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Alternating between two Graphics Cards?

Tags:
  • Alternating
  • Graphics
  • Graphics Cards
  • TV
  • DDR3
  • Drivers
  • NVIDIA GeForce 210
  • ATI
  • Games
  • RADEON X700
Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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May 31, 2014 12:20:16 PM

I have a problem and since I couldn't find answers for this exact question, I'm hoping, I can get help here.
Some time ago I bought a new graphics card. It's a "Gigabyte NVIDIA GeForce 210 DDR3"(1GB).
The previous card I used is an "ATI RADEON X700 PRO"(256MB).
Obviously, the RADEON isn't good for playing newer games, but it has one thing the NVIDIA doesn't: a TV tuner. There are times, where I have to hook up the PC to the TV, either to record something or to watch a movie with more people. And the TV doesn't have HDMI ports. I don't have two slots for graphics cards on my PC, so I was wondering: Is it possible to install drivers for both cards on the PC, so that every time I have to hook up the PC to the TV, I could just remove the NVIDIA and place the RADEON(I know this may be tedious, but the whole hooking up to the TV doesn't happen that often and, besides, it's not that bad)?
Usually when you already have an ATI card and you install drivers for a newer one, the old driver is uninstalled, but these are cards from two different companies. Considering, that the drivers are programed in different ways, they shouldn't conflict each other.
Please, tell me if this is how I think it is and if it is, would it be bad for the CPU if I switch the cards every now and then.

More about : alternating graphics cards

a b U Graphics card
May 31, 2014 12:33:11 PM

it would be bad for the slot switching cards a bunch. drivers are not automatically uninstalled if you remove a card only if you manually delete them.
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a c 207 U Graphics card
May 31, 2014 12:42:40 PM

You are going to be rather underwhelmed with the G 210, if you thought the X700 Pro couldn't handle newer games you are in for a big surprise, the X700 Pro is about on par with the Intel HD 3000 integrated graphics, the G 210 is 3 tiers below that..... If you want to game at all i really suggest returning the G210.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-car...


As for the question at hand, with a bit of work you can get windows 7 to accept having multiple drivers in play for different GPUs but that is normally for two cards that are in the system, i don't know how it will play if only one of them is in the system at a time. I also don't know how many insertion/removal cycles a PCI-e slot is rated for but you may quickly find out it isn't as many as you hope.
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