dual-monitor basic question

richard.langly · n00b Joined: 05 Sep 2008 Posts: 26

Just some basics about using dual-monitors ... I've got an NVidia 9800GTX and it has two DVI ports on the back of it.

Can I drive two separate HD 1080 flat screens from it? And would they be at full resolution? Or do I need to buy another card and use an SLI mobo (which I think is what SLI is for)?

I need to have separate desktops on each monitor and place apps on each desktop and not have a desktop span both monitors.

Any help much appreciated.

szczerb · Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2008 8:48 pm Post subject:

It should work fine. With really high resolution you would need a DVI-D link (some cards have DVI-I which has lower bandwidth), but with HD any DVI port should be ok. If you set the xinerama use flag then apps will maximize and go fullscreen on one monitor. And the toolbars will be on one - unless you put another set of toolbars on the other monitor.

(I'm not an nvidia user so if the drivers from nvidia have some weird problems with this - I wouldn't know about it)

BTW SLI is for using the computing power of both cards (3d) but on a single display (you can have more of course). Also note that there are mobos with two PCIe x16 ports but without SLI. They won't let you combine the power but you'll be able to use 4 monitors then.