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pastrychef

macrumors 601
Original poster
Sep 15, 2006
4,760
1,465
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.
 
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 ?
 
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
 
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.
 
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...
 
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
 
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.
 
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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