sli video cards?

Aaron Wilson · February 10, 2006

I'm looking to update my pc. I would like to use 2 monitors as i'm told its a lot easyer with ps cs2. I was looking at mohter boards and video cards.. I guess AGP is on phase out. Has any one tryed this new "[FONT=arial, helvetica]dual PCI Express (SLI)" with 2 video cards? If so what cards, how do you like it, and how does it work? Does 1 monitor go into 1 card and the other into the other?
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David_S85 · February 10, 2006

I'm moving this thread to Digital Darkroom.

CatOne · February 10, 2006

Aaron Wilson wrote:

I'm looking to update my pc. I would like to use 2 monitors as i'm told its a lot easyer with ps cs2. I was looking at mohter boards and video cards.. I guess AGP is on phase out. Has any one tryed this new "[FONT=arial, helvetica]dual PCI Express (SLI)" with 2 video cards? If so what cards, how do you like it, and how does it work? Does 1 monitor go into 1 card and the other into the other?
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Why can't you just hook 2 monitors up to one video card? All the decent cards these days have dual DVI output.

SLI is great if you're doing lots of 3D gaming. You need a motherboard that supports it, and it will cost you a lot of money. But to run dual monitors, dual video cards aren't necessary -- just dual connectors on your video card.

Rhuarc · February 10, 2006

Unless you are going to be doing a lot of instense gaming SLI is not needed. All that it does is makes so that one video card renders one frame, and the other card renders the next frame. This way each card is only doing half the work. (Or each card renders half the screen of each frame) When using photoshop as far as I know having a powerful graphics setup really won't do much. It is MUCH more important to have a fast processor and TONS of RAM!!

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong!

(but I don't think I am!)

kini62 · February 10, 2006

As stated above two video cards in SLI won't help your photo shop and is designed for mainly for gamers.

Also with 2 video cards in SLI mode you can still only run 2 monitors, but with 2 video cards in two seperate slots you could possible run 4 monitors. I'm not sure how to do this, but I'm sure it can be done.

So get a good video card with dual DVI outputs and run 2 monitors.

Gene

davemj98 · February 10, 2006

SLI Video Cards

AGP video cards are a generation older than SLI. PCI express is the next generation and there are many of those around. SLI is the latest, and if you check with Alienware I think they have a way of running 4 at a time. Quite interesting reading. Inasmuchas I have not won that darn lottery, I had to figure out how to make my old Sony MCE last another year or two.
First they make some screaming AGP video cards (ATI XL800XL) that will enable you to play the very latest video games (Half Life 2, Doom 3, Serious Sam 2) really well. And you can have your dual monitor set up. But if you want CS2 to run well, upgrading to 2 GB RAM is still cheaper than anything else.

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ChrisJ · February 10, 2006

davemj98 wrote:

AGP video cards are a generation older than SLI. PCI express is the next generation and there are many of those around. SLI is the latest, and if you check with Alienware I think they have a way of running 4 at a time.

Just a nit... SLI is not really a "generation". There have been PCI SLI video cards for a long time (3dfx Voodoo2 way back in the 90s). The latest development is the addition of a second PCI-Express slot on motherboards which allows the PCI-Express video cards to use SLI (and appropriate drivers from the manufacturers).

SLI is mostly used to boost framerates in FPS video games... not really needed for Photoshop.

There's nothing wrong with getting a motherboard that supports SLI and only installing one video card. You lose a PCI slot, but almost everything is on the motherboard now, anyway.

Having 2 Video cards, each driving one monitor, will give a little bit of a perfomance advantage... But as has been said above, it would be much more economical to buy more RAM or a faster CPU.

Aaron Wilson · February 10, 2006

hmmm
I was thinking of 2 video cards more for sony vegas and ulead video editing. The card I have now is a small 64mb ati card. Never game as my card will not support it. I would like to hook up 2 monitors just for photoshop. I have a 19inch (i think) (viewsonic a91f+) as my main monitor. For the second monitor it can be smaller correct or would you go about the same size? I would like to be able to get some gaming going but my sole use would be for photography and video editing. THank you all for all your feed back!

davemj98 · February 11, 2006

video card
I would get a video card that has at least 256 MB on board processing (that relieves your CPU of a lot of work) and if you do not have an existing flat screen then a couple of 17 or 19 inch monitors can be set up together.
I use a 19 and use my older 15 for my pallettes in CS2; once you get dual screens, you wont ever want it any other way; as addictive as a cell phone.

ChrisJ · February 11, 2006

Aaron Wilson wrote:

I was thinking of 2 video cards more for sony vegas and ulead video editing. The card I have now is a small 64mb ati card. Never game as my card will not support it. I would like to hook up 2 monitors just for photoshop. I have a 19inch (i think) (viewsonic a91f+) as my main monitor. For the second monitor it can be smaller correct or would you go about the same size? I would like to be able to get some gaming going but my sole use would be for photography and video editing. THank you all for all your feed back!

Yes, the monitors can be different sizes. I have a 20" as a main and a 17" as my secondary. A second video card with more memory would be a definite improvement for games (and possibly the 2nd monitor, depending on what resolutions you want to run).

I have a single ATI Radeon 9600 video card (AGP) with 128 MB. It's a little old now, but it runs Vegas just fine. The main bottleneck with Vegas is rendering time, and that's CPU dependent.

If I was going to buy a new MB/CPU combo right now, it would probably be an ASUS A8N-SLI Motherboard with an Athlon 64 X2 3800 (or higher) CPU. I usually look at Tom's Hardware for Video Card comparisons. Choose the best within your budget.

Hope this Helps! If you have a Fry's near you, they periodically have good MB/CPU combo deals.

