ATI +Nvidia GPU's?

Ben · Post by **Ben** » Sat Feb 06, 2010 4:19 pm

Has anyone successfulyl managed to run both ATI and Nvidia GPU's in their machines? Or know of how to do it?

I have tried googling how to do it but wasn't coming up with any answers :(

Now running Windows 7 so from what i hear it "should" work

Temujin · Post by **Temujin** » Sat Feb 06, 2010 4:51 pm

Hi Ben

I found this a while ago when Darren was trying the same thing

Ben · Post by **Ben** » Sat Feb 06, 2010 4:52 pm

Thanks John :D

Looks like i wil have to give this dummy VGA adapter a try!

Temujin · Post by **Temujin** » Sat Feb 06, 2010 6:49 pm

Ben wrote:Looks like i wil have to give this dummy VGA adapter a try!

haha, I should've re-read that link

I've just made some dummy vga plugs meself, yesterday

I got a pack of 100ohm resistors from RS for £5 (part no. 4777681) and made up 2 plugs. Handy for me cos RS are just around the corner but you should be able to get similar from Maplin.

I used this guide and it really is as easy as it looks.
Once fitted, I just needed to extend the desktop onto the cards and I've now got 1x HD4850X2 and 1x HD4870 in the same machine, all running MW.

Granted, they're both ATI cards but the reason for the post is to say the dummy plugs are easy to make.

Ben · Post by **Ben** » Sat Feb 06, 2010 10:20 pm

Just had a stupid moment... The display ports on the back of my old 8800GT are only DVI and not VGA. Have you bought a DVI to vga adapter to get around this?

Temujin · Post by **Temujin** » Sat Feb 06, 2010 11:34 pm

Ben wrote:Just had a stupid moment... The display ports on the back of my old 8800GT are only DVI and not VGA. Have you bought a DVI to vga adapter to get around this?

No, I haven't bought any, I think all my graphics cards came with at least 1 adapter, some with 2.

Looking at this and this suggests it's only a case of soldering 4 wires to a dvi plug, if you're brave enough to give it a go that is

It could be that instead of poking the resistors into the vga end of the dvi-vga adaptor, you "might" be able to just poke them into your graphics card dvi port.
You'd have to join 3 resistors together, the single ends (for RGB) into C1, C2 & C3 and the joined end (for ground) into C5 but nothing shows where C5 is

(unless it's the blade thingy).

And just tested it on an old ati X1300 and the resistor wires do indeed push into the holes, so it's possible :thumbup:

edit
just read this from the first link above
The DVI-I connector may be used with a VGA connector by way of an adapter, while the DVI-D [Digital only] is not compatible
so you'll need to know what type of dvi your 8800gt is

Ben · Post by **Ben** » Sat Feb 06, 2010 11:51 pm

Thanks for the info! :D

Think i am going to try and purchase a 2nd DVI to VGA adapter and poke some resistors into it!

Watch this space... If i don't come back online within 1 week then it failed and the pc blew up :lol:

shaf* · Post by shaf* » Sat Feb 13, 2010 9:39 am

Hi,

Temujin - Nice cheap way of creating a fake monitor cable

However catalyst remembers a dual monitor setup. All you need to do is set it up once, reboot and catalyst will keep active the secondary/tertiary card despite it not being connected to a monitor.

Good luck.

Ben · Post by **Ben** » Sat Feb 13, 2010 6:49 pm

Ok here we go..

Managed to build one of these VGA dummies, and windows now sees two displays which are extended.

The Nvidia card is the primary display with the WQL tested driver, and the CUDA drivers installed.

ATI also has it's drivers installed.

BOINC is now stuck in 'communicating with localhost' problem. The 'boinc.exe' program now doesn't seem to work and closes if i try and run it manually with and without administrative prevliges.

