Can't get two video cards to work at once in Windows Vista.

dabve3

I recently got a few computers at work with Windows Vista Business edition. It came with an ATI 1300 Pro video card with dual monitor support. The person I was setting this up for uses three monitors so I added a PCI card. It is a nvidia 6200. When I plugged in the PCI card it worked fine but the ATI card would not work. Some sort of conflict.

If I take the PCI card out the ATI one works fine. I think the error code is 43 for the ATI card in the device manager when that PCI card is in the computer. Just wondering if it is possible to get both video cards to work together. I even downloaded the latest Vista drivers for the PCI card and still had no luck. Any suggestions would be appreciated!!

Plantwiz

Have you checked System Logs?

Usually when installing 2 cards, I try to use two of the same or at least same mfg...I haven't mixed ATI w/ nVidia.

Have you looked around the ATI and nVidia forums for any discussion on those particular cards and drivers?

JDMurray

It's possible to run video cards from different manufacturers in the same machine, but there might be some incompatibilities between specific models or features of cards. You might need to install the ATI drivers after you install the nVidia drivers, or change something in the ATI configuration.

Have you looked at both ATI's and nVidia's customer support Web site knowledgebase or emailed their tech support? That'd be the quickest way to solve this problem.

dabve3

I think I found what the problem is I ran into this article on Microsoft's website. http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/display/multimonVista.mspx#EUD I guess if you try using two video cards from different manufactures it will disable one.

JDMurray

dabve3 wrote:

I think I found what the problem is I ran into this article on Microsoft's website. http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device/display/multimonVista.mspx#EUD I guess if you try using two video cards from different manufactures it will disable one.

MultiMonitor Support and Windows Vista wrote:

If there are two graphics adapters with WDDM drivers from two different manufacturers, then Windows will disable one of them. The VGA adapter will be enabled, and the second device will be disabled.

Therez yer problem!!


This article points out that this applies only to graphics adapters using Windows Vista WDDM (Windows Display Driver Model) drivers. If you use graphics adapters that use non-WDDW drivers, such as the SLI/Crossfire cards from ATI and nVidia, it is possible to mix adapter manufacturers in the same computer.

I was waiting for WDDM 2.0 hardware to be released before making the move to Vista, but it seems there's a reason not to go with WDDM graphics adapters at all.