Non SLI Quadro FX1500 and an 8600GTS

[kimqueg]

Greetings!

I have been scouring the web for some answers to this question and I have found a few hints at an answer but nothing too definate. I have a Quadro that I use for CAD/3dsMax/etc. and an 8600GTS that I use for gaming. As far as the gaming goes it is nothign too taxing (WoW and TF2 mostly) but the quadro does not perform well with these hence the 8600. I also dual boot XP32bit and XP64 bit for different reasons (program compatability being the main reason).

I only have ONE monitor that i care to use so having multiple monitors is not my goal here. My goal is to have both cards in at the same time and to be able to switch which card each application is working with without suffering performance loss. As an example I would need to boot to 32bit xp to run my games and a few other 3d apps that are not 64 bit compatable atm and at the same time be able to reboot into 64 bit XP and run my cad/rendering apps under my quadro card.

Another concern is having 2 sets of the NVidia unified drivers installed at a time. I dont want to damage any gear or screw up my windows installs up too badly.

System specs:
ASUS P5B P965 775
GEIL 2x2GB DDR2 800
Thermaltake W0106RU 700W
Nvidia Quadro FX 1500
Nvidia Geforce 8600GTS
Samsung 225BW

(and yes I am aware that there is a 2gig max for 32bit XP. It does report at 3.5gig though)

Thanks for any help you guys can offer!

[kimqueg]

Well i posted at the nvidia customer support board and here are the answers i received.


1. Can I install multiple and different GPU's with different forceware packages on the same system?

2. If I have 2 different graphics cards in a system is it as simple as what display the application is running on or is there something more that I have to configure to use the appropriate graphics card for the appropriate program.

3. Would there be any performance issues in setting up a configuration like this.


I would like to use my system as a workstation and as a gaming rig and I have both xp32 and xp64 setup in a dual boot configuration. I have some of my workstation apps that will only run under 32 bit windows however so I need to use both cards under each windows install if possible. As of right now it is set up as using my Quadro FX1500 in XP64 and my 8600GTS in XP32, swapping cards whenever I need to go into the other install.

I am looking for something a little more permanent than this short of buying another rig. I am NOT looking to SLI these and know that it is impossible.

other background info:
ASUS P5B P965 775
GEIL 2x2GB DDR2 800
Thermaltake W0106RU 700W
Nvidia Quadro FX 1500
Nvidia Geforce 8600GTS

And here is the reply.

Hi ******,

Thank you for contacting NVIDIA Customer Care.

1. you need to use the same NVIDIA driver for the different GPUs

2. with 2 cards in a system., yes, it is as simple as which display the application is running on

3. the only issue I see is the fact that there is no NVIDIA driver that supports both the GeForce 8600GTS and the Quadro FX 1500


Best regards,

NVIDIA Customer Care


I guess this means im out of luck.

[SAPI3N]

Sounds like the best solution would be to buy a second rig for either gaming or digital content creation. Should even be able to hook them up to the same monitor / keyboard and mouse / wacom tablet.

Im enrolled in a Games Dev course and therefore in the same boat as you mate. I wanna make games and play games on the same rig but...

p.s. Nvidia dont care. (prob gonna be banned for that) :) MODERATORS ROCK :)