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PCI & AGP Graphics card config

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  • 02-11-2011 11:10pm
    #1
    paulgrogan.eu
    Registered Users Posts: 289 ✭✭


    Hi folks,

    Looking for some tech help again please!

    I've finally got myself some graphics cards:

    PNY GeForce GTS 450 1GB PCI-Express HDMI

    and

    Gainward GeForce FX5200 PCI

    Now, the result I'm trying to achieve is a 3 screen extended desktop configuration to use for Sim Racing online.

    I've setup the PNY card with the latest GeForce driver and all is well, however when I introduce the PCI card, I've had all sorts of trouble ranging from conflicting drivers, only one will work, to blue screen errors on boot up.

    I've had a display on both cards, just never at the same time. I've altered the boot option in the BIOS menu but all that did was boot my AGP card first.

    I would really appreciate some assistance if possible on getting this working.

    Many thanks!

    Rgds

    PG


Comments

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    #2
    kfish2oo2
    Registered Users Posts: 274 ✭✭kfish2oo2


    What you're trying to do is called SLI.

    SLI requires two things: two PCIe X16 slots and two identical graphics cards.

    So if you had a motherboard with two PCIe X16 slots and two GTS 450's, it would work. The other card you have is a much older card that does not support SLI so even if you had two of those, it wouldn't work.

    SLI will only work on identical interfaces so mixing AGP with PCIe X16 won't work, and as far as I know only PCIe X16 is supported in SLI anyway. AGP is an older interface that is now obsolete.


  • Options
    #3
    Blazer
    Registered Users Posts: 17,435 ✭✭✭✭Blazer


    kfish2oo2 wrote: »
    What you're trying to do is called SLI.

    SLI requires two things: two PCIe X16 slots and two identical graphics cards.

    So if you had a motherboard with two PCIe X16 slots and two GTS 450's, it would work. The other card you have is a much older card that does not support SLI so even if you had two of those, it wouldn't work.

    SLI will only work on identical interfaces so mixing AGP with PCIe X16 won't work, and as far as I know only PCIe X16 is supported in SLI anyway. AGP is an older interface that is now obsolete.

    False ^^
    SLI is linking 2 cards together to give you the horsepower of both of them for gaming purposes. You can use SLI for multi monitor setup ,however you need identical cards for it and a specific nvidia driver that supports it.
    What he's trying to do is run 3 monitors from 2 video cards.
    It has existed long before SLI/Xfire ever came about.
    However it's a bitch to set up in most cases as 2 two cards could work on one system perfectly and have problems on another.

    What he's trying to do is use both cards to drive 3 x monitors ...a bit like Eyefinity for the ATI cards...

    Op..have a read below..the PCI cards were always a bitch to set up and required something like the matrox triple head etc ..

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-monitor


    In honestly your best best is to list your system specs on here so we can determine the best way to do it..
    In practise the best way today to run a similar spec is to use an ATI card and enable eyefinity.
    However for this to work you need 3 inputs on your ATI card (not a problem with existing cards, DVI/HDMI/Display port) however this means then that your 3 monitors must have at least one of the 3 connectors above..so unless you just bought them within the last year it's more than likely they don't.



    Kfish is right in that the AGP/PCI interface are obsolete and this will cause you issues in trying to run this mode and get the required hardware to do so..


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