Getting a Third Monitor - Can I mix ATI and NVIDIA

[Margon]

I am getting a third monitor delivered this week (all three will be Dell 20.1" running at 1600x1200). When I do gaming only one monitor is in use, but I mostly use my computer for business purposes.

I currently have a two year old computer that is running a ATI X800PRO.

I need to add a PCI video card and my options are the ATI 9250 or a NVIDIA FX 5500. All the reading I have done on this indicates that the NVIDIA card is MUCH better than the ATI.

Also, I plan on building a new computer in the next few months (waiting for conroe supply to become available, and a few more motherboards to hit the market). In the new rig, as of now I plan on putting in a 7950 GX2, and hopefully popping this other video card into a PCI slot to run the third monitor.

The quesiton I have is.... If I already have a ATI card in the AGP slot can I pop a NVIDIA card into the PCI slot, or do I need to run both cards from the same manufcaturer?

Thanks for the help!

Margon

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

You can run ATi and nV sideby side for multi-monitor no problemo.

If you;'re serious about multi-mon look into a 3rd part app like UltraMon to give you the most features.

 

[Margon]

Thanks for the response, and from a fellow Calgarian.

I will be swinging by Memory Express and lunch today to pick up the video card.

It is actually memory express that I am waiting on to get a supply of Conroe 6600's before I get my new rig.

Thanks again for the help.

Margon

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

No problemo, MemExpress is pretty good (also be sure to check Dangeo for a competitive price just in case), I go there often enough (NE store , used to have to drive down to Chinook for the south store, but at least it's near Hooters :twisted: )

 

[sojrner]

Just as a side note:

I actually run a 9250 for 3rd mon support in my old system... very nice card. (agree the 5500 is better) It works fine for non-gaming stuff, and at that point you are probably doing your gaming on your x800 so it really does not matter on what the pci card is as it will be doing primarily 2D stuff.

Anyway, the big benefit to me is that I only need one driver set for the cards instead of both Nv and ati drivers... not much of a big deal, but simplifies things.

caveat: if you are oc'ing that x800 then stick w/ the Nv card as the oc will apply to both ati cards if you do it w/ stock drivers.

 

[WaxMan]

Similar question, but with PCIe. Have been running multiple monitors for a few years now but pci + agp so i know that works.

But does any one have any experiance of running 2 PCIe cards from different manufacturers, ie. Nvida and ATi (currently have an NF4 SLi MB).

Currently have a 6600GT perfect for 2nd / 3rd monitors but am looking at getting a nice card to run my primary monitor at decent resolutions for gaming (also hold of for DX10) but would love to be able to choose the best single card solution and not be locked into 1 manu.

just some one who has done it or seen it done, for some strange reason out of my 9-10 working gfx cards I only have 1 PCIe card

 

[agomba]

Hey im running vist 64 bit, I have 2 PCI E slots one using my Single 2GB GDDR5 ATI® Radeon® HD 4870 X2 – Dual GPU Technology on one slot and i just bought a Nvidia Geforce 8400 GS and was wondering if I can place it in my second PCI E slot. When i did that I get an error message Incompatiable display adapter has been disabled and the screen that is connected to the Nvidia card wont display. I was wondering if there is anyway to get these cards to work so that I can use one of them for gaming and the other one for anything esle.