M17x - which video output goes to which card?

Hi! My M17X has three video out options, a display port, an HDMI port, and an old style VGA port. I havd dual SLI 280 graphic cards.

I want to run one monitor on one card, and another external monitor on the other card, but I don't know which ports go to which cards.

Any advice?

Thanks!!

 

Bump, anyone know?

 

you cant do that.....you can only run video out since the two 280ms work in sli. the integrated graphics is shut off while you sli is on. even if you turn sli off you are only utilizing the primary 280m...

 

Even if SLI is disabled they are made to run together so the secondary card becomes useless.... Sorry you cant have them separately dedicated. lol... if that makes sense..

I know you can on the desktops just not on the notebook

 

You need a Matrox switch to attach morethen one external monitor to most laptops.

 

I already do run two monitors on the M17x with no matrox switch, one monitor runs off of the vga port, the other off of the display port. I also ran two monitors out of the box on a dell xps m1710, but that only had one video card.

My hope was that with THREE video outs (display port, hdmi, and vga) and THREE video cards (integrated video + two 280s) that I would not have all THREE video outs hooked up to just ONE video card. lol

I was looking for a way to hook up one monitor to 280-a and another monitor to 280B.

Thanks!

 

It is possible to display on both screens now when in SLI. However, I don't think you'll be able to display one monitor from one card and a second monitor from the other. You should be able to run both monitors off the primary card/SLI tandem at the same time using the extended desktop feature and such, however. Also note that you'll only be able to display full-screen 3D applications/games on one monitor. You might be able to get around that by running the application/game in windowed mode and extend the window over both monitors, but I'm not sure about that since I can't test it.

 

2 monitors Max that's it

 

Yep, just two monitors ... but spread out over how many video cards? I have two 280 video cards, and I can run them in either SLI or NOT SLI ....

but I cant tell if my two monitors are using ONE video card or TWO video cards, or, even if it is possible to dedicate a video card to a monitor.

Thanks!

 

Both cards

You cannot split it Like you say.

 

2 Monitors per graphics card, The ports on the side + the LCD panel are all connected to the primary so you can use the Laptop LCD Panel + External Monitor or 2 External Monitors and no Laptop LCD Panel for example,
Whereas with a desktop you can physically connect the monitor to the second card and then take them out of SLi for added monitor goodness.

So to answer your question, Everythings connected to the primary, the secondary is just a helping hand.

 

Ok got it. My M17x has THREE video cards, and THREE video out plugs, but all the out plugs go to only ONE of the video cards, the primary. Seems a waste, but OK.

I want to run dual view, with some graphics stuff on monitor one, and some seperate program graphics stuff on monitor two. Currently I took my comp out of SLI thinking I could plug into two different cards, I get now I can't.

1) If I'm just running two programs, will SLI help? or will SLI only help in a single program designed to take advantage of SLI?

2) Is there any cases where SLI would hinder graphics perforamnce? In other words, any reason I should ever NOT run this machine in SLI?

Thanks! Helps been great so far! (not the answer I wanted but I got an answer)