Dual monitors with two different video cards

[thienhoang21]

Hey guys, I'm new to this so I have some questions to ask.

First of all, I have an HP PC that has built-in NVidigia GeForce4. I recently went and bought an ATI Radeon 9550 but I forgot to get a DVI-VGA adapter.

I was wondering if it's possible to have dual monitor display with the two different video cards.. with the monitors plugged into each one (the nvidia and the radeon.

 

[magouster]

No, its not possible. The second you plug the Radeon into the AGP slot, the onboard graphics will be disabled, and only the Radeon will be active.

 

[umybiatch2k6]

so the same would happen w/ any integrated video card along w/ a video card?

 

[Nukem]

The onboard would have to be disabled in the bios... but he is correct... you cannot use both onboard AND the AGP slot card... I have heard... never seen myself, but have heard that 2 cards could work, but I have no clue as to the config you would have to use... but basically, for your info... would be NO, it can't be done.

 

[MrCoffee]

2 cards works easy, i've used 3 cards myself.

I've not heard that you can't use onboard vga and a card but I haven't tried it myself.

 

[Nukem]

With most bought machines... (I had an HP myself as well) it wouldn't let you. I can't do it with our dell POS's at work either... I dunno if it's something written in the bios of those things or what, but I have never seen it work and we have tried with those dells.

 

[MrCoffee]

Maybe it might work if you use a PCI card?

 

[FlashDude]

The image's would be just mirrored off one another. One card with dual outputs is the way to go. And yes some onboard auto disables when an add on card is installed and some don't. You can buy the adaptor for $8.00 I assume you want two vga's

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=162594&CatId=467

 

[Nukem]

If you use 2 cards... how would you get past which driver is primary? speaking as if you used an AGP (in this case) and a PCI? A proprietary machine will go only one way or the other. It will only look in the first place you want it to go. With HP's it's either AGP/PCI or onboard. I don't think you can tell it which slot to look in first. See... now you have me curious as well...

 

[Edward]

I have done this on two PCs the first was a hp pavilion which didn't have an AGP slot so I used a PCI and the ondboard and the PCI worked fine with different images. I have done it on a custom built one with an ASUS motherboard with a agp card and a PCI card (and now have three monitors ). The one time that I was thwarted was on a compaq where I couldnt use an AGP card and a PCI card at the same time. It wouldn't let me I would have to choose one or the other in the bios. That really ****ed me off.