Would it be possible to use a PCI video card to power one monitor(like the psone lcd mod) as well as a 7900GTX to power the main 20" LCD? I know you can do this with an AGP and a PCI, and was just wondering if it was any different for the PCIe. Also, can I connect VGA or S-vid to the PCI card, and DVI to the 7900 and have both screens work? Mind you this is on an ASUS A8N SLI mobo, which is where the confusion comes in.
Yes. A PCI video card doesn't require an AGP card to run, nor does a PCI-Express card make using a PCI video card impossible.
Do all 7900's have 2 outputs? Anyway, for a small screen I would also use a second graphicscard, just to keep load off the main one, so I get all performance available in games. Thats what I'd buy a 7900 for in the first place anyway
I'm buying the 7900 for gaming and regular computer usage, and the matrox mystique, with a blazing 4mb of video ram, for the psone lcd mod. I'm only going to be displaying cpu, temp, mem, etc stats on the 5" LCD, so I don't need anything new, and I don't want to get the 7900 involved with any soldering.
You've overanalyzing things. What exactly is that second screen going to be DOING when you're playing a game? It's going to be doing NOTHING related to video processing. What games actually support dual head usage? The only way to really do this is if a game supports playing in windowed mode and for some stupid reason you want to STRETCH it over to the other display (which always DRASTICALLY lowers the framerate due to the nature of DX) or you setup the span view of your desktop, which would be equally stupid. And even in those two scenarios, you would WANT that to be done by the same card. My point? You'd have to be absolutely silly (which is a euphamism for stupid) to think that you can pop in some cheap piece of crap PCI video card for better dual head performance than just simply........using the dual head output on your 7900) To make my point, this scenario has existed for 3d graphics cards with dual head, for as long as there have been dual head graphics cards! Secondly, to even make matters MORE clear that your logic is unfounded, is the absolute ease that the profiler managers are to toggle between single display and dual display, Nview for example can even have this done via hotkeys. As for the reference to using a craptastic video card to display information onto another screen, that is the absolute ONLY reason why it would have to be done. Modern video cards can not be used effectively to display the information that those ghetto LCD screens need to receive. I guess what I'm trying to say, and coming off as a raving lunatic is, is that the concept is seriously flawed, completely unnecessary, and the aspect of having 2 sets of DIFFERENT display drivers running is in fact more likely to give you performance decreases than simply using the dual head feature of the card. It's there for a reason.
Actually, I will be soldering the VGA connections onto the PCI card, so I really do not want to do this to my brand new 7900GTX. If I was to use the 7900GTX, I would also have to modify it further, which I also do not want to do. In reality there should be no performance decreases, this screen will be segregated from the main monitor, and will use samurize. I'm doing the psone lcd mod, many others have gone this route, and it is the easiest. I just needed to know if I would run into any problems with the newest hardware.
Really, you need to stop drinking caffeine. Take a stress management course or something.... If you would have read the thread, you would have known the topicstarter wants a PSone LCD mod. I have never said he should connect a second fullsize screen to that card "for better performance". If it would be for gaming, using the second output would be better, or even using a second graphicscard (same type as he already has). Secondly, there is no performance loss in having two display drivers running. I have tested this in the past.
only trouble is when you've got an nvidia agp card and a ati pci card... leads to some minor conflicts, but you just have to remember to install ati first or it throws a hissy fit when discovering the card
