SLI: Clap On/Off?

[Pixel Eater]

I have three 24" monitors. My immediate plans are to run them across an 8800GTX and a 7600GT. I may want to upgrade. I know SLI provides only one output. My question is, could I have two 8800's on 3 monitors and easily turn SLI on for a one monitor gaming session, then disable it again? Would this be desirable?

 

[Hurin]

In XP, you can enable and disable SLi without restarting. So it's less of a hassle. In Vista, I believe you still have to restart.

That's about as helpful as I can be with this however. I can't really speak as to whether the whole scheme is feasible or not. But it does sound reasonable.

 

[Unknown-One]

You could also use 2x 8800's in SLI to drive the center screen, and use the 7600GT to drive the two outer screens.

The two 8800's will take up your PCIe 16x slots, so you'll need to put the 7600GT in a free PCIe 1x or 4x slot.

 

[Pixel Eater]

Hmm... My old setup (sig) was just before PCI-X, so I'm still not experienced with it. I didn't know I could relegate the 7600 to a 1x or 4x. Any disadvantages to that?

Also, is there any issue within operating systems concerning the use of DX9 and 10 cards simultaneously?

 

[Unknown-One]

The only difference between the different speed slots is the number of lanes, so you can put a PCIe 1x card in a 16x slot as easily as you can put a 16x card in a 1x slot. Just file away the plastic from the end of the 1x slot so the 16x card can slide in, and you'll be good to go. The 7600GT will receive a performance penalty due to the reduced bandwidth available on a 1x slot, but you won't ever notice unless you start a game up on it. Considering you're going for an 8800GTS SLI setup, I highly doubt you'll be starting any games up on the 7600GT.

As for drivers...it *should* work just fine. Install the drivers for the 7600GT first, and the drivers for the 8800's second, and you should be good to go.