hi is it possible to configuere graphics cards so its only used in games and the on bord memory to handle windows graphics??

Theres no need, as windows graphics require little power, as its in 2D mode mostly, and easy to do. In 3D mode, thats gaming mode, and your card already goes in and out of 2D to 3D when needed

Not anymore there used to be 3 modes. 2d, 3d, and throttle. Now theres a new mode called extra. All 8xxx cards are stuck with extra. I'm not sure about 9xxx ones.

What card do you have, the new ATI cards (HD 3000 series) have a feature called power play that does what jaydeejohn is talking about. Cards do it anyway this feature does it a bit better. Dont know about the newer Nvidia cards
It is possable to set profiles in your graphics drivers or using a third party app like ATI Tool, one with low clocks for default for when the machine starts and isnt doing a lot and another at stock or OC'ed a bit if you like for gaming. You would have to switch this yourself before starting a game though and it would take a lot of time and tweaking to get settings that were stable and to your liking. Too much hastle for my liking but it is possable.
Mactronix

the upcoming hybrid SLI/Crossfire is supposed to have a feature called hybrid power or something that will use the onboard graphics for 2d desktop use and only power up the discrete card for 3d gaming or for other heavy 3d stuff

I think they are going to introduce this in the new mobos this summer or something like that

Thats for a major power savings, having the dicrete card idling at a low output, while the IGP does all the 2D work, which is fine for the IGP, since like I said, 2D isnt demanding at all, this just cuts most of the power to the card

yeah, as stated, the new hybrid crossfire will just do it for u. not sure bout the SLI one.

i got a ATI X1950,

does anyone kjnow how to underclocKm and can underclocking damge the gfx card?

why do you want to do this? power, heat?

basically its running at 80-90 degrees when just using windows

assuming its been used for a while; clean the dust from the heatsink, add some case fans, maybe even try to rearrange the cables for better airflow...

i done all taht, problem iz that its a small case so it tends to get hotter,

i was just wondering if it could be underclocked so that it would maintin the same performance in windows but run at a lower heat

Google for a program called ATITool 0.27.

You can use it to underclock your ATI card and also setup profiles as well. I use it to setup two profiles:

1. Low: Core = 175.50MHz, Memory = 279MHz
2. Safe Mode: Core = 450MHz, Memory = 550MHz

"Low" is used upon startup so when I simply surf the net or watch a movie the low speed is good enough to do the job.

"Safe Mode" is if I am playing a game and my video card is overheating, yet I still want to play. Setup just in case.

ATITool allows you to automatically switch between "low" and default speeds when it detects a 3D program (like a game) being started, and end it has been closed. 3D detection is not perfect though because it detects PowerDVD Player and Windows Media Player Classic as "3D" applications and it sets my X1900XT to default speed. However, you can setup an exclusion list that will not automatically cause the default speed profile to be used.


WARNING: The following option is not fully implemented yet.

Lastly, ATITool allows you to change the various voltages. While there are options to "save" voltage settings to a specific profile, the voltages do not automatically load with the profile. Therefore if you lower your voltages for your "low" profile, and you have automatic 3D detection enabled, as soon as you launch a game your system will crash!!

You must first manually increase the voltages back to default then launch the game. You can also create a "standard" profile to save voltage settings so that you can simply load the default voltages.

For my "LOW" profile I set VDDC t0 1.200v, and everything else to bare minimum.

isn't that what 780a supposed to do?

couldn't you just buy a new case with better cooling?