You guys/gals running 4 monitors with (2) dual vid cards on one sys... Are antiquated PCI slots fast enough or do I a MB that supports (2) of the new PCI-eX16? Does it make a difference?
You are much better off with two identical cards in PCI-E slots. There are plenty of suitable motherboards available cheaply. You might have driver issues with one PCI and one PCI-E card (depending on which cards). Take the path of least potential trouble. PCI-E is much much faster than PCI.
dcraig is correct about PCI-Express being MUCH faster than PCI, but PCI is still fast enough for trading.
It depends on the cards you are looking at. Contact manuf pre-sales tech support to see if something will fit your need. And ask them what happens if what they say does not work (as some claim happens from time to time).
The biggest problems with trying to run PCI video cards these days are (1) lack of driver support, and (2) compatibility of the cards. If one is running an old system (say, 2002-ish P4, class), PCI works fine with AGP boards of that era. PCIE mobos and video cards apparently are more "particular" about what they will run with.
Only the high end mainboards have TWO PCIe X16 slots. So where are you buying your systems from that support 2 PCIe video cards?
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...CODE=GOOGLEBASE&cm_mmc_o=VRqCjC7BBTkwCjCECjCE http://www.datavis.com/EVGA-LGA1156...5-CHipset-supporting-2-way-SLI-and-PhysX.html http://www.compuplus.com/Motherboards/ASUS-INTEL-P55-CHIPSETDUAL-CHANNEL-1120517.html
Lots of mobos support 2 or more PCIEx16 video cards... x38, x58, "55 & 57 Series". The world's most common mobo (likely 80-90% of all desktops sold today) does not. I has 1, PCIEx16, 1, PCIEx1, and 1-3 PCI slots. And in spite of the fact that a PCIEx1 video card SHOULD work in a PCIEx1 slot, it often does not. If you buy a proper mobo, running 4-8 monitors is no problem at all. If you try to run multiple video cards on an el-cheapo board, there is a significant risk you will be disappointed in one way or another.