder
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Posted 22 October 2014 - 02:58 AM
Yes you can.
Bear in mind that if at some point you plan on using SLI / crossfire, you want the card driving the second monitor to be of a DIFFERENT make to your SLI / XFire cards.
ie if you want to do multi monitors with two nvidia cards driving the main display, and a secondary display just for TS etc, you would want the secondary card to be a NON-nvidia card.
If your main GPU has muliple outputs (Which any decent nvidia / ati card will) then you can do multi-monitor on one card.
I use 3 monitors on one nvidia GPU, but I only use the central monitor for games - side monitors are for TS etc.
Bear in mind that if at some point you plan on using SLI / crossfire, you want the card driving the second monitor to be of a DIFFERENT make to your SLI / XFire cards.
ie if you want to do multi monitors with two nvidia cards driving the main display, and a secondary display just for TS etc, you would want the secondary card to be a NON-nvidia card.
If your main GPU has muliple outputs (Which any decent nvidia / ati card will) then you can do multi-monitor on one card.
I use 3 monitors on one nvidia GPU, but I only use the central monitor for games - side monitors are for TS etc.
#12
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- Overlord
- 1,566 posts
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- LocationCanada
Posted 22 October 2014 - 11:34 AM
Greetings,
Yes to the question.
Now if you go to the Nvidia control panel, there is a section specifically dedicated to how to connect monitors and cards together.
- It lists all the configuration choices that you can have and what ports to plug into for each.
9erRed
Yes to the question.
Now if you go to the Nvidia control panel, there is a section specifically dedicated to how to connect monitors and cards together.
- It lists all the configuration choices that you can have and what ports to plug into for each.
9erRed
Edited by 9erRed, 22 October 2014 - 05:59 PM.
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