Two video cards in one comp. question

[grimorian]

I have a Nvidia GTX260, and I need a smaller video card to run a program because the GTX is taking up too much memory. Would I be able to use a Radeon 32mb card on the same comp? Pretty much I would have the radeon disabled until I needed to run the program, then I'd disable the Nvidia and enable the radeon.

Or, should I just slap in another smaller Nvidia Gforce card?

 

[jyjjy]

What exactly do you mean by "the GTX is taking up too much memory"? Video cards come with and use their own memory.

 

[rolli59]

I have a Nvidia GTX260, and I need a smaller video card to run a program because the GTX is taking up too much memory. Would I be able to use a Radeon 32mb card on the same comp? Pretty much I would have the radeon disabled until I needed to run the program, then I'd disable the Nvidia and enable the radeon.

Or, should I just slap in another smaller Nvidia Gforce card?

???????
The graphics processor on your card uses the installed memory on the card to render data to display on the screen? If it runs out of memory it can run into a VGA buffer that you specify in BIOS.
It does not use your SYSTEM MEMORY, by having memory on the card it self it frees up the system memory to be used for the CPU and other components.
BY installing a smaller card you are only slowing your system down further.
If you have insufficient memory to run a program on your computer you need to look for more system RAM! The video card has nothing to do with it!

 

[rolli59]

Could you please post the rest of your PC specs so we can better help you.

 

[christop]

say what?

 

[grimorian]

Ok, I might have miss-worded that because I was chatting with someone else as I was typing... I'm having trouble running Pro Tools on a new computer. It ran perfectly on my old computer which was a slower computer in every way. Someone said perhaps my GTX260 was incompatable, which I really don't see how because it's not really needed for anything but to display... But I have an old 32mb radeon sitting here and was wondering if I could just slap that in and disable/enable one of them, instead of pulling out the GTX and such.

BTW... If any of you have any experience in Pro Tools, I'd be more than happy for more help in figuring out why I can't get it to run. And since someone asked, and it'll save me time later in case anyone has Pro Tools knowledge, here's my comp specs...

Processor
Model : Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU 750 @ 2.67GHz
Speed : 2.8GHz
Cores per Processor : 4 Unit(s)
Threads per Core : 1 Unit(s)
Type : Quad-Core
Integrated Data Cache : 2x 32kB, Synchronous, Write-Thru, 8-way, 64 byte line size, 2 threads sharing
L2 On-board Cache : 2x 256kB, ECC, Synchronous, ATC, 8-way, 64 byte line size, 2 threads sharing
L3 On-board Cache : 8MB, ECC, Synchronous, ATC, 16-way, Exclusive, 64 byte line size, 4 threads sharing

Computer
Mainboard : Gigabyte P55-UD3R
BIOS : Award (Phoenix) F2 08/01/2009
Bus(es) : X-Bus PCI PCIe IMB USB FireWire/1394 i2c/SMBus
Multi-Processor (MP) Support : No
Multi-Processor Advanced PIC (APIC) : Yes
Total Memory : 3.5GB DIMM DDR3

Chipset
Model : Giga-Byte Clarksfield/Lynnfield DMI
Front Side Bus Speed : 2x 2.4GHz (4.79GHz)

Chipset
Model : Giga-Byte QuickPath Architecture Generic Non-Core Registers
Front Side Bus Speed : 2x 2.4GHz (4.79GHz)
Total Memory : 4GB DIMM DDR3
Memory Bus Speed : 2x 665MHz (1.33GHz)

Memory Module(s)
Memory Module : G.Skill F3-12800CL9-2GBRL 2GB DIMM DDR3 PC3-12800U DDR3-1600 (9-9-9-25 4-34-10-5)
Memory Module : G.Skill F3-12800CL9-2GBRL 2GB DIMM DDR3 PC3-12800U DDR3-1600 (9-9-9-25 4-34-10-5)

Video System
Video Adapter : NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 (216 SP 300MHz, 896MB DDR3 2x296MHz, PCIe 2.00 x16)

