On Vista and Muliple Video Cards

[The IT Monkey]

Just learned this and thought we, being the hardware intensive group that we are, should make a note of it.

Vista does not support multiple video cards unless those video cards use the same drivers.

So no mixing Nvidia with ATI.

That is all.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

Heh...a moot point for now considering the state of Vista video drivers in general. :P

[Stabface]

What? There are excellent ATI/Nvidia drivers for Vista, you're talking out your ass.

[Shogun]

Just learned this and thought we, being the hardware intensive group that we are, should make a note of it.

Vista does not support multiple video cards unless those video cards use the same drivers.

So no mixing Nvidia with ATI.

That is all.Neither did XP afaik, or at least I had alot of hassle trying it out some time ago. Using 2 different Nvidia cards on Vista atm with no problems, don't know what would make you buy an ATI card anyway :P

[Crucial]

Just learned this and thought we, being the hardware intensive group that we are, should make a note of it.

Vista does not support multiple video cards unless those video cards use the same drivers.

So no mixing Nvidia with ATI.

That is all.Neither did XP afaik, or at least I had alot of hassle trying it out some time ago. Using 2 different Nvidia cards on Vista atm with no problems, don't know what would make you buy an ATI card anyway :PIs the performance with 2 cards significantly better than single card with dual monitor? I've got a Geforce 7950 gtx sitting on the shelf that I've been debating to use to drive the other monitor instead (currently using a single 8800 GTS). 600W power supply and SLI motherboard already if that makes any difference...

[Shogun]

I run all 3d aps from the main card, find performance drops if you split them, but having 2 cards allows the use of up to 4 screens on 1 PC, I'm using 3 atm (one of my screens is faulty atm)

[Ughmahedhurtz]

What? There are excellent ATI/Nvidia drivers for Vista, you're talking out your ass.http://www.google.com/search?q=vista+video+driver+known+issues

But hey, what do I know...

[Crucial]

I run all 3d aps from the main card, find performance drops if you split them, but having 2 cards allows the use of up to 4 screens on 1 PC, I'm using 3 atm (one of my screens is faulty atm)OK good to know - I'm using 2 screens now (24" 2x2 and 19" for main) and have zero desire for any more screens than that.

[Shogun]

I run all 3d aps from the main card, find performance drops if you split them, but having 2 cards allows the use of up to 4 screens on 1 PC, I'm using 3 atm (one of my screens is faulty atm)OK good to know - I'm using 2 screens now (24" 2x2 and 19" for main) and have zero desire for any more screens than that.Well I use a 22" for the main, a 19" for the 2-4 alts and another 19" in protrait for web browsing, msn, ts, etc. Looking to get another 22" or a 24" for the alts screen at some point, when I can afford it, then that 19" I can use as a "junk screen" again (MSN and TS get moved there along with any folders etc open at the time...)

I could use just 2 screens if I had to... no way I could go back to just 1 though, when I started at this job a little over a year ago everyone was on single screens, I brought in a spare from home and set it up, the boss promptly ordered everyone new secondary screens, his reason was it increased production, which is true enough... but I know his real reason is that it looks cool when he brings clients round ;)

[Stabface]

What? There are excellent ATI/Nvidia drivers for Vista, you're talking out your ass.http://www.google.com/search?q=vista+video+driver+known+issues

But hey, what do I know...OK, lets googlefight and see which has more results?

http://googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&word1=Vista+video+driver+known+issues&word2=XP+video+driver+known+issues

[Chorizotarian]

I had a lot of pain with the Vista x64 drivers for the nVidia 8800 GTX when I first got mine, like 6 months ago, but they have been very stable for a while now.

[pinotnoir]

/cartman voice GOOGLE FIGHT! Hey Everyone its a GOOGLE FIGHT!





What? There are excellent ATI/Nvidia drivers for Vista, you're talking out your ass.http://www.google.com/search?q=vista+video+driver+known+issues

But hey, what do I know...OK, lets googlefight and see which has more results?

http://googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&word1=Vista+video+driver+known+issues&word2=XP+video+driver+known+issues
:D

[The IT Monkey]

Okay... for those of you misunderstanding or saying I am talking out my ass (yet apparently not reading my original post) I will restate it

Vista does NOT support two video cards if those video cards CAN NOT BE RUN FROM THE SAME DRIVER. So all those of you saying you are running TWO VIDEO CARDS, either admit they are the SAME chip set (i.e. both GeForce or both ATI) or please tell us how you accomplished this.

You can run two video cards just fine if both cards use the same set of drivers.

I just was posting this to save people the problems I had last night and am told I am talking out my ass. It's getting to the point it's not even worth sharing information here anymore.

As to why I purchased an ATI video card, I did not. I have five of these things laying around at work that run off a PCI (not express) slot and as I only have either a PCI or PCI-e x1 slot available on my motherboard I thought I would give it a try.

