Maximum PC

ok I remember when SLI first came out that you couldn't use more than one monitor in SLI. Is that still true or am I able to SLI and have 2 monitors? the cards I'm wanting to get is the ASUS ENGTX480.

No, you can use 2 monitors in SLI now and by end of July, Nvidia drivers will have NFinity(dumb ass name for their version of Eyefinity[ATI]) so you can use 3 monitors.

How will they do this with 2 DVI and 1 HDMI port? ATI shares the HDMI port with a DVI and why they leave the 3rd to the display port. Are nVidia going the route of functionality in the OS, or is it really separating all three ports? I'm just asking because splitting a port to an HDMI and a DVI is totally fine already for basic functionality. If it's shared, I just see a problem and they're misleading the public and the naming is a scam.

3 monitors in SLI will require the use of the DVI/DVI or DVI HDMI from one monitor and then the 3rd gets plugged into the other card. If you are running just 2 monitor you can either plug both into the same card or 1 each.

Also of note, SLI IS required for 3 monitors on Nvidia cards once it's enabled thru the drivers before the end of July. This feature will also be available to those who own 200 series cards.

Interesting trade-off here, ATI doesn't have crossfire support for Eyefinity (Yet) - But Nvidia requires that you have at least 2 cards to do triple monitor.

From an enthusiast standpoint, Nvidia will have the upper hand since I doubt a single 5870 can run triple 1080p displays and get decent framerates in demanding games.


I will be able to try out triple monitor on my current setup, already have 3 monitors and a gtx295 so I don't have to jump in with a new card and a $100 adapter. Zero investment while the tech matures = happy gamer

Sweat news Logan! I'm on the fence between what I'm suppose to actually be using. It's been a wallet lightening and wretched event of late with 3 screens.

Got the 5850 and ran 3 screens, but kinda sucks in games the way windows handles spanning. Recently went back to dual nVidia (460/260 now) which drove the frames better, but it still doesn't act right and needed the crummy Matrox adapter and one card to get spanning right. SLI and span works right in that config, but it's still expensive for the Triple Head gizmo. If I can keep nVidia, SLI them, and eBay the Triple Head To Go thing, that'd be great.

But the way I understand it, span's been limited by Windows and how they dictate drivers to be written. nVidia Workstation cards do what I want, but it's just not there in consumer cards. All I can do is "expand", and that's really hosing FSX. This use to work fine in XP, but Vista and Win7 have vexed me by these limitations. I want one screen to move in unison when I fly and what I have now (w/o TH2G) are three individual screens to manipulate and that just ain't right...too time consuming.

So do you think this driver will allow that, or I'll just be facing the same problems? There's a lot of horsepower to drive 3 screens if can SLI, but if it still doesn't span, it's a no go.

SLI and more than one display, DOABLE !

My setup basics,

Asus P5N-E SLI board

BFG GeForce 8600 GTS video cards, dual DVI out on both

Two Samsung 2343BWX monitos,

Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit

Latest Forceware drivers as of sunday June 27/2010

One Samsing to primary connection on one card, second Samsung to primary connector on second card,

Installed the driver update after a cold boot and was in single monitor mode then once the reboot was done. enter the nVidia Control Panel, and fire up SLI, then add the second display to my desktop using the Windows Display control panel, easy as pie and lets just say, video performance is quite good !

http://www.hardocp.com/article/2010/06/ ... experience

For all those interested, read the link above, very good review. Now let me cover the basics.

1. SLI IS needed to run 3 monitors
2. Those monitors must support the same resolution.
3. Nvidia has Bezel correction built into the drivers but may take some tweaking to get it just right
4. ONLY GTX2xx cards and the GTX4xx card support this with exception being the GTX295 as you WILL need to run Quad SLI in order to drive 3 Monitors(This is not the case for those with the original DUAL PCB GTX295 cards).
5. Tri-SLI is currently not supported but will be in a future update.
6. http://www.nvidia.com/object/win7-winvi ... river.html link for beta driver with Surround and 3D Surround support
7. NO 8 or 9 series cards are planned for support of multi monitor gaming as of right now.
8. GTX4xx series card in SLI DESTROY ATI in multi-monitor gaming due to SLI scaling.

PS: Chumly, I believe FSX has or may have in the future 3D Surround support. But would require 120Hz monitors and the glasses from Nvidia.

Also of note for those interested, Nvidia has more games supported for 3d Surround in the driver I linked above than does ATI from 3D party 3D glass vendors.

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/ha ... ience.html

Yet another review of Nvidia's Nfinity Surround driver. Alot more indepth as to what cards and how you would connect your monitors to get it to work.

You folks may also want to have a read on these 2 articles. They give some good card comparisons and show some performance figures for both single and dual gpu setups.

http://techgage.com/article/the_benefits_of_multi-display_gaming/1

http://techgage.com/article/atis_eyefinity_18_games_benched_on_3_and_6_displays/1

GTX295 runs 3 monitor spanning just fine, you only need Quad SLI if you want 3D + 3 monitor spanning

As you can see in image below the HDMI connector is actually tied to board A, while the DVI connectors are on board B - I'm assuming this is only true for the dual-pcb 295s though?

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http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/3d- ... 672-6.html

A not so bad review of Nvidia's Driver, also includes ATI eyefinity results in the gmaing benches.

[/quote]

Thats true "IF" you have the older version of the GTX295, if you have the newer SINGLE PCB version, you will need TWO cards to game with.

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/ha ... nce-4.html

Note the bottom examples, and you'll see why what I said is the case. Witht eh older DUAL PCB design the cards had 2 dual 400Mhz RAMDACs, the newer single PCB version only has 1 DUAL 400Mhz RAMDAC.

This is really good news man; I had no idea this was even coming. I'm stoked! I do believe that many people are going to find multi-monitor isn't just for uber-geeks, uber-rich, or stock investors wanting data output overload in their eyeballs.

While many are still looking to get out of their 20 or 22" for something like a 27", I'd rather they all just buy another affordable 22" and start the addiction. I tossed this idea around, but hated the idea of dual screens. I had a 22" and two spare 19's, gave 'em a shot, and am instantly hooked. About a month later, three 23's were enroute. Spread dual monitors around the desks in the house, and they're stoked too; when they moaned at the thought at first. I tell ya, it's the only way to actually enjoy a computer.

And a small shout out to Windows, I love that you can toss windows around. I can't see it's perk in one screen, but it means everything when you're on multiple monitors. I hate sitting at work with the XP box and two screens, and I gotta click, minimize, drag, drop, maximize...what a bitch that is! I still catch myself trying to toss the screens around.