question for you computer "nerds"

offsetlover

offsetlover

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Feb 26, 2007
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my computer (an HP Pavillion a1560n) has had a new video card recently installed (nvidia 8600GT 512MB with SLI). The computer came with a built in chipset (Intel 945G (total graphics memory is like 224 or 256, in that area)). I turned off this chipset and set up the 8600.

What I am wondering is, can I have both running at the same time? In essance, dual videocards (even if one is built in).

do you guys think that this is possible? i have asked on a computer forum too, so hopefully they will know. But i thought that i would ask here too.
 
I don't think it's a good idea. You would have to be running two video drivers, right? I think you did the right thing shutting down the old chipset and you are now looking for trouble trying to run it along with your new video card.

If you try it, get used to systems freeze-ups and the blue screen of death. You've been warned!

So let us know how you make out when you try it, OK? :D
 
Do you mean to set them up on different monitors, or just trying to harness both their powers together?
 
Absolutely not. It doesn't work that way. If you want 2 video cards them you need a motherboard with 2 PCIexpress x16 slots and a second 8600GT and run the cards in SLI mode. By then it was cheaper to get an 8800GT which would probably be more powerful than dual 8600's anyway.

Now if you mean 2 monitors, then you need a vid card with two video outputs (most do) and just plug both monitors into the card. Thats what I have set-up in fact. I can say after having run dual monitors, I don't think I can go back to just 1, but then I multi task a lot and having the extra screen-estate is a Godsend.
 
I think you can still use the two video cards to independently "power" two monitors. SLI or whatever the competing standard is called is something else entirely, I agree.
 
thanks for the info guys. i got the answer from someone else that i asked (same as what you guys were saying) earlier today. thanks for the help, and HAPPY NEW YEAR!
 
Though I haven't tried it with your particular setup. There shouldn't be anything stopping you from running both the discrete graphics card (8600gt) and integrated chipset. They'd obviously display to two different monitors.

The downside would be, depending on what your computing requirements are, the resources required to run the integrated chipset may slightly slow down the computer as a whole.

I don't know if anyone here recalls, but as recently as a few years ago, prior to PCI-E, you'd only get one AGP(accelerated graphics port) slot on an average motherboard. If your graphics card had only one vga port, and you wanted a second (or third ... ) monitor, you had to buy a PCI video card, which usually had no 3d acceleration, but worked fine for extending your desktop across two monitors.

What you want to do is essentially the same.

All that said, I could be totally wrong :D

Later,
~ Dagr
 
To my knowledge the operating system will only allow for running one driver at a time, therefore only allowing one of the GPU's to operate. Unless there's a work around I don't think theres any way for the system to utilize them both.
 
You can't combine their power, but you can split it. You need two to connect to different monitors.
 
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