Running PCI-e GPU & PCI GPU simultaneously?

http://en.community.dell.com/forums/t/19268803.aspx <google is your friend....

Also SLI is running two nivida cards together...Crossfire is running two ati cards together...

Yes, you can have both PCI and PCI-e video cards in the same computer for separate monitors.

No, you cannot link them; SLI or XFire.

It is best to use a pair of ATI or nVidia card so that you will only need 1 video driver. From what I understand Vista does not allow you to install more than one video driver, so both video must be either ATI or nVidia. Apparently, Windows XP is more flexible so you can a ATI and nVdia card installed (Google this point though).

So with Vista I need either a NVIDIA card x2 (PCI, and PCI-e) or a ATI card x2 right? But If I'm using XP I can use a ATI and NVIDIA simultaneously? Thanks

Not in Vista, as you can only have one display driver installed at any time. Its possible to run two cards that require diffrent drivers in XP though.

If the cards use the same driver, then you won't have any issues, but I don't think any PCI card uses the same drivers as a current PCI-E card...

What about on Windows 7 can you have both PCIe and PCI cards running?

Yes, on my work station that had 7 i have an ati canrd and nvidia card. The nvidia is an 8400 and a 4600 for the ati. they work fine to power my three monitors.

Vista will not work as it is just a poor operating system and can't handle the drivers with all of the other reasources that it hogs.

XP can run this configuration but it is not a stable solution to use an ati and an nvidia card.

No matter what OS you will not get any preformance gain unless they are in SLI or CrossFire. Meaning two of the same modle card running at the same time connected with a bridge.

Awesome! and thanks for the quick response.... No wonder Vista would always give me the BSOD when installing 2 different video card drivers. ive tried figuring out why this was happening but thanks to this post i now know its not a hardware issue... before vista, i had 2 cards working perfectly on XP one being a PCI-e dual out and 1 regular PCI.