Can I use two different graphics cards on the same system?

[LessThanSatisfactory]

I am using a 550ti as my main gpu, but can I add a 240 and run my auxiliary monitor off that? (not for gaming). Will I still be able to run multiple monitors?

[WayneKIng]

you cant run two different nvidea gpus (i think) but you can with amd. however you will be bottle necked the hell out of by the smaller gpu. linus did a video about this a while ago and said you are better off running a single stronger card, if im not mistaken. i dont remember what the vid is called but there is one

[vkadurin]

you cant run two different nvidea gpus (i think) but you can with amd. however you will be bottle necked the hell out of by the smaller gpu. linus did a video about this a while ago and said you are better off running a single stronger card, if im not mistaken. i dont remember what the vid is called but there is one

He won't run them in SLI so that is not the case, i think. I am almost sure that you can do two cards with two monitors as Windows 7 and up supports having two different drivers at the same time. Someone can correct me if i am wrong.

[Glenwing]

This is possible.  You can't enable SLI between the two but you can use them both separately and output to monitors through both of them.

[R4STABAN]

You could try running it off the 550ti for now, it supports two monitors. It will increase idle temps/volts/clocks on fermi generation cards though. another card would be fine, you could even use a cheap amd card, although I'd recommend buying an nvidia just to keep drivers easier.

[iyr]

Yes and no. I've been running a FirePro as my primary graphics card and two Geforce GTX 590s as compute cards for a long while now and have made some interesting observations.

 

You can connect an additional monitor to your 240, but rendering will only be done on the card the OS is primarily using. That is, rendering would be done directly on your 550ti, then passed through the 240 to your secondary monitor, so your 550ti would be doing all the work for both monitors. Also, the secondary monitor will have some input latency to it since the 550ti would be sending data through the chipset and through the 240 to output to that monitor. 

 

Dragging "demanding" windows from one monitor to the other can cause driver crashes or program crashes, though I haven't had this happen too often.

[LessThanSatisfactory]

you cant run two different nvidea gpus (i think) but you can with amd. however you will be bottle necked the hell out of by the smaller gpu. linus did a video about this a while ago and said you are better off running a single stronger card, if im not mistaken. i dont remember what the vid is called but there is one

I dont mean in sli.

[Dim]

Yes. However, background programs such as a browser/word, etc. use so little GPU power that it might be unnecessary. If you were gaming on one monitor and using Photoshop on the other, maybe it would be somewhat useful. But don't expect a gaming increase on the 550Ti.

 

Otherwise, yeah it works fine - similar to integrated graphics driving a second monitor, which is what some people do.

[WayneKIng]

I dont mean in sli.

oh ok my bad... 

[joelthezombie15]

This is possible.  You can't enable SLI between the two but you can use them both separately and output to monitors through both of them.

didnt know this