One or 2 video cards?

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NightSurge

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Ok, I need a setup that will run two monitors and have 2 instances of either WoW or EQ2 going on at the same time (one on each monitor). Would it be best to use two video cards so that each monitor gets it's own devoted card, or would it be best to use one high end card with multiple DVI ports? I will need to run Age of Conan as well as other demanding games, so I was thinking 2 9800GTX's if going the 2 video card solution.
 
2 9800gtx's are good dual-card solution, plus there are no 1 card solutions that can beat that anyways (9800gx2's still perform worse than dual 9800gtx's), but thats only if you want it urgently

Unless you're willing to wait (you've been here long enough to know whats coming up, I've seen you recommend them ;))
 
I hope you realize this won't be SLI. It will be two cards running independently to bring the best performance of 2 monitors. SLI wouldn't work with 2 monitors.

Just wanted to make sure. And these will be EVGA cards so the step-up is an option.
 
Ya, you can just do 2 9800GTX's. or 8800GTS. I'm not sure how you'll be able to get wow to play in the secondary monitor though.
 
i dont think you can run two monitors off one card, i think, not too sure really, and you can get two ATI cards in crossfire and have two monitor outputs.
 
i dont think you can run two monitors off one card, i think, not too sure really, and you can get two ATI cards in crossfire and have two monitor outputs.


Yes you can its quite common to do so, very very easy to do as most if not all dedicated graphics cards have dual outputs now.
 
Alright then. Well this build is for a friend and apparently he already has a setup that enables him to have two instances running in multiple monitors, but his system is aging and it really starts to bog down when he runs the second instance of the game. So I figured using a high end board like the Asus Rampage formula and two 9800GX2's would give the best performance because I could dedicate one graphics card per instance of the game (per monitor). I know I could just get one card, but I wasn't sure how this would affect the performance when running two graphics extensive games.

He has a good budget and I was considering stepping a bit higher to the Q6700 but they are out of stock right now (well the retail version is, and I need retail to have the warranty).
 
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