ATI+nVidia in one system?

S

spock

Gawd
Joined
Apr 5, 2000
Messages
521
Has anyone had any luck running nVidia and ATI cards in the same system? I've got an 8800GTX with 2 DVI ports that are now both in use so I want to add a HD3450 as an additional video output for HTPC type stuff (no 3D, but yes to H264, blu ray and other HD content). I've got a P5B with two x16 PCIe slots so the cards will physically install, but I'm curious about driver compatibility. Will the HW accelerated video work for the HD3450 on its DVI port, or will the CPU need to do the decoding?
 
If I'm not mistaken you can't mix to video cards from different companies. You could get a midrange 8 series card, unless you're looking for the benefits that the 3000 series offers in video area.
 
NO Way and you CAN'T mix the vid card either.
The only machine can run in crossfire with Nvidia cards is the HP Blackbird. HP came up a special BIOS codes to work with Nvidia's card and HP kept this breakthru to themself
 
I'm looking for a $50 PCIe card with a DVI or HDMI port, low power consumption, no fan (passive heatsink) and decent ability to play HD video. Can the 7300GT do that? Or any other nVidia card? I'm open to suggestions. The alternative is I built a completely separate HTPC, which would be expensive and I'm trying to avoid that.
 
I'd like to add a TV Tuner card like the ATI TV Wonder 650 but had issues with the drivers so I was out of luck.
 
I'm using http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125080 right now while I wait for my eVGA step up to get back. I got it for the same reason as you, so I could output to a TV monitor of some sort.

It supports DX10 and is powerful enough to support Aero and it even has played WoW at 1920x1200 resolution without too much tweaking. I was running it alongside my 8800GTS 640 just fine. The only problem I had was when first installing it I had to remove the 8800 at first to install the 8400 because my 8400 was in PCIE slot 2 and the 8800 was in PCIE slot 3. And even after that my 8800 wouldn't display anything until it got to windows while booting up.

Right now with some windows going in vista along with media center playing TV on it its sitting at 70 degrees. Its definitely plenty for what you need, and its under $50 even after you add shipping.
 
The first few posters here don't know what they're talking about. Nvidia and ATI will play nice so long as you only install the "Control Panel" type app (Nvidia Control Panel, ATI Catalyst Control Panel) for the primary card. Just force the drivers to install through the device manager for the secondary card, and you should have no problems. This is assuming you use the machine as stated, though you /should/ even be able to game on the second display in titles which support this. In fact, using SoftTH you will be able to use the 8800GTX to effectively drive both displays, eliminating the second card as a bottleneck. Even a 2600HD would be enough for what you want to do.
 
Deton said:
NO Way and you CAN'T mix the vid card either.
The only machine can run in crossfire with Nvidia cards is the HP Blackbird. HP came up a special BIOS codes to work with Nvidia's card and HP kept this breakthru to themself
Click to expand...


...he's no trying to run Crossfire or SLI and your statement is wrong, regardless. The Blackbird 002 runs a modified 680i BIOS which enables Crossfire and SLI support, but it can't run Crossfire with Nvidia card or SLI with ATI cards. Nothing can.
 
You can run an ATi and an Nvidia card together in the same system without any problems, granted, you'll have fewer problems doing this on Windows XP than you will on Windows Vista.
 
As others have stated, you *can* mix brands, but it's probably not worth the potential driver problems that can occur. You're better off buying an Nvidia 8600 or 8500 based card with H.264 acceleration. (These chipsets support H.264 acceleration according to this article on anandtech: http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2977 )
The cheapest PCI-E 8500 I could find on newegg was $43 + ~$6 shipping after rebate, so it's not really going to break the bank to go with an all Nvidia solution.
 
when you mix cards say you want to add an ATI card and use it for video, how does the computer know to output the video to the ATI card?
 
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