Two Video cards on One computer

[geraldo]

Hi

Because of work, I have two OS (XP 32bit and 64 bits) where the 64 bits is used primarly for simulation/CAD. Because of the visualisation requirement, I need to buy a quadro card. I was wondering is it possible to have two video card installed on the computer, one Geforce and the other Quadro but on the 32 bit OS, the GeForce would be the primary while on the 64 bit, the Quadro would be the primary ?

My motherboard is the ASUS P5E, QuadCore 6600, 8 gigs of ram.

Any ideas ?

Thanks, G

 

[Poopsmasher]

What do you need the Geforce for?
Why do you need the 32bit OS?

 

[geraldo]

Basically, 32 bit is for gaming, coding. Hence the geforce card and for programs with compatability issues with 64 bit OS.

For 64 bits, I need the full 8 gigs of rams to run simulations and visualisations.

I've dug around the web and basically from my research, the Quadro doesn't run games very well, if it did, I'd remove the geforce card.

 

[Flakes]

personally i would have two sepperate machines...

i think you can set up a hardware profile to use certain gfx cards depending on what your doing, but ive never looked into it further than the screen the says "add", ive never needed to set up different hardware profiles you should be able to find out whether or not it is suited to your situation through microsoft technical support website though.

 

[Poopsmasher]

It probably is possible to make it work, you have more than one monitor right or you'll be swapping cables?!

 

[geraldo]

I currently have a dual monitor setup, but if i do go for 2 vid setup, I proabably have to swap cables

 

[Poopsmasher]

Use hardware profiles in system properties to disable and enable the chosen card, ive never done it before.
Give it a go, let us know!

 

[snipster4]

It works but is annoying.

I had a Quadro 1500 running at the same time as a GeForce 8800GT. You can disable the device you are not using in sys properties. The only thing with doing this is at startup add new hardware dialoge would pop up and that was the annoying thing. If you had a profile created that might work better.

What program are you using Quadro for and what model is it?

I have found that all the new CAD apps run DirectX which allows me to use my 8800GT for AutoCAD 2008, Inventor 2008, 3D Studio Viz 2008, 3D Max 9, Maya 8, Microstaion XM.

My 8800GT blows the Quadro 1500 out of the water with many of these apps when running DirectX vs OpenGL. Just something to consider.

You can even install a Nvidia card and ATI card if running dual boot system (due to the drivers) would work as well.

s