NVIDIA 180 Series Driver with Multi-Monitor SLI Support Previewed

[malware]

VR-Zone has posted a preview of NVIDIA's 180.10 drivers also known as the "Big Bang II" that will bring multi-monitor SLI support for GeForce owners. The VR article shows what this driver will offer in terms of SLI with multi monitor support and the performance effects of implementing multiple monitors in SLI mode. NVIDIA was supposed to publish the "Big Bang II" driver in September, but that never happened. There's still no release date, but at least now there's a prove that this driver is in development and will hopefully be ready before the end of this year. Check VR-Zone's preview here. If you want to give the early beta driver a try, you can download it here, but be adviced it's for Windows Vista 64-bit only.



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[alexp999]

So anyone tried this out yet? I'm thinking I might give it a whirl. Does it do anymore than just Multi Monitor SLI?

It also says on the VRZone website than you can get Vista 32 and XP versions by signing up to their newsletter.

 

[mab1376]

How handy!

 

[Swansen]

Ok, so maybe i'm just confused here, but isn't this a mute point? I mean, i guess it really depends on what your are doing, when i ran SLI, it was annoying to have to constantly swith it off to use my TV, so i can understand that will be nice. However, instead of having one card run one monitor, and the other card handle the other, now both cards handle just half of both monitors? (essentially they are still only running one full monitor, only in a funny way??)

 

[newtekie1]

Ok, so maybe i'm just confused here, but isn't this a mute point? I mean, i guess it really depends on what your are doing, when i ran SLI, it was annoying to have to constantly swith it off to use my TV, so i can understand that will be nice. However, instead of having one card run one monitor, and the other card handle the other, now both cards handle just half of both monitors? (essentially they are still only running one full monitor, only in a funny way??)

Running SLi with multi-monitors is different. The performance is dynamicly spread across the screens when running in SLI.

If you just connect one monitor to each card and run them without SLI. Then all of Card 1's graphical power is used to runder Monitor 1's image, and all of Card 2's power is used to render Monitor 2's image. So if you have two GTX280's, and you are gaming on Monitor 1, and only have the desktop on monitor 2, then you are wasting an entire GTX280 to just render a desktop.

When you do it with SLi, the graphical power is sent to where it is needed. So if you are playing a full screen game on Monitor 1 and only have your desktop up on monitor 2(with perhaps an IM program running or something like that), then the majority of the graphical power from both cards is used to render Monitor 1's image, while almost no graphical power is wasted rendering the desktop on Monitor 2. So your two GTX280's will both be used to render the game.

There is also supposed to be the ability to stretch applications across both screens, making both monitors appear as one monitor to games and other full screen applications. This means that if you have two monitors, you can play a full screen game using both of them.

 

[Disparia]

So no 3rd, 4th monitor off the 2nd card?

I don't need to stretch a game across them, just don't want to turn SLI/Crossfire on and off between gaming and working.

 

[Swansen]

When you do it with SLi, the graphical power is sent to where it is needed. So if you are playing a full screen game on Monitor 1 and only have your desktop up on monitor 2(with perhaps an IM program running or something like that), then the majority of the graphical power from both cards is used to render Monitor 1's image, while almost no graphical power is wasted rendering the desktop on Monitor 2. So your two GTX280's will both be used to render the game..

Are you for sure on that? I'm not doubting you, but did you read that somewhere, or are you speculating?

 

[pagalms]

Alternate download link with better speed

 

[Weer]

This should be fascinating. I'll test it out.

 

[johnspack]

Gained me 600 marks in vantage!

 

[Hayder_Master]

Big Bang II , so let we see

 

[Kursah]

Well I gained a couple hundred PPD in FAH GPU2, my temp readings actually seem lower...I did lose fan speed control on my GTX260 w/EVGA Precision using these beta drivers tho...but my temps are reading cooler under FAH load atm. I was getting up to 59C w/75% fan speed under 177.83 drivers...I am now getting up to 57C w/ Stock 40% fan speed under the new 180.10 drivers. Haven't benched yet, but I've read of a few guys who noticed better FPS in games and better scores in benches.