3 Monitors, Big Problem

gnome · Sep 2, 2003

Quote from easyrider:

get a cheap ATI card for about $40. It will work fine.

Do you mean to infer that "ATI cards are compatible with all other cards"??

TGregg · Sep 2, 2003

Quote from elindydotcom:

. . .According to the Matrox folks, their drivers have a conflict with the nVidia drivers.

. . . If you have an intel 850e chipset, it compounds the problem bigtime.

Just wanted to note that I run 850e and 3 PCI Matrox G450s (in the slots farthest from the AGP port) and a GeForce4 4600 (nVidia) card. But, that would be ancedotal evidence.

easyrider · Sep 2, 2003

Quote from gnome:

Do you mean to infer that "ATI cards are compatible with all other cards"??

Not at all but I have the combination working on XP Pentuim and Windows 2000/Athalon so Im pretty sure it will work. Of course if your using the third monitor for some highend graphics application you may not be happy with it but for charting it works fine.

nitro · Sep 2, 2003

H2O,

Everything you say is right on. However, "...this would not affect the AGP" is not quite correct.

On my SuperMicro motherboard, the AGP slot shares resources with PCI slot 1.

nitro

Quote from H2O:

I don't know excacly why, but yes, I know it does matter.
I know it has something to do with the priority of the PCI slots.
Of course this would not affect the AGP, but if you have other PCI slots filled, there might just be a conflict between the PCI slots.

You can always boot your machine in 'save mode' on start up by pressing <F8> This way you should be able to start up will all cards inside and make changes to your settings.

nitro · Sep 2, 2003

I am not sure this would work on all motherboards. On my SuperMicro MB, if I have an AGP card, I need to stay away from PCI slot 1.

This is nowhere to be found in the manual that came with the MOBO - it was only discovered by talking to tech support.

nitro

Quote from gnome:

1. You should have your additional video cards in PCI slots closest to the AGP slot.
...

gnome · Sep 2, 2003

Quote from nitro:

I am not sure this would work on all motherboards. On my SuperMicro MB, if I have an AGP card, I need to stay away from PCI slot 1.

This is nowhere to be found in the manual that came with the MOBO - it was only discovered by talking to tech support.

nitro

Interesting. I was told by the tech where I bought mine to have them closest to the AGP.... must be MOBO specific.

rossmedia · Sep 2, 2003

AGP slot?, AGP card? please explain, would that be the slot where my Matrox card is? Also, I use the 3 monitor setup for trading not for and high end graphics or games. I'm not well versed in motherboard, PCI..stuff. Appreciate all the info. If I can't get the 3rd monitor working today I'll just return it for something that hopfully will. Thanks.

Rossmedia

gnome · Sep 2, 2003

Quote from rossmedia:

AGP slot?, AGP card? please explain, would that be the slot where my Matrox card is? Also, I use the 3 monitor setup for trading not for and high end graphics or games. I'm not well versed in motherboard, PCI..stuff. Appreciate all the info. If I can't get the 3rd monitor working today I'll just return it for something that hopfully will. Thanks.

Rossmedia

AGP is the primary/default video card slot. PCI = the other 4-6 slots that look alike... probably white.

You need to decide whether you want to use Nvidia or Matrox... then check with tech support and find out which of their other cards or combos would be compatible. (In case you haven't guessed, you can't just throw any cards into your computer and expect they will work together.... some will, many won't.)

Many ETers have multiple card setups... Matrox, Nvidia, ATI, Appian.... but mixing brands and drivers is more likely to lead to problems.

axeman · Sep 2, 2003

Remind me that the geeks shall inherit the earth

It's good to be the geek.

peace

axeman

waggie945 · Sep 2, 2003

I have read in several reference guides that you should put your PCI slot Graphics Card in the FARTHEST SLOT away from the AGP Card, in an effort to avoid conflicts.

As for going into the BIOS, your BIOS will tell you which "IRQ" your video cards are being supported on. There is a possibility that you have a conflict due to the fact that your video cards are "competing" for the same IRQ.

In any event, I have a 3 monitor set-up ( one digital and 2 CRTS ) that works fine with an AGP card that is Nvdia Chipset based, and a PCI card that is also Nvdia Chipset based. Everything is recognized by Windows XP, and worked out great the first time.

IN my opinion, having Video Cards ( AGP and PCI ) that are of the same "chipset" like ALL Nvdia, does in fact help.