2 Different GPU's for 2 monitors?

[13CA350]

I'm going to be moving soon and will finally be able to upgrade to a dual monitor setup. I have a GTX 1060 3GB right now, but I still have my perfectly functional 650TI 3GB sitting in a box. Can I use the 1060 for the primary monitor, and the 650 for my second monitor?

 

For productivity I will use both monitors, but when gaming I'll only use one, and probably have Spotify or something like that up on the second. 

 

Will this work? I will have 2 identical 25" 1440P monitors from Asus that have both HDMI and displayport. I remember a few years ago seeing a graphic from Nvidea showing you which ports to use on which cards for 2, 3 and 4 monitor setups... Is this still true? If so, where will I find what ports to use?

[ProjectBox153]

Why? You'd just be wasting power to use the other monitor. Modern GPUs like your 1060 can run many displays. Even older GPUs, like my Radeon HD 3450 can drive multiple 1080p or higher (not a limitation for you since you have a newer card) displays. 

[Minotaur10]

At this point it's pretty much plug and play. I don't think it matters which port on which card you use.

[manikyath]

just plug the second display into your GTX1060 as well, there's no measurable difference.

 

if you want to make the 650Ti useful, it'll do you more good as a desk ornament.

[DildorTheDecent]

11 minutes ago, 13CA350 said:

Nvidea showing you which ports to use on which cards for 2, 3 and 4 monitor setups... Is this still true? If so, where will I find what ports to use?

I think that was mostly concerning nvidia surround configs with SLi.

[13CA350]

It seems like graphics cards have changed a lot since I payed much attention to them. thanks guys!

[KarathKasun]

In Windows Vista+ using more than one GPU to drive monitors REDUCES performance.

 

In XP the OS would use each GPU to draw its own screen.  There would only be framebuffer copying if a window spanned two GPUs outputs.  You could observe this in the old days as reduced performance if a 3D app was resized to display on two monitors.

 

In Vista and above, because the UI is all Direct X, everything is drawn on one card and copied to the others.  NV surround is a way around this, but it requires a SLI setup.  GTX 1060 does not support SLI.