2xVideoCards(SLI) x 3 monitors = no?

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corry29

Weaksauce
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Feb 23, 2009
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Hey everyone,
I have a question about 2x video cards in SLI and 3 monitors,

basically, If I have 2x video cards in SLI, the most monitors I can run is 2 monitors?
Right?
If i want to run 3 monitors, I would have to disable the SLI feature, am i correct?

So basically if I want to run 3 monitors with the SLI feature enabled, I have to get a third card?

is there a way where i can run 3 monitors with only 2 video cards with the SLI feature enabled?

can someone educate me :)

*1st post
 
The best answer I could find was here (slizone.com is an nVidia website), but it left me asking questions:

http://www.slizone.com/page/slizone_faq.html#s7

How many monitors are supported when running in SLI mode?

With GeForce R180 drivers, SLI supports a maximum of two monitors with both monitors connected to the same GPU within your SLI group. For instance, if you have a 3-way SLI configuration, you can connect two monitors to one of the GPUs and leave SLI enabled. You can enable more monitors by using a third GPU that is NVIDIA PhysX capable (GeForce 8 series and higher with at least 256MB of memory) and is a different GPU than your SLI GPUs. For example, a configuration with two GeForce GTX 280s in SLI and a single GeForce 8800 GT is capable of supporting six monitors.
Click to expand...

That last sentence confuses me - you connect two monitors to one of the GTX 280s in SLI, and from what I understand you can't connect them to the other one, which means you're connecting four monitors to the 8800GT? I don't get it.
 
You could just have your main monitor attached to the SLI setup and have a 3rd video card for the other 2 monitors, assuming you have the room/slots/power for 3 video cards.

The card driving the extra 2 monitors wouldn't have to be a high end card - just something with 2 ports like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814145146

You could evn drive the extra 2 monitors with old PCI cards but that'd be especially ugly.
 
I have a EVGA 750i FTW though,
so I suppose that I can only have 2x Video cards,
my video cards are GTX 260s

If im able to slide that PCI video card in between the 260's will it work?
do you think it will fit? lol
 
evilsofa said:
The best answer I could find was here (slizone.com is an nVidia website), but it left me asking questions:

http://www.slizone.com/page/slizone_faq.html#s7



That last sentence confuses me - you connect two monitors to one of the GTX 280s in SLI, and from what I understand you can't connect them to the other one, which means you're connecting four monitors to the 8800GT? I don't get it.
Click to expand...
lol yeah, I find that to be the most fucked up sentence ever. I think they mean a total of 4 monitors.. but I could be wrong. The way it's stated, you can connect two monitors to the SLI config (the main card only), then you can connect two more to a 8800GT. I don't know where they get 6 from. :p
 
BravO))) said:
4850x2 ft3mw
Click to expand...

You're retarded.


If you have an SLi configuration, think of it as a single video card, connected using the bridge instead of a PCB.
You can only run two monitors using a CrossfireX or SLi configuration, as it is recognized as a single video adapter.

The sentence on the NV Website is wrong, it says that the two 280s in SLI can run two monitors, and the 8800GT for PhysX can run 4 monitors, it is meant to say two monitors, unless they count using a splittler for each of the DVI heads.
 
LanceDiamond said:
You could just have your main monitor attached to the SLI setup and have a 3rd video card for the other 2 monitors, assuming you have the room/slots/power for 3 video cards.

The card driving the extra 2 monitors wouldn't have to be a high end card - just something with 2 ports like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814145146

You could evn drive the extra 2 monitors with old PCI cards but that'd be especially ugly.
Click to expand...

sadly, I don't, the 750i only has 2x PCI Express 2.0 x16 ports,
that only leaves me with a simple PCI Slot

any suggestion on a third card with only PCI
 
Drakan, you need to take it down a notch or two

(1) Absolutely NO FLAMING, NAME CALLING OR PERSONAL ATTACKS. Mutual respect and civilized conversation is the required norm.

If you think that the a pair of 4850 is a bad or baseless suggestion, then explain that.
 
corry29 said:
sadly, I don't, the 750i only has 2x PCI Express 2.0 x16 ports,
that only leaves me with a simple PCI Slot

any suggestion on a third card with only PCI
Click to expand...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814145136

I think it should fit just fine - looking at the picture of your mobo on Newegg, the PCI slots are off to the side. If you don't already have a PCI card in there then you should have lots of room. The only other question would be whether SLI does anything weird having a 3rd card in the picture that isn't SLI. I would bet it works fine.
 
LanceDiamond said:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814145136

I think it should fit just fine - looking at the picture of your mobo on Newegg, the PCI slots are off to the side. If you don't already have a PCI card in there then you should have lots of room. The only other question would be whether SLI does anything weird having a 3rd card in the picture that isn't SLI. I would bet it works fine.
Click to expand...

Im not sure, but are all nvidia drivers the same version? so right now the version for all drivers (that they still update) is like at 182. something? does that mean that if I get a third card, it has to be the same version number as my 2x 260s?

that fx 5 series drivers only go up to 96. so would that not work?
i don't know though,

but will something like this work also:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814187058

thanks for ur insight
 
I was sort of thinking having an old NVidia card might cause a problem because the NVidia driver takes over when it's doing SLI and your point about ForceWare not supporting the older card got me thinking more about that.

I found this somewhat old thread: http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=6269&st=0

What that thread says to do is get an ATI PCI card to prevent this happening - then you wouldn't have to worry about driver versions either. You'd install the most current drivers for your NVidia cards and the most current for the non-NVidia card.

So we've arrived at this one now: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161010

On the bright side it's only $40. :)

Edit: If you do this BE SURE to change your BIOS options to boot the PCI-E cards first. Else you may drop the PCI card in and not boot or something.
 
jaboki said:
crazy
Click to expand...

Crazy is accidentally building a system that will support 4 monitors. :D

Last January I decided to build a spare parts computer using this mobo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813186115

I put an NVidia 7800GTX in, booted installed everything etc. Playing around with the drivers, I noticed Windows sees FOUR monitors lol. The 2 ports built on the mobo + the 2 on the 7800GTX. I never did hook up four monitors but Windows (Vista) saw them all.
 
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