Working with integrated graphics AND after market

[Dark_Poet02]

I have a 3200 AMD Athlon HP computer that has a relatively cheap integrated graphics card and when I put in my GeForce 6600 GT it disables the onboard card. I was wondering if there was any way to override the disable so I could use both cards and set up a dual monitor desktop.

 

[tifc8lraz]

You can't do that. If you want dual monitors, you will need a card that has 2 ports. The only way to use 2 cards at the same time as one is when you have them in sli (nvidia cards), or crossfire (ati cards), and they need to be the same models.

 

[Nodsu]

Cfitzarl: That's just plain wrong. I have Intel integrated video and an ancient VGA card in this very computer and I'm enjoying two desktops on two LCD screens. Don't reply if you have no idea.

Dark_poet02:
Your integrated graphics is using AGP bus and one can have only one AGP device, that's why your builtin video controller disabled itself. You can still have dual monitor if you get a PCI video card or a video card with two outputs.

 

[tifc8lraz]

Cfitzarl: That's just plain wrong. I have Intel integrated video and an ancient VGA card in this very computer and I'm enjoying two desktops on two LCD screens. Don't reply if you have no idea.

Dark_poet02:
Your integrated graphics is using AGP bus and one can have only one AGP device, that's why your builtin video controller disabled itself. You can still have dual monitor if you get a PCI video card or a video card with two outputs.

Now that I think of it, I was able to use a Stealth 3D card on my secondary computer along with the terrible integrated card as well. Sorry for the mistake.

 

[Sharkfood]

Hi DarkPoet,
While it's quite possible to do what you plan on doing, I'd urge against it as most integrated videocards also use shared memory with your system. This slows down overall system performance as now your CPU needs to arbitrate use of it's system memory... even if the card is just sitting on a plain desktop with nothing occurring.

Moreover, most 6600GT's already have support for dual-head/dual-display, so for your purposes you really shouldn't have to enable to the on-board video to get your dual-monitor configuration working.

Inspect the back of your 6600GT to ensure it has both a VGA and DVI connector. There are cheap (and usually included) DVI->VGA adapters that will allow you to configure a secondary display and use the NVidia drivers (Nview is part of Forceware and very nice/easy to use) to configure the second display however you want (extended desktop, clone primary, overlay, full secondary, etc.etc.)