Two independent video cards in a SLI motherboard

[Talis]

Is it possible to run two seperate video cards in a SLI ready motherboard? Are the PCI-E slots linked or independent enough to manage this?

I recently picked up a nice new 24" LCD, and my crappy old HD2600XT just doesn't cut it anymore (especially when I run my 22" off the second head), ideally I'd like to grab a 8600 and run my primary monitor off that, while relegating my old HD2600 to handling my second screen. Otherwise I'd probably grab a 8800 to be sure it can handle both (or maybe 2x8600). The biggest problem is I'm getting a ton of tearing (never noticed any at all on my old 22") so I'm forced to enable vsync and triple buffering, which eats a ton of vram, and need a card that can handle triple buffering two high rez screens, or one that can handle the main screen, and a crappy card to run the second screen.

On a somewhat related note, I've also been getting a ton of what I'd call shadowing. During fast motion on the 24" I get these strange black auras around the trailing edge of moving objects (names, characters etc). I wouldn't call it ghosting as its not related to what was previously in that location (eg its not an after image), its always a black aura (eg a white name will leave a black trail as it moves). I've never seen anything like it, any ideas whats causing it?

[Avanarius]

On a somewhat related note, I've also been getting a ton of what I'd call shadowing. During fast motion on the 24" I get these strange black auras around the trailing edge of moving objects (names, characters etc). I wouldn't call it ghosting as its not related to what was previously in that location (eg its not an after image), its always a black aura (eg a white name will leave a black trail as it moves). I've never seen anything like it, any ideas whats causing it?

You kinda just described exactly what ghosting is...light images creating a shadow like trail on dark backgrounds due to the low refresh rate and high contrast.

Shouldn't have a problem running an ati card with nvidia...though I highly recommend against it due to potential driver conflicts.

[Talis]

You kinda just described exactly what ghosting is...light images creating a shadow like trail on dark backgrounds due to the low refresh rate and high contrast.

I've always considered ghosting as showing the image from a previous frame in a previous location due to slow pixel response. This is always black regardless of the state of a previous frame (eg its a very fast change from white -> black, so its unlikely to be caused by slow response time). Its not present in the screen buffer (as it doesn't show in screen shots), but is sometimes (not always) present during fast motion such as spinning the camera). Moving a few steps and changing the viewing angle seems to affect how drastic the effect is. I've seen the trail on both light and dark backgrounds, for example a white name will sometimes show the black effects against a light gray background such as the tunnel to behemoths dominion.

[Avanarius]

still sounds like ghosting imo....sorry I can't help otherwise, I'd have to be sitting there looking at the screen lol...

[Talis]

Shouldn't have a problem running an ati card with nvidia...though I highly recommend against it due to potential driver conflicts.

I've done it a long time ago with a VGA and a PCI card (one ati one nvidia) and they behaved. It was more a question if it was even possible to run two cards in non-SLI config on a SLI motherboard. I'm not even 100% sure the bus controller would know what to do if its expecting a card->card bridge as well as the two cards in the bus.

I think I'm just going to grab a 8800GT and hope for the best (I hope it can drive my 24" and ideally my 22" in dual head, or at worst my 24" and my old 17").

Any comments on 8600GTx2 vs 8800GT for FFXI (thats about all I play) I want to at minimum be able to run with the background render set at 1920x1920 ideally 2048x2048, and drive a 1920x1200 and a second desktop at 1680x1050 with minimal lag.

The ghosting may be some weird effect from the LCD, its the first S-PVA pannel I've owned (most have been the standard S-TN).

[Avanarius]

I've done it a long time ago with a VGA and a PCI card (one ati one nvidia) and they behaved. It was more a question if it was even possible to run two cards in non-SLI config on a SLI motherboard. I'm not even 100% sure the bus controller would know what to do if its expecting a card->card bridge as well as the two cards in the bus.

I've ran a 7600 and an 8800 together on 680i and didn't have a problem with it, granted they're both nvidia but I don't think you'll have a problem with it. SLI mobo doesn't require you to run SLI.

As for the cards, either will work to there absolute maximum for ffxi. Once again, it's the cpu you have to worry about.

[mootsfox]

You can run two nvidia cards just fine for four monitors in Multi-GPU mode, or one monitor in SLI mode.

I would get yourself a single 9800GTX or 9600GT.