I currently am running a setup of 1920 x 1080 on two monitors. I'm running a singular 8800 gts video card and am looking to upgrade. Where the 8800 used to be sufficient when my resolution was significantly lower it is now becomming a tad bit choppy when i try to run multiple 3d games at a time.
If i get two cards can i dedicate 1 to each monitor?
Also would i be better off with 1 awesome card or two mediocre cards?
Specifically: 2x9800Gt or 1x285gtx
(Ati isn't an option since I've not been very happy with their linux driver support)
Thanks in advance
Edit: Everything will be run in windowed mode.
Edit, For clarifiaction: Although i understand one rocking card works, and my card is inadequate…
Is one card Better than two lesser cards? Can i allocate one card to each monitor?
Best Answer
Two cards for two monitors is quite possible. This box has two cards driving 3 monitors and I've been doing the same thing for years. 80% of the office machines are running two monitors on two cards.
Experiences:
Last I knew you couldn't mix ATI and NVidia cards--the drivers got in a fight. It's quite possible this has been fixed since the last time I looked into it.
As a general rule, two cards that use the same driver will coexist happily although I have seen odd-brand ones that won't.
Installation can be tricky--sometimes the drivers have to be installed in a certain order to work. If you're having trouble try every permutation you can think of. One old config at the office was Driver A, Driver B, Driver A. Close everything and enable the second monitor, when the machine hard-locked hit the reset button. If the new state got written to disk before it locked you're good to go. If not, maybe you can try again, maybe you have to rip out the drivers and start over.
The automated installation programs often can't handle a second monitor. I've had much better luck using downloaded drivers and installing the driver from the control panel--a few drivers won't work that way, we've not had much success ever getting those cards to work.