Can I mix HD 5770 and 8600 GT on Win7?

[alex_conde]

Hi folks! The time has come for my PC to get some upgrades. I've been using the 8600 GT with 2 Acer 2233SN monitors for some time now and would like to make some changes.

I plan on adding the HD 5770 mostly to play movies on a LCD monitor using the HDMI interface, but I'm not sure if my system will be able to handle it.

I cant' use the Eyefinity feature since it's pretty hard to find a displayport enabled monitor here in México, and I also want to keep these two monitors.

I leave my specs here:

AMD Athlon 2x 5600
OCZ 8GB DDR 800
Gigabyte GA-M57SLI-S4
XFX 8600 GT 512 MB DDR2
2x Acer 2233SN

Any help will be really appreciated!

 

[daship]

Toss the 8600 after you get the 5770, it not going to work together, also make sure to delete all Nvidia drivers before you install the ATI card.

With a 5770 you can play HD no problem.

You dont need a monitor with mini displayport, the make active display post adapters so you can use eyefinity with any monitor. But you need a 3rd monitor if going that route. With only 2 monitors you wont have any issues.

 

[daship]

who tells u that ppl are using ati card and nvidia card for physx.do so googling before posting.

Well if you looked on google you will see more problems using ati and nvidia, then you see success stories. Not to mention Nvidia disabled it to work on ATI without a work around, so its a no brainer that there is no official support, and hardly any game has physix anyhow, so basically for a simple user such as the OP, its a giant waste of time, that he would likely never ever see any benefit if he did get it working.

 

[Helltech]

who tells u that ppl are using ati card and nvidia card for physx.do so googling before posting.

Even if there aren't problems with it. I wouldn't reccomend it. How many games out there acutally use Physx? And I think only 2-3 of them are worth playing.

Its not worth the heat, power consumption, and its not worth having to deal with multiple drivers and what not.

Plus judging by his post and the fact he uses multiple monitors he wants to use the cards to boost his performance, as in a SLI or CF setup.

 

[geofelt]

With XP, there was a requirement that there could be only one graphics driver, negating the possibility of using different type cards. I think that restriction is no longer there with windows-7, and possibly vista.

For certain, you could add something like a Nvidia GTS250 which is just a notch below the 5770 in gaming, but probably adequate for movies. It is a bit cheaper.

What PSU do you have? Is it adequate for a second card?

 

[alex_conde]

I have an OCZ 550 W PSU. According to the manual, it's SLI and Crossfire ready. Mostly I'm going to use the PC for HD movies on an LCD TV, and keep the 2 monitors for work.

Thank you guys for your answers.

 

[alex_conde]

Best answer selected by alex_conde.