Aaron Wilson · February 11, 2006

Mb
I'm looking at buying the asus p5n32-sli delux. with the new d chip 3.42?
I always buy 2nd top of the line.. this time I want to go all out. Even if the cpu is 200 more then the one below it. Waht is a good pci-e card? and should i go the 512mb memory or the one bleow it will work? I know that the 128mb will work but want a little better in case I decide for the game area. Also I an running the viewsonic A91f+... I see some cxards say they have vga adaptors for the monitors.. so should I upgrade the monitor as well or will it work ok for the newer video cards. I for sure want to do 2 monitors.. I have tons of 14inch crt... laying around.

flyingpylon · February 11, 2006

ChrisJ wrote:

If I was going to buy a new MB/CPU combo right now, it would probably be an ASUS A8N-SLI Motherboard with an Athlon 64 X2 3800 (or higher) CPU.

I just built a system a few months ago with that MB/CPU combo (I got the Premium board) and 2Gb RAM. I'm not a gamer at all, so I'm just using one video card and it's passively cooled to avoid noise.

I have to say that it was by far the easiest system build I've ever done. Pretty much everything just worked without a hitch. Performance is incredible, especially compared to the PIII/600 w/384Mb RAM I had been using (ouch)!

flyingdutchie · February 11, 2006

Aaron Wilson wrote:

I was thinking of 2 video cards more for sony vegas and ulead video editing. The card I have now is a small 64mb ati card. Never game as my card will not support it. I would like to hook up 2 monitors just for photoshop. I have a 19inch (i think) (viewsonic a91f+) as my main monitor. For the second monitor it can be smaller correct or would you go about the same size? I would like to be able to get some gaming going but my sole use would be for photography and video editing. THank you all for all your feed back!

For photo and video editing,
first get plenty of RAM memory. I have 2GByte. And when photoshopping/editing, this memory is used!
Secondly, get a decent fast processor. You won't need the top of the top of the line, but at least 2GHz would be nice

If you want dual monitor, get a AGP/PCIe card that supports 2 monitors. Don't get 2 video cards. This is not necessary. Just search online a bit and find a card that supports to VGA monitors ('cause it seems that you have plenty of those monitors

)

good luck.

Aaron Wilson · February 11, 2006

Hmm
Kewl so you like that board! What video card did you buy or are using? I know they say this one board is the "gaming" board.. but I like it more for the options then the game idea.

flyingpylon · February 12, 2006

Aaron Wilson wrote:

Kewl so you like that board! What video card did you buy or are using? I know they say this one board is the "gaming" board.. but I like it more for the options then the game idea.

I puposely sacrificed a little on the video card because I didn't need top of the line 3D performance and couldn't see spending the extra money. I got an XFX GeForce 6200 with 256Mb and dual DVI that has a large black heat sink on one side. I don't have the model number handy unfortunately.

NHBubba · February 15, 2006

Pass on the SLI for anything 2D. More trouble and expense than it is worth unless you are 3D gaming (read: DirectX apps). Get youreself a decent, mid-range video card w/ two video plugs.

CatOne wrote:

All the decent cards these days have dual DVI output.

Just to clarify, I haven't seen many cards that offer dual DVI plugs. It seems to be rather rare at this point. Most offer one DVI and one 15-pin D-sub VGA connector. XFX seems to offer several mid-grade cards that offer a pair of DVI plugs. I have one on my wish-list over at Newegg myself..

NHBubba · February 15, 2006

flyingpylon wrote:

I puposely sacrificed a little on the video card because I didn't need top of the line 3D performance and couldn't see spending the extra money. I got an XFX GeForce 6200 with 256Mb and dual DVI that has a large black heat sink on one side. I don't have the model number handy unfortunately.

Any chance you could look up the model number for us at some point? It was PCIe, right? I love the idea of a passivly cooled video card and the specs on that card sound perfect. I too have been eying XFX cards because they offer dual DVI plugs. All the cards I can find at NewEgg right now are either actively cooled (have fans) or only have one DVI plug.

Aaron Wilson · February 15, 2006

card im looking at
I'm looking at getting the [FONT=&quot]PNY Geforce 6800 fries $279.99 PriceW$229 or the one abouve it. the one on top of it has 512mb as this is 128.

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flyingpylon · February 16, 2006

NHBubba wrote:

Any chance you could look up the model number for us at some point? It was PCIe, right? I love the idea of a passivly cooled video card and the specs on that card sound perfect. I too have been eying XFX cards because they offer dual DVI plugs. All the cards I can find at NewEgg right now are either actively cooled (have fans) or only have one DVI plug.

I looked up my order at NewEgg.com and here's the card I bought:

XFX PVT43PUD Geforce 6600 256MB DDR PCI Express x16 Video Card

So I guess it was a 6600, not a 6200. I bought it in August '05 for $123.00. Seemed pretty reasonable compared to $500 or more for the "latest and greatest" with power (and noise) I didn't need.

Unfortunately, when I tried to follow the link to the product page, I got a message saying "this product has been deactivated". But that's somewhat expected with video cards, manufacturers release new models constantly.

NHBubba · February 16, 2006

flyingpylon wrote:

XFX PVT43PUD Geforce 6600 256MB DDR PCI Express x16 Video Card

So I guess it was a 6600, not a 6200. I bought it in August '05 for $123.00. Seemed pretty reasonable compared to $500 or more for the "latest and greatest" with power (and noise) I didn't need.

Thank you! NewEgg doesn't seem to stock that card anymore... but mwave does!

I agree whole-heartedly. Sounds like more than enough power for my needs too. (GeForce 6600 is one up from the 6200 IIRC.) Especially considering it's fanless.

Thanks again!

sli video cards?

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