Is it possible for a computer to use multiple Graphics Cards?

Question

Is it possible for a computer to use multiple Graphics Cards?

Answer 1

sure can, i have 2 different nvidia cards that are powering 4 displays right now

i'm using it purely so that i can run 4 monitors...



if you are a gamer and you want to Link 2 video cards, you can do that too. they link and work as a team. but you need a motherboard that has 2 of the same PCIExpress revisions to corretly run them in SLI or CrossFire. (nvidia/ati respectively)

Answer 2

Yes, you can bridge video cards or run vga and on-board. Bridging cards works like using dual cpu's. When you have on-board and vga you can set them to run specific programs or games; sharing the load.

Answer 3

Sure, and several different ways.



The first is to have the computer use each graphics card separately, with each driving its own displays.



Then there's the combinational power found in SLI/Xfire where multiple cards are used together to do the graphics work.

Answer 4

Yes. You by two video cards (the exact same) make sure if you purchase a PCI-E x16 you have two of those slots on your motherboard. It is called SLI. You will need a bridge to connect the two video cards together and they will act as 1.

Answer 5

A friend has a dual card as we type. Works slick. Use Google and look up some vids of a setup. Took me like 5 seconds to find the info and several videos on there especially since people love to brag on their comp setups.

Answer 6

Yes it is called sli or crossfire it has a connector to connect both cards

Answer 7

1.Is it possible for a computer to use multiple Graphic Cards?

-Yes, both Nvidia and AMD have this technology, with Nvidia naming its "SLI", and AMD with "Crossfire"



2.If so, how does that work?

-SLI or Crossfire only work when you have the same model (ex. 2xGTX 660 or 2x7870). Having a different model (GTX 450 with a GTX 570 will not work together). Second, your motherboard must support SLI or Crossfire (most MB are labeled if they have this feature). Both GPUs are placed in PCI Express 3.0 slots (newer GPUs) and are connected with a "bridge"



However, if you have two GPUs, that does not mean double the performance, since games arent SLI or Crossfire-friendly, but software like Adobe Suite benefit from double the CUDA cores in Nvidia.

Note: Adobe Suite supports CUDA from Nvidia, not the Stream Processors from AMD



SLI and Crossfire are used mostly for multiple monitor setups, and video-photo rendering setups



There are also Quad-SLI and QuadFire, this is when you have 4 GPUs of the same model (4x580 or 4x7870 or 2x690-the GTX 690 is a dual GPU)