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DieCommie

Registered: 12/11/03
Posts: 29,258
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Three monitors - Different GPUs?
#14099688 - 03/10/11 06:22 PM (12 years, 10 months ago) |
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Can I run three monitors off of two video cards that each use different drivers? That is, does Windows 7 support or somehow allow so called "Heterogeneous multi-adapter"?
I have looked around, and found conflicting info. Somewhere I found that Vista does not but 7 does, is that the case?
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Shroomism
Space Travellin



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Re: Three monitors - Different GPUs? [Re: DieCommie]
#14101993 - 03/11/11 01:20 AM (12 years, 10 months ago) |
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Depends, are we talking Nvidia or ATI GPUs? What specific cards? If we are talking Nvidia GPUs then most of the recent drivers should be compatible with most series of cards. If you are talking about running an ATI card next to an Nvidia card, good luck.. Although I have heard of people getting it working with a hacked .ini file.. in most cases the drivers will conflict.
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5HTSynaptrip
Dopamine Enthusiast




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Re: Three monitors - Different GPUs? [Re: Shroomism]
#14103504 - 03/11/11 11:19 AM (12 years, 10 months ago) |
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I wasn't sure if the OP meant 3 monitors as 1 (eyefinity) or just having 3 separate displays.
The Radeon 6970 is amazing for eyefinity it has a lot of ports.
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Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge. - My hero, who will be forever remembered, Carl Sagan.
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DieCommie

Registered: 12/11/03
Posts: 29,258
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Re: Three monitors - Different GPUs? [Re: 5HTSynaptrip]
#14108303 - 03/12/11 10:58 AM (12 years, 10 months ago) |
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Im interested in having three separate displays.
Right now I have a Radeon HD 4830 running two 19" monitors. Soon I would like to get a better card, and a bigger monitor. My thought is to run my big, main monitor with the new card and run the two 19" monitors with my current card.
My new card would probably be a Radeon as well, but the 5000 series which I believe has different drivers.
From my readings, I have tentatively concluded that I could in fact do this with two separate drivers. Something about windows 7 and WDDM, I dont understand very well. I hope that before I pull the trigger and make the purchase that I can be sure it would work.
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Shroomism
Space Travellin



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Re: Three monitors - Different GPUs? [Re: DieCommie]
#14108920 - 03/12/11 01:00 PM (12 years, 10 months ago) |
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Or you could just get this and just run 1 card. Will run 3 displays in 3d surround or 4 separate. Probably priced around 300-350 Or wait for the GTX590 to come out (soon) which will blow everything else away. I'm an Nvidia guy myself.
I don't really know anything about how ATIs drivers work though, with nvidia drivers it's possible to run two driver sets side-by-side with a modified .ini file. So if you are sticking with Radeon look into that... I'd also check out the 6970 as 5HT said. Also if you are planning on adding a 2nd card make sure your PSU can support both.
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daytripper05
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Re: Three monitors - Different GPUs? [Re: DieCommie]
#14113396 - 03/13/11 09:32 AM (12 years, 10 months ago) |
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In my experience two 24" (or bigger) monitors is better than three. I have three monitors at work and I have to rotate my chair and turn my head to use the third one (I don't use very often). Glancing from the far right monitor to the far left makes me dizzy. It could probably be better with different positioning, but I still wouldn't like to use it anymore.
This is just my preference, you may like three monitors...
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5HTSynaptrip
Dopamine Enthusiast




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Re: Three monitors - Different GPUs? [Re: Shroomism]
#14114732 - 03/13/11 03:34 PM (12 years, 10 months ago) |
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Not sure if things changed but Nvidia had some bullshit their drivers that fucked with nvidia/ati cards working on the same machine. Maybe there are modded drivers for this but that's going to be a hassle and who knows if they're up to date.
If you have the money now the cheapest and easiest solution is to get a Radeon 6950. It will handle 3 monitors and currently they're still shipping the cards with the original hardware on them that allows the hacked bios to basically make them into 6970's with just minor differences in clock speeds (that really only limits OC potential which is probably irrelevant for you).
So you could forget about the nightmare of even messing with two cards by getting the 6950 for a little over $200. It'll run very well and the bios flash gives you way more bang for your buck. If you get bigger monitors it should be fine handling high resolutions as well.
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Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge. - My hero, who will be forever remembered, Carl Sagan.
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Shroomism
Space Travellin



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Re: Three monitors - Different GPUs? [Re: 5HTSynaptrip]
#14115402 - 03/13/11 05:54 PM (12 years, 10 months ago) |
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I got nothing against ATI, def a good bang for your buck.. don't mind me I just work for a major Nvidia-only company so might be a little biased
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DieCommie

Registered: 12/11/03
Posts: 29,258
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Re: Three monitors - Different GPUs? [Re: 5HTSynaptrip]
#14115494 - 03/13/11 06:08 PM (12 years, 10 months ago) |
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I dont generally like all in one solutions or expensive specialty kinds of cards. I like to stay more flexible and cheap than that. From my readings, it looks like doing two ATI cards for three monitors will be doable. I believe that with Windows 7 WDDM even doing an ATI and a Nvidia card would work. But I am more attracted by ATI's price point. It looks like most of ATI's cards use the same driver anyway... Before making this thread I thought that the newer ones had different drivers.
Now to find scope out some deals on hardware...
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snoot
look alive ∞




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Re: Three monitors - Different GPUs? [Re: DieCommie]
#14117012 - 03/13/11 10:51 PM (12 years, 10 months ago) |
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graphic cards can be confusing sometimes, there are so many lil things involved in them, and alot of them to choose from damnit. Im fixing to build a computer for battlefield 3 so I need to start learnin.
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∞ I am incapable of conceiving infinity, and yet I do not accept finity. - Simone de Beauvoir -
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5HTSynaptrip
Dopamine Enthusiast




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Re: Three monitors - Different GPUs? [Re: DieCommie]
#14127675 - 03/15/11 10:04 PM (12 years, 10 months ago) |
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Quote:
DieCommie said: I dont generally like all in one solutions or expensive specialty kinds of cards. I like to stay more flexible and cheap than that. From my readings, it looks like doing two ATI cards for three monitors will be doable. I believe that with Windows 7 WDDM even doing an ATI and a Nvidia card would work. But I am more attracted by ATI's price point. It looks like most of ATI's cards use the same driver anyway... Before making this thread I thought that the newer ones had different drivers.
Now to find scope out some deals on hardware...
I'm not sure if you're referencing the 6950/6970 when you said all in one solution/specialty because they aren't specialty. That is more like the just released 6990. The 6950 is great specifically because of the 3 monitor ability. The cards come with the adapters as well for mini HDMI to HDMI.
If you get one let me know because I bought 2 6970's and have plenty of the adapters and cables and like I said you can flash the bios to get the performance very close to the 6970 which a great find from the community because it saves you like $130.
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Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge. - My hero, who will be forever remembered, Carl Sagan.
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