Tech Help Needed: Dual Video Cards

[Cajungaltx]

Not sure anyone is this familiar with this stuff - but I thought I'd put it out here to see if anyone could help.

I'm a very impatient person when it comes to computers...lol... so to answer the question I know will be asked - Yes, I could wait til my husband gets home tonight to let him mess with it until he figures it out - but he looked at it last night told me to move this there, and that here, and it still doesn't work - so I'm going outside the bounds of matrimony for this!

Here's what I had:
AMD Atholon 64x2 Dual Core Processor 4600
4 GB of Memory
Radeon X1650 Video Card
One 24" Westinghouse Monitor (Awesome btw!)

Here's what I wanted to add: 20" View Sonic Monitor

My computer has 2 - PCI slots, and will support two video cards (or so they say!)

So my husband offered his GeForce 8500 GT 512MB Video Card. He had 2 - because his computer can be setup for SLI, but World of Warcraft doesn't support it, so he doesn't need it.

So, plugged in both (put the GEForce 8500 card into the main one - he told me to do this, I didn't know it made a difference)... installed the driver...

and kept getting error messages that a driver has been disabled because it's not compatible with VGA.

I got the blue screen of death 3x this morning (hate that dang thing) before I said screw it, and switched the cards back around.

So anyone knowledgeable enough to help with this?

[KdLaneJr]

Not familiar specifically with your video cards but I believe the GeForce card is made by Nvidia. The Radeon is an ATI card (ATI now owned by someone else though). These cards are manfactured by competitors and I would be surprised if you were not having a problem trying to use them at the same time.

A motherboard that supports an Athlon 64 4600 dual core processor should support AGP 8x form factor video cards at a minimum. If it does, then that is the form factor your primary video card should be. If you need to install an additional video card to run a second monitor at that point, then you populate another slot in the MB and choose the best form factor. PCI-express will be better than PCI for this.

All that said; You're best option is to get a new video card that supports openGL 2.0 and dual monitor output. It will minimize the potential for driver issues and the openGL will provided full use of all functions in CS4.

If you have to make do with what you have you'll most likely have continuing problems of one sort or the other due to video driver conflicts.

I'm still running an AMD 64 4000 single core processor system and upgraded my video card to a SAPPHIRE HD 3850 (ATI Radeon) with dual dual-link DVI outputs so I could take advantage of openGL and dual monitor support on a single video card.

[hhscr]

This might not help much, but I was never able to get two seperate video cards to work in my machine either.

I had to go get a video card that would drive two monitors on one card. Oh and by the way make sure if you go to get a dual card that you get one that will work with both monitors. One of the outputs on the card will brobably be a DVI output and the other will be a standard VGA output.

There several DVI outputs and one of your monitors must match the DVI of the card or if both monitors are VGA inputs make sure the DVI can be used with an adapter to VGA.

One of my cards I bought had a DVI output that was digital only so I had to get a new monitor. (Was not my original plan but the monitor is sharp!!)

Good luck and let us know what you come up with.

[Cajungaltx]

Originally Posted by KdLaneJr

Not familiar specifically with your video cards but I believe the GeForce card is made by Nvidia. The Radeon is an ATI card (ATI now owned by someone else though). These cards are manfactured by competitors and I would be surprised if you were not having a problem trying to use them at the same time.

A motherboard that supports an Athlon 64 4600 dual core processor should support AGP 8x form factor video cards at a minimum. If it does, then that is the form factor your primary video card should be. If you need to install an additional video card to run a second monitor at that point, then you populate another slot in the MB and choose the best form factor. PCI-express will be better than PCI for this.

All that said; You're best option is to get a new video card that supports openGL 2.0 and dual monitor output. It will minimize the potential for driver issues and the openGL will provided full use of all functions in CS4.

If you have to make do with what you have you'll most likely have continuing problems of one sort or the other due to video driver conflicts.

I'm still running an AMD 64 4000 single core processor system and upgraded my video card to a SAPPHIRE HD 3850 (ATI Radeon) with dual dual-link DVI outputs so I could take advantage of openGL and dual monitor support on a single video card.

That makes absolute perfect sense! Sheesh. The Nvidia card has dual DVI outputs - however the monitor that I have (the viewsonic 20") is not working in DVI mode for some reason. It works just fine in Dsub - but not DVI.

I'll play with it and see what I can do! Thanks for your quick help! Maybe I'll swap my ATI card with my DH's other Nvidia...and just stay quiet about it

Good way to get myself kilt probably though....

