Is it worth to put a second graphic card in your PC?
Now I have found 2 graphic cards, each about 2-3 years old (both from family PCs). If I have space enough (and slots enough) in my PC, would it be worth to put them in? I have an Nvidia Card, at least one of the old ones is ATI. And of course I don't know which model those 2 are (which drivers I need). Sooo... is it worth the effort?
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M$7 Answers
nVidia's SLI works only with identical cards and scales rather steadily on everything out there... only works on nVidia chipset mainboards and Intel chipsets that have a stupid license fee attached to them, the X58.
ATi's CrossFire Works with GPUs of the same family group*, it's scaling is more erratic, but when it wants to play nice it's very impressive... works on AMD/ATI or Intel mainbaords too.
*Compatibility chart: http://ati.amd.com/technology/crossfire/howitworks.html
SLI and Crossfire support multimonitor nowadays... spectacular for triple-monitor panoramic gaming, but many games don't have multimonitor support.
RAM...VRAM... when it comes to quantity it's just a matter of having enough. The speed of RAM for CPUs isn't too important, but it definitely is with GPUs... ATi's approach is to use lightning fast GDDR5; nVidia's solution is to use a huge(and costly) bus with cheap GDDR3.
SLI/Crossfire is generally not a great thing for future upgrading, it's usually for getting the best possible, or filling a niche between the moderately priced and extraordinarily priced.
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M$
Also, right now, graphics cards are really only for gamming. If you are not playing intense computer games, you probably won't notice a performance boost from upgrading your graphics card.
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M$
http://www.lavalys.com/
It should be able to show you information on pretty much everything that's on your pc.
For your graphics card question, it depends on why you want to have 2 cards in your pc. If you use your PC for gaming, a 2nd videocard might help in performance (If you have nvidia cards, this is called SLI. AMD-ATI cards call this feature Crossfire), but I'm always against it. Dual videocards usually always come with a few problems, from stability to odd performance hiccups (stuttering). Nvidia cards also require that you have 2 of the same videocards, ATI I believe allows you to mix up different ATI videocards together now though. Multiple videocards also generate more heat and require a beefier power supply. Plus, it costs more. You're better off with a single videocard that's fast enough for your needs
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M$
From your question above, it would seem you are not using newer sli and or crossfire technologies and thus the simple answer is NO, it is not worth the effort to install additional video cards.
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M$As others have explained, the only scenario where you gain performance is when running two cards capable of running together in SLI (what nvidia calls it) or crossfire (what ATI calls it).
Long story short, to pair two video cards you have to build a system with a motherboard made for it. Then you have to check to see what video cards are able to pair on it and buy a set of them. You could luck out and find all compatible parts in your old family computers, but only if your family is a bunch of gamers and you get really lucky on what hardware they happen to have.
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M$
You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$you can't add another graphic card to your cpu.
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