2 monitors with 2 video cards not sli?

[monarols]

Hello,
I cuurently have 2 x 24" monitors connected to one GTX 260 (Dual DVI-Out)I would like to buy a second GTX 260, and put one monitor to one card, and one monitor to the other card, but not SLI the cards. Will this help improve frame rates in FS9/X as I always have the aircraft panel in one monitor and a wing view, permenantly on the other monitor. Currently FS9 handles this arrangement OK, re frames, but whe! Cheers chrisn you undock the second new window and drag it to the second monitor in FSX, frame rates plumment to unplayable. Thanks for any advice

 

[bravo95]

So your saying you want to get another GTX 260 and not sli it with the other moniter? I don't think that's possible but i may be wrong. Some one has to back me up on that. But just out of curiosity, why wouldn't you want to sli it. That right there will boost your fps.

 

[monarols]

So your saying you want to get another GTX 260 and not sli it with the other moniter? I don't think that's possible but i may be wrong. Some one has to back me up on that. But just out of curiosity, why wouldn't you want to sli it. That right there will boost your fps.

Thanks for your reply Bravo. I guess I am not sure what SLI means, but have read that it doesnt help FSx much. I realize that FSX is VERY CPU intensive. I currently run a i5 860 @ stable at 3.46 Ghz when flying the sim.

Its just the second window problem with FSX. As I mentioned earlier, FS9 with terrain addons etc, with my one card/2 monitor setup (both window mode @ 1900x1200, granted pretty high res) in one window getting around 60fps. When a second window is undocked and maximised and dragged to the other monitor, frames drop to a still playable 30 fps. If i do the same in FSX, same situation, frames go from a playable 34 fps to around 12-14.

FSX still has the visual edge, I reckon, but if a video card addon isnt going to pull the frames up to at least "playable" I may as well stick with FS9.

Thanks Chris

 

[jrichards]

you would add the second card and connect them together in sli mode, both monitors connect to the first card but you graphics power is doubled, fsx supports sli mode and is multi monitor aware in sli so it should "know" that you have 2 monitors connected and allow you to do what you want.

 

[bravo95]

Yeah thats right, jrichards. See i didn't know if that was right or not so i didn't want to be saying it. I say something that isn't true?
Anyways if you are getting the other card is should bring up your performance graphical wise. But as you said your using a cpu ( FSX ). Sli does cover some of it, keyword some; not all.

What sli is "Scalable Link Interface", the purpose is for it is to run 2 cards at once to boost your performance 2x. "- ATI is crossfire -" Like crysis, you can't play it on all high with one gpu and not stay above 75. Your single gpu is going to go below 60 at least at some moments of the game. You can do what Jrichards said to do. Which is get another of the card then sli them and connect both your moniter cables to the "1" card only.

 

[jrichards]

from looking around it is still a pain because FSX only sees max screen res so it appears you need to set them up as one large display and then run in windowed mode. (apparently a vista limitation) You are going to have to play with it as there are a lot of google hits on it. But 2 is definitly better than 1 so there will be an improvement and you can run them non sli and extend your desktop as you asked, but how windows and FSX will feel about that remains to be seen. I know ATI cards can do that when not in crossfire. Test it out and let us know which works better.

 

[monarols]

Thanks chaps, Ill look around for another GTX then and experiment tryting out different configs


Uh-Oh...problem....Just done some more research...I have the Asus P7P55D board which doesnt support nVidia SLI Tech, but has ATI Quad GPU Crossfire support :-(....so whats my options now? Chuck away a good GTX 260 to buy 2 x ATI cards?...damn technology, LoL

 

[jrichards]

The EVO would have been the better choice to pair with a gtx 260. Id say grab a 5850 which would have almost twice the performance of that gtx 260.

Sell the GTX 260 to someone that could use it.

5850 will do 3 monitors out of the box...

 

[monarols]

Best answer selected by monarols.