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pastrychef

macrumors 601
Original poster
Sep 15, 2006
4,753
1,450
New York City, NY
I have a Mac Pro with an ATI X1900. If I were to purchase an nVidia 7300GT to use as a second video card to drive a second monitor will it adversely affect frame rates in games?

Thanks.
 

MRU

macrumors Penryn
Aug 23, 2005
25,368
8,948
a better place
But if he has a mac pro surely to god he knows this ? :confused:

After all macs have been able to drive 2 monitors for years with 32mb cards and such, why do people think a 2006, 512mb supercard wouldnt be able to display 2 monitors ?
 

orangezorki

macrumors 6502a
Aug 30, 2006
633
30
Yes, in fact the X1900 (unlike the 7300) has two full dual-link DVI ports, letting you use two 30" screens at the same time. If that isn't enough pixels for you, then you have issues... :p

David
 

slughead

macrumors 68040
Apr 28, 2004
3,107
237
I have a Mac Pro with an ATI X1900. If I were to purchase an nVidia 7300GT to use as a second video card to drive a second monitor will it adversely affect frame rates in games?

Thanks.

No, it wont. That's my setup right now.

And btw, guys, the reason you want 2 video cards for 2 monitors is because if you plug 2 monitors into one card, the VRAM splits in half.

So, in theory (barring any software nonsense), the X1900 will be faster if it's only running 1 monitor.
 

pastrychef

macrumors 601
Original poster
Sep 15, 2006
4,753
1,450
New York City, NY
Yes, I'm aware of the fact that the X1900 itself can drive two monitors. However, as slughead stated, I thought doing so would hurt performance on the primary display...
 

PowerMike G5

macrumors 6502a
Oct 22, 2005
555
241
New York, NY
Pastrychef,

I'm looking to upgrade to the X1900XT and looking for someone to acquire the stock 7300GT in my MacPro now. If you are interested, let me know :)

Mike
 

Chone

macrumors 65816
Aug 11, 2006
1,222
0
Yes, I'm aware of the fact that the X1900 itself can drive two monitors. However, as slughead stated, I thought doing so would hurt performance on the primary display...

You thought well, having a card connected to 2 displays will definitely affect framerates... not that you can't disable the 2nd monitor through the control panel (in either windows or mac os) whenever you feel like playing a game.
 

evp

macrumors member
Aug 29, 2006
31
0
No, it wont. That's my setup right now.

And btw, guys, the reason you want 2 video cards for 2 monitors is because if you plug 2 monitors into one card, the VRAM splits in half.

So, in theory (barring any software nonsense), the X1900 will be faster if it's only running 1 monitor.

The only problem is that x1900xt is about, if not more than, four times as powerfull as the 7300gt. Just refer to 3dmark scores for example.
 
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