Can I setup a 4 monitors configuration for my desktop with two NVidia 610GT cards?
Or said in another way, is it possible to use 2 graphics cards if they don't have SLI?
My motherboard is an Intel DX79SI
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Can I setup a 4 monitors configuration for my desktop with two NVidia 610GT cards?
Yes, that should work.
Or said in another way, is it possible to use 2 graphics cards if they don't have SLI?
Yes. It is quite possible to use multiple graphic cards, even different models or different brands, at the same time. There is a catch though. XP did not support multiple drivers for graphics cards, so you had to have cards which used the same driver.
With Vista and later, or with a BSDs or Linux this is not a problem (no idea about OS X).
Note that you do not want to use Crossfire or SLI. Both will use both GPUs but will only use the outputs on the primary card. That means two 610T's can either drive up to 4 monitors without SLI, or up to 2 in SLI mode.
Added information from the Nvidia FAQ on multiple monitor and SLI.
How many monitors are supported when running in SLI mode?
With GeForce R180 drivers (or later), standard SLI configurations for
2-way, 3-Way and quad SLI support a maximum of two monitors.
Additional monitors (up to 6 monitors total enabled) may be enabled
by using either a motherboard GPU and/or a PhysX capable graphics card
(GeForce 8 series or higher with at least 256MB of memory) that does
not have the same GPU as those that are SLI enabled**.
Relevant parts from this quote:
- Maximal two monitors when SLI is enabled.
- More monitors can be added via other cards.
They state other Nvidia cards, but any brand cards should work fine as long as you are not using XP or older).
The same is true for AMDs crossfire. This text from an AMD representative explains it quite well (and the same idea is true for SLI).
When CrossFire is enabled, the memory is mirrored, so the secondary card
can't do its own thing. The primary card gives it some jobs to do (render
this texture, figure out where that shadow falls, etc), and the secondary
card does it, and sends it back to the first. Trying to have the secondary
card do all of that, and generate output for a single monitor, would be
impossible. It's just how CrossFire is designed, which is for optimal
performance, not for multiple monitors.
Recap:
Yes, multiple monitors on multiple graphic cards will work. Do do not need SLI for that. In fact, it will not even work with SLI enabled. Without it should work fine.
