Dual Monitor graphics advice

[jodash]

Hi all, it's been a while since I last posted on here. But I can only assume you're still the wonderfully helpful people you used to be.
I built my mate a machine 10 months ago. I only put a 7600GT in as he was on a budget. He also got a 19" WS at the time, since then he's bought another 19" WS and is struggling to run them both. Unfortunately he only has the gigabyte DS3 mobo, so no SLi.
Would a 8800GTS be up to the job (mostly photoshop and CAD, the odd game). If so which one, 320mb or 640mb.

Cheers,

Dash

 

[Alex UK]

I'm guessing that the resolution of each monitor is 1440 x 900? If so, then the 320MB 8800GTS will be plenty. Unless of course he plays games using both monitors, i.e at 2880 x 900?

 

[joshlane]

i run 2 19" WS monitors @ 1440x900 on a xfx 6800gs (256mb) and it runs fine. i only game on 1 at a time mind.

 

[jodash]

Ok Cool that sounds good. His main use is web browsing and Messenger on one monitor and Photoshop on the other. When he does play games he has messenger open on the other monitor to see who's speaking to him.

Dash

 

[Kipper67]

He shouldn't be struggling, photoshop and most cad programs are more dependant on CPU and RAM than graphics power.

Whats the rest of his system and what do you mean exactly by "struggling" ?

 

[jodash]

He's got 2 gig of corsair RAM and a Core 2 Duo 6300. I realise a lot of this is on the RAM as the PSD files are huge, but when he plugs in the second monitor he gets a real slow down. I would imagine because the graphics card is having a hard time keeping up so offloads onto the CPU.

Dash

 

[Clarkey]

something majorly wrong there, it does have drivers installed right? I mean, I have a 6 year old pc here which can easily manage more desktop res than that :/

 

[jodash]

Lol, yes it does. Both monitors are at 1440 x 900 it just struggles when the graphics card has to do any hard work. It runs very quickly with only one monitor, but there is a noticable slow up when there are two.

Dash