Graphics Processor

Storage Devices
WDC WD3200AAJS-56B4A0 (320GB, SATA300, 3.5", 7200rpm, NCQ, 8MB Cache) : 298GB (C
WDC WD5000AADS-00M2B0 (500.1GB, SATA300, 3.5", NCQ, 32MB Cache) : 466GB (E
ATAPI iHAS324 A (SATA150, DVD+-RW, CD-RW, 2MB Cache) : N/A (D

Logical Storage Devices
Hard Disk (C : 298GB (NTFS) @ WDC WD3200AAJS-56B4A0 (320GB, SATA300, 3.5", 7200rpm, NCQ, 8MB Cache)
New Volume (E : 466GB (NTFS) @ WDC WD5000AADS-00M2B0 (500.1GB, SATA300, 3.5", NCQ, 32MB Cache)
Optical Drive (D : N/A @ ATAPI iHAS324 A (SATA150, DVD+-RW, CD-RW, 2MB Cache)
3.5" 1.44MB (A : N/A

Peripherals
LPC Hub Controller 1 : Giga-Byte P55/PM55/3400 LPC Interface Controller
LPC Legacy Controller 1 : ITE IT8720F
Audio Device : Giga-Byte P55/PM55/3400 High Definition Audio
Serial Port(s) : 1
Parallel Port(s) : 1
Disk Controller : Giga-Byte P55/PM55/3400 4 port SATA IDE Controller
Disk Controller : Giga-Byte P55/PM55/3400 2 port SATA IDE Controller
Disk Controller : Giga-Byte JMB36X PCIE-to-SATAII/IDE RAID Controller
Disk Controller : Giga-Byte JMB36X PCIE-to-SATAII/IDE RAID Controller
USB Controller 1 : Giga-Byte P55/PM55/3400 USB Universal Host Controller
USB Controller 2 : Giga-Byte P55/PM55/3400 USB Universal Host Controller
USB Controller 3 : Giga-Byte P55/PM55/3400 USB Universal Host Controller
USB Controller 4 : Giga-Byte P55/PM55/3400 USB2 Enhanced Host Controller
USB Controller 5 : Giga-Byte P55/PM55/3400 USB Universal Host Controller
USB Controller 6 : Giga-Byte P55/PM55/3400 USB Universal Host Controller
USB Controller 7 : Giga-Byte P55/PM55/3400 USB Universal Host Controller
USB Controller 8 : Giga-Byte P55/PM55/3400 USB Universal Host Controller
FireWire/1394 Controller 1 : Lucent/Agere Systems (Was: AT&T MicroElectronics) FW322/323 IEEE1394 OHCI FireWire Contro
SMBus/i2c Controller 1 : Intel 801xx/63xx SMBus

Printers and Faxes
Printer : Microsoft XPS Document Writer (600x600, Colour)

Network Services
Network Adapter : Realtek RTL8169/8110 Family Gigabit Ethernet NIC - Packet Scheduler Miniport (Ethernet, 100Mbps)

Power Management
Mains (AC) Line Status : On-Line

Operating System
Windows System : Microsoft Windows XP Professional 5.01.2600 (Service Pack 3)
Platform Compliance : x86

 

[sabot00]

Because total memory says 3.5GB I am guessing his OS is 32-bit.
It can only address 4GBs of RAM, the RAM from the PCI-E slot is mapped to the OS & thus takes 512MB away from main RAM.

You cannot, as nVidia & ATI cards use different drivers, so unless you use a generic driver (VGA (640x480) used in safe mode) you can't, or maybe hacked drivers.

 

[ubernoobie]

It is 32 bit, On the bottom, it says paltform compliance : x86, so it's 32bit. I think only windows 7 allows for more than 1 graphics driver

 

[rolli59]

OP is it an old version of Pro Tools you are running? If so you should be able to run it in compatibility to an older version of windows. after running again through your post I see that you are on Win XP then most likely you are having some driver issues with either the onboard sound or a interface module if you have one.