[pinotnoir]

My google fight!

dogs > cats
http://googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&word1=loves+dogs&word2=loves+cats

ati > nvidia
http://www.googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&word1=ati+rules&word2=nvidia+rules

GOOGLE FIGHT!!

[Stabface]

My apologies, The IT Monkey. My reply "you're talking out your ass" was directed at Ughmahedhurtz, not you.

Now, that being said. On the issue of multiple video cards with *different* chipsets under Vista, for example an ATI and an NVidia card: Yes it is possible to get them working. I've done it myself. You will simply need to use the XP drivers, and not the Vista drivers. The new Vista driver model (WDDM) removed support for loading multiple display drivers.
Doing so will disable some things from working (the Aero features for the UI, Windows Media Center, are the 2 biggest). But it DOES work.

1st hit on google for "Vista multi-monitor support", straight from Microsoft :

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/display/multimonVista.mspx

[The IT Monkey]

No, I apologize. I thought you were aiming that at me. I don't do well with being told I have an ass for a mouth before my second cup of coffee, yet I have terrible habit of using that orifice to communicate before my second cup of coffee... that's why I never married.

It's funny how the same site can have two different answers... When I google'd it last night I found, on microsoft's site, a post saying they DON'T support it at all. Even the link you provided stated that and then states that it CAN be done but no instructions on HOW.

I think for my needs I am just going to find the BEST GeForce card that will fit in a PCI slot I can. It only needs to run two WoWs so I remain hopeful.

[Stabface]

It does give you the solution, install the XP version of your video device drivers.

------------
If multiple graphics adapters are present in a system, all of them must use the same WDDM driver. If there are two graphics adapters with WDDM drivers from two different manufacturers, then Windows will disable one of them. The VGA adapter will be enabled, and the second device will be disabled.
Notice that XPDM drivers still support heterogeneous multi-adapter as they did in Windows XP. A user who has such a configuration working fine in Windows XP will encounter a problem when upgrading to Windows Vista. An external monitor connected to one of the graphics adapters will have no video signal, because it is disabled. An error message will appear on system boot, as described later in this article.
The solution for this problem could be as follows:
•A user could force the installation of a XPDM driver for each of these devices, and therefore get heterogeneous multi-adapter multi-monitor to work as in Windows XP.
------------

So, uninstall your existing video driver and install the XP version. You will probably need to turn off UAC, and possibly use the device manager to install the driver instead of the installer package, but it's not hard.

[Trowabarton756]

I just wish Microsoft would fix that whole performance hit you get with using the dual monitors that aren't set to horizontal. (Using dual-monitors off one 8800 GT and WoW runs between 25-120 fps, which is really random).

[Droopz]

Just wanted to throw my 2c in here. I've been experimenting with various setups with my 5 boxing over the past few weeks using Vista64 and have reached a few conclusions in regards to getting the best FPS.

- Running 2 monitors wokred MUCH better with just the one 8800gtx. I tired adding a spare 8800GT to run the 2nd monitor and it halved my main widows FPS.

- I'm running all 5 WoW from the same directory/exe file BUT on a seperate HDD to Windows. Not so much a FPS issue, but its smoother and they all load much faster.

- Simple, but make sure sound is diabled on all but 1 of the WoWs. Vista hada a little fit when I left one of the alts sound on.

With this setup I get 60+FPS on my main window (1680x1050) with everything maxed out and have the other 4 capped at 15fps.

Hope this might have helped someone.

[Peril]

My google fight!

dogs > cats
http://googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&word1=loves+dogs&word2=loves+cats

ati > nvidia
http://www.googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&word1=ati+rules&word2=nvidia+rules

GOOGLE FIGHT!!ATI -- XP vs VIsta
http://googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&word1=ATI+Vista+video+driver+known+issues&word2=ATI+XP+video+driver+known+issues

Nvidia -- XP vs Vista
http://www.googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&word1=nvidia+Vista+video+driver+known+issues&word2=nvidia+XP+video+driver+known+issues

Cage Match -- Vista
http://www.googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&word1=nvidia+Vista+video+driver+known+issues&word2=ATI+Vista+video+driver+known+issues

... bummer... and I'm a hardcore nvidia person... but that doesn't take in marketshare...

[Chorizotarian]

Running 2 monitors wokred MUCH better with just the one 8800gtx. I tired adding a spare 8800GT to run the 2nd monitor and it halved my main widows FPS.

I'm trying to run 3 large monitors off 3 graphics cards (2 8800 GTXs and 1 8800 GT), and I'm finding the same thing. With 5 copies of WoW running I had been getting pretty good framerates with 2 monitors and 2 gpus. I figured that adding the 3rd monitor would be easy if I put it on a separtate gpu. Nope. My framerate went from 45ish to 30. Moving all 5 windows onto my main monitor jumped it back up to a steady 60, which is what I would normally see when single boxing. Hmmm, anybody want to buy a barely used 8800 GT? :(

[Stabface]

Just curious if IT Monkey tried the XP drivers and got it working ?

:)