Confused... Any ideas? (Firewall has been checked and it is allowing the correct ports)

No other changes apart from installing the Nvidia card and drivers :?:

Temujin · Post by **Temujin** » Sat Feb 13, 2010 7:19 pm

try swapping the cards around

Ben · Post by **Ben** » Sat Feb 13, 2010 9:36 pm

Temujin wrote:try swapping the cards around

Some say, he was born was 'Fermi' built into him... And that if you ask him a question you will receive answers in decimal and hex on certain days of the week...

Thanks Temujin! :lol: It worked when i did that which i am stumped about... Anyhow it is now reconising the 8800GT and the HD4850 now, woohoo! :D

13/02/2010 21:31:10 Starting BOINC client version 6.10.18 for windows_x86_64
13/02/2010 21:31:10 log flags: file_xfer, sched_ops, task
13/02/2010 21:31:10 Libraries: libcurl/7.19.4 OpenSSL/0.9.8l zlib/1.2.3
13/02/2010 21:31:10 Data directory: C:\ProgramData\BOINC
13/02/2010 21:31:10 Running under account Ben
13/02/2010 21:31:10 Processor: 4 GenuineIntel Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU @ 2.40GHz [Intel64 Family 6 Model 15 Stepping 7]
13/02/2010 21:31:10 Processor: 4.00 MB cache
13/02/2010 21:31:10 Processor features: fpu tsc pae nx sse sse2 pni
13/02/2010 21:31:10 OS: Microsoft Windows 7: Home Premium x64 Edition, (06.01.7600.00)
13/02/2010 21:31:10 Memory: 4.00 GB physical, 8.00 GB virtual
13/02/2010 21:31:10 Disk: 465.67 GB total, 373.16 GB free
13/02/2010 21:31:10 Local time is UTC +0 hours
13/02/2010 21:31:12 NVIDIA GPU 0: GeForce 8800 GT (driver version 19621, CUDA version 3000, compute capability 1.1, 512MB, 336 GFLOPS peak)
13/02/2010 21:31:12 ATI GPU 0: ATI Radeon HD 4700/4800 (RV740/RV770) (CAL version 1.4.519, 512MB, 1000 GFLOPS peak)

Post by **UBT - Mikee** » Sat Feb 13, 2010 9:49 pm

Ben wrote:
Temujin wrote:try swapping the cards around
Some say, he was born was 'Fermi' built into him... And that if you ask him a question you will receive answers in decimal and hex on certain days of the week...

This is cool! We got our very own "Stig"

Temujin · Post by **Temujin** » Sat Feb 13, 2010 10:06 pm

glad it worked for you Ben :thumbup:

Ben · Post by **Ben** » Sat Feb 13, 2010 11:35 pm

You're going to love this guys...

Got it working, but can only really have 1-2 cores running on the quad-core and only 1 out of the 2 gpu's in use at any one time. It seems running 4 cores, 1x8800GT, 1xHD4850, 2x250GB HDD's isn't very good with a 600W psu :lol:

Keeps cutting out after only a few mins, so once again my mastermind plan has been foiled! :(

I have been reading more into PSU's and what to look for and it seems that alot of cheaper PSU's advertise their maximum wattage i.e. 600W which they can only peak at. (This may only be for upto a second in some cases before it cuts the power for safety).

It seems the more heat the PSU is under the less efficient is becomes (i kind of assumed this anyway but wasn't too sure). But it seems some manufactures test the PSU's under temperatures that are un-realistic i.e 25 degrees.

So it seems the sort of PSU i would be after is going to be in excess of 650W and >£80 :shock:

Unless anyone knows of some cheaper but just as reliable PSU's capable of powering 2 GPU's?

Temujin · Post by **Temujin** » Sat Feb 13, 2010 11:52 pm

you're right Ben, not all PSUs are equal

I think I've got 4 of these, one of which is running 1xHD4850X2 and 1x HD4870, 1 hard disk, 3x120mm case fans and all 4 cores of an AMD quad without a murmur of protest.

If you don't need a silent PSU, then more power becomes cheaper see here
I can't fault OCZ PSUs at all, me likes em :thumbup:

Ben · Post by **Ben** » Sat Feb 13, 2010 11:58 pm

Thanks again Temