Will a second video card help performance on only one monitor?

[iMpathetic]

Yeah, this is kind of a dumb question. I have a Radeon 8500 in a Power Mac G4 that I'm repairing. I have a PCI Radeon 7000, and I was wondering, if I put it in too, would having two GPUs affect performance even though the monitor was only attached to the 8500?

Thanks...

 

[Tallest Skil]

No. Apple still isn't one for letting users combine the power of graphics cards; but as it's a niche market, it makes sense, I guess.

What I plan to do (with my CONFIRMED* NEHALEM MAC PRO) is get two of whatever card is the midrange one (probably 9800 GT; you heard it here first!) and run one of my monitors off of each of them.

On a Mac, that's the way to go if you want more power than one card can provide.

*Confirmed for me because I get to go on the Taylor University Freshman Irish Studies Program and will be in Ireland for the latter half of this year. Because of this, I do not need to buy my Mac Pro over the summer, since there's no way I will lug that thing across the Pond. I'll be able to wait for Nehalem and buy my Mac Pro over J-term.

 

[iMpathetic]

No. Apple still isn't one for letting users combine the power of graphics cards; but as it's a niche market, it makes sense, I guess.

What I plan to do (with my CONFIRMED* NEHALEM MAC PRO) is get two of whatever card is the midrange one (probably 9800 GT; you heard it here first!) and run one of my monitors off of each of them.

On a Mac, that's the way to go if you want more power than one card can provide.

*Confirmed for me because I get to go on the Taylor University Freshman Irish Studies Program and will be in Ireland for the latter half of this year. Because of this, I do not need to buy my Mac Pro over the summer, since there's no way I will lug that thing across the Pond. I'll be able to wait for Nehalem and buy my Mac Pro over J-term.

Okay.

I think I'll be buying four or five CRTs to use with all of the cards I've stuck in the poor thing....

Radeon 8500+Radeon 7000+Rage Pro= Goodness.

 

[Lord Zedd]

if I put it in two, would having two GPUs affect performance even though the monitor was only attached to the 8500?

No, it will make it slower due to the extra resources used to drive the unused card.