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issues with nVidia + AMD cards in the same computer

J

jamsomito

2[H]4U
Joined
Aug 29, 2010
Messages
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So I'm using a Radeon 6870 as my daily driver. It plays the games I have at the resolutions I want just fine... it's starting to show its age, but there are other priorities. Recently I upgraded my monitors for productivity reasons, and I didn't have the right ports on my card to support them both. So, I threw an old GeForce 9600 GSO in the spare PCI-E slot for another dual-link DVI port.

Windows runs seamlessly with all my monitors on both cards, no issues. Some games even run just fine on the primary monitor for the 6870. However, a couple games just do not like the configuration. Some older ones, but Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel to name one. It tries to start up on the main monitor, flickers everything for a few seconds, re-arranges my open windows on another screen, then everything goes black, and it takes me back to the desktop. The game is running, but minimized. Same thing happens every time I launch the game, or try to bring it up from the start bar. Other games work on one screen while my second is black, and others work on one screen while displaying the desktop on the second.

I can disable the 9600 GSO and it will work just fine. But, then weird things happen when I reboot my machine. When I reboot, it loads into Windows ok, but ONLY the 9600 GSO displays anything on the screen, and Windows completely forgets my monitors and any configurations they had. I check out device manager, and it says the 9600 GSO is still disabled and the 6870 is enabled. But the screens connected to the 6870 are blank, and the 9600 GSO is displaying something at 1024x768. If I re-enable the 9600 GSO and reboot again, all is back to normal.

I've had this configuration actually soft-brick my computer before - I had to physically remove the 9600 GSO from the computer and move my 6870 to the other PCI-E slot to get it to recognize the card and display something other than a black screen after post.

I realize I'm crossing brand gaps here, and it's likely just a conflict between the two drivers. But, I've also heard of people using hybrid Phys-X with both types of cards and the two drivers playing nice for that. Am I missing something? Is this par for the course? Do you have any tips that might make this configuration run any better? TIA
 
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Windows 10 is supposed to support dual cards from different manufacturers through dx12.
 
Logan321 said:
Windows 10 is supposed to support dual cards from different manufacturers through dx12.
Click to expand...

There's been support for that since DX11 and Windows 7. Mixed manufacturer support was only broken on Vista.

My best guess?

What the OP is likely running into here is games that support GPU-accelerated Physx, and the driver refusing to run if it detects an AMD card in the system (no AMD GPU + dedicated Nvidia card for Physx acceleration).

See here:

http://www.vrworld.com/2014/07/31/nvidia-disables-gpu-physx-2nd-non-nv-gpu-installed/
 
Looks like you had a much better experience with Nvidia + AMD in the same PC. Last time I tried it everything was rosy until I updated the Nvidia driver. The Nvidia update not only automatically uninstalled the AMD video card, but also the AMD drivers for my motherboard. These included the USB drivers. So I was stuck with a system without inputs. Nvidia called it a "feature" of their drivers when questioned about it.

Needless to say I haven't purchased, or installed another Nvidia graphics cards in my system. Worse than HIV.
 
As much as I like all of the DX12 features, a few even looks like that magic cure-all that would solve all of the first world problems with multi-GPU setups, I am taking them with a grain of salt, especially ones involving AMD and nVidia GPU working together.

DX12 is one thing, drivers is completely another. You can usually count on one of them (usually nVidia) screwing up Multi-company GPU support.

cagey: ouch...
 
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