Dual monitors: GTX285 or GTX295?

[spufaru]

Hi - I'm debating the above cards for my new core i7 build, here's my question:

The majority of my work is with productivity apps on a two-monitor setup in Vista with multiple windows open (web browsers, spreadsheets, java apps, Photoshop). I'm assuming most of the above do not use SLI, so then if I'm running a single GTX295, is it only utilizing one GPU for the majority of my work? And if yes, then I assume a single GTX285 would bench higher than a GTX295 for general windows productivity use when I've got dual monitors going?

I would like to play occasional cutting edge games with the system, but not at the expense of my work.

Thanks!

 

[trentdk]

Hehe, I run multiple monitors using 8800 GTSs... you're splitting a fine performance line between those two cards.

Just for reference: I run 3 Dell 2209wa monitors on two 8800 GTS cards. When I'm doing production, the cards are not in SLI mode, and it smokes Adobe CS4, Sony Vegas... anything I use... no complaints. I usually have IE, firefox, chrome, photoshop, illustrator, OOO, media player, mysql gui apps, etc etc open, and its still as smooth as can be.

When I game, I switch to SLI (disables one monitor).

Your work is going to fly on either of those cards (and any game), so just get the best deal.

To answer your gtx295 question, it'll be attempting to use both GPUs in a desktop environment, but the performance gain would be negligible (I'm speculating).

Just personally, I'd go with gtx285