:g rin:

[KdLaneJr]

Each of the video cards that I have purchased with DVI out connections has come with a DVI to VGA adapter (dsub). You should be able to put your primary monitor on DVI 1 and the adapter and secondary monitor on DVI 2 with out any problems at all (unless you can't locate the adapter easily).

[Rson]

This might help:

http://www.playtool.com/pages/installvid/install.html

What is your motherboard? There is a difference between PCI and PCI-e They look the same but different. Do you want to run them combined or just have 2 different cards?

I AM PRETTY SURE you can't use 2 different cards at the same time. I believe they have to be matched. (driver differences come into play)

[Cajungaltx]

Rson - I want to have the 'personal' stuff (email, chat, etc) on one, and my 'work' stuff on the other.

My motherboard is Gigabyte S-Series M750SLI-DS4 - it has hybrid SLI support .

It says that it has dual PCI-E 2.0x16 intervace with Nvidia Hybrid SLI support

[azbaron]

To use 2 video cards in SLI, you have to have 2 of the same type of NVidia cards (i.e. 5800 GT 512MB) they don't necessarily have to be the same brand (BFG/ASUS etc..) but they have to be the same chip set. ATI dual video card is called Crossfire. Mother boards only support one or the other - up until the X58 chipset this is. The X58 chip set (for i7 CPUs) will support either Crossfire or SLI. You cannot use an ATI and a NVidia card in the same PC.

azbaron

[Cajungaltx]

Originally Posted by azbaron

To use 2 video cards in SLI, you have to have 2 of the same type of NVidia cards (i.e. 5800 GT 512MB) they don't necessarily have to be the same brand (BFG/ASUS etc..) but they have to be the same chip set. ATI dual video card is called Crossfire. Mother boards only support one or the other - up until the X58 chipset this is. The X58 chip set (for i7 CPUs) will support either Crossfire or SLI. You cannot use an ATI and a NVidia card in the same PC.

azbaron

Thanks David! I pulled the ATI video card out - and am using the Nvidia 8600 - it's the better card - plus, it allows HDMI & a Dsub connection (my Radeon card only had 2 HDMI connections)

Cajungaltx added 6 Minutes and 19 Seconds later...Double Post Merged Below

I actually have another issue - as I told David - I pulled out the ATI Radeon 1650 Pro, and put in the Nvidia 8600 GT (512MB) because it's the better card (according to my husband). My ATI card had 2 HDMI connections - the Nvidia has one HDMI, and one DSUB - so I'm hooked up with two monitors.

I have the view sonic 20" connected on the DSUB - Resolution is 1400x1050 at 60Hertz - 32 bit color.

The Westinghouse 24" connected HDMI - Resolute 1920 x 1200 at 59 Hertz - 32 bit color.

On the Viewsonic everything is sharp & clear. But on the Westinghouse - I get a wierd 'glow' or 'halo' around icons, fonts, etc.

I did a screen shot - to show you what I'm talking about - however when I pulled that screen shot over to the ViewSonic monitor - it didn't look 'haloed' anymore - which means it's a display issue only.

But I don't know WHAT to adjust - to fix the 'glow'.

Suggestions?

[dliveleyphotography]

Originally Posted by Cajungaltx

I actually have another issue - as I told David - I pulled out the ATI Radeon 1650 Pro, and put in the Nvidia 8600 GT (512MB) because it's the better card (according to my husband). My ATI card had 2 HDMI connections - the Nvidia has one HDMI, and one DSUB - so I'm hooked up with two monitors.

I have the view sonic 20" connected on the DSUB - Resolution is 1400x1050 at 60Hertz - 32 bit color.

The Westinghouse 24" connected HDMI - Resolute 1920 x 1200 at 59 Hertz - 32 bit color.

On the Viewsonic everything is sharp & clear. But on the Westinghouse - I get a wierd 'glow' or 'halo' around icons, fonts, etc.

I did a screen shot - to show you what I'm talking about - however when I pulled that screen shot over to the ViewSonic monitor - it didn't look 'haloed' anymore - which means it's a display issue only.

But I don't know WHAT to adjust - to fix the 'glow'.

Suggestions?

It could be a driver problem with the HDMI port, did you download the latest driver from nividia when you installed the card?

Here is a link to the drivers, I would of had direct link but I don't know what OS your using.
http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

[Cajungaltx]

I updated the driver when I installed it... so I know that isn't it.

Thanks for the suggestion! ;-)

[Rson]

Are you running a Color calibration utility like Color Spyder? Re calibrate for the new monitor and make sure that your color profiles are correct in windows. My Samsung likes to load it's own profile.