• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

2 nVidia cards in windows 7??

R

reality99

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 22, 2008
Messages
171
I have an 8800GT and purchased a Zotac Ion so I can run additional monitors. After hours of tinkering with driver installation/uninstallation, installation order, and about every combination of "plugged in driver installed" "plugged in no driver installed" "unplugg.................... you get the idea, it still won't work.

Am I doing something wrong, or is the Zotac lack of tech support department correct in that this will not work?

I am returning the Zotac card (unless someone knows a solution) and going to get an 8400GS (PCI :mad:) so that I *shouldn't* have that problem anymore. Windows 7 should be able to run an MSI 8800GT and an EVGA/PNY/Sparkle 8400GS without problem, right?

*edit: I didn't want to spend more than ~$60, but I'm really worried about performance on a pci slot anyways. Would I be better off just sucking it up and getting a new mobo that has 2 pci-e x16 slots and another better graphics card such at the 9xxx series?
 
Last edited:
I believe you need to be able to run the cards in SLI mode for additional monitors. You are not able to run an 8800gt and a 8400gs in SLI. Your ion won't work and neither will a 8400gs.
 
SLI mode just combines the power of 2 GPU's to act as 1-you'd still only have 2 monitor outputs available in SLI mode. I know having 2 different cards is possible, as many people have done it successfully. What I don't know is if it is possible to have 2 different cards, on different slots (i.e. pci-e x16 and pci) since the pci-e x16 uses the north bridge and pci uses south bridge.

I didn't want to spend more than ~$60, but I'm really worried about performance on a pci slot anyways. Would I be better off just sucking it up and getting a new mobo that has 2 pci-e x16 slots and another better graphics card such at the 9xxx series?
 
reality99 said:
SLI mode just combines the power of 2 GPU's to act as 1-you'd still only have 2 monitor outputs available in SLI mode. I know having 2 different cards is possible, as many people have done it successfully. What I don't know is if it is possible to have 2 different cards, on different slots (i.e. pci-e x16 and pci) since the pci-e x16 uses the north bridge and pci uses south bridge.

I didn't want to spend more than ~$60, but I'm really worried about performance on a pci slot anyways. Would I be better off just sucking it up and getting a new mobo that has 2 pci-e x16 slots and another better graphics card such at the 9xxx series?
Click to expand...

You'd have as many outputs available as physically on the cards with SLI mode disabled. But SLI is actually only required for surround setups.
 
Last edited:
I know the SLI would give me more outputs physically, but if i connected them in SLI mode not all of the outputs would be active. SLI essentially makes the 2 cards act as one really powerful GPU, and as such only outputs as if it was 1 physical card. Just cause the ports are there, doesn't mean they'll work. The point of SLI is to combine the power of 2 cards, there are single cards that offer surround setups.
 
you shouldnt have an issue doing your 8800 with an 8400....i ran a 260 and 9800GTX together for a while (never tried 3 monitors but never had issue with load on either GPU).....

i dont think ION and 8800's use the same driver
 
W.Feather said:
you shouldnt have an issue doing your 8800 with an 8400....i ran a 260 and 9800GTX together for a while (never tried 3 monitors but never had issue with load on either GPU).....

i dont think ION and 8800's use the same driver
Click to expand...

Apparently they don't use the same driver, but I was led to believe they would work together in Windows 7.

I'm sure those of you that are regularly on this section of the forum are getting sick of seeing me ask questions about the same general topic, but it's really helpful to have the feedback of you guys!

Newest question: should I just get a new mobo that has 2 pci-e x16 slots and a better video card? I can get both for >140 or so and this would mean I didn't have to worry about performance lagging on the monitors hooked up to the 8400GS. I'm just worried that ~$60 is too much to spend for outdated technology that may not even work that well and would rather spend a little more to make sure there is no bottle-necking and that my rig is more current...
 
If your trying to multibox or something... the PCI slot is going to kill performance.. and so is the 8400GS.

I wouldn't use a PCI card for anything more than browsing web pages or doing general office type work.

But yes, Windows 7 will work with two different video cards.
 
No multiboxing-the only game I play (and rarely even play it) is battlefield 2. It's more for productivity. Multiple FF windows open, or MS word windows open, reference drawings open on secondary/tertiary monitors when im doing something in CAD, etc- which I know would be fine with an 8400GS. BUT I will occasionally use the TV to watch a movie, and my TV will be hooked up the the secondary card (8400GS in PCI slot). I don't want the picture to lag or have other issues.

Windows 7 theoretically should allow different cards, but according to Zotac's tech reps (who I even directed to MS's document on multiple GPUs in 7) were adamant that their ION would not work with an 8800GT. After hours trying different things I gave up.
 
I ran a GTX285 and a 9600GT in my main rig to run 3 screens and it worked fine except for one odd issue.
If I played more than 3 videos at the same time, all the videos would start to play in slow motion and lag.
It didn't matter what screens they were on either.

With just the GTX285 I could run 8+ videos at the same time and they would all play fine.

I upgraded to an HD5850 and run my 3 screens with that and have no issues running 8+ videos at the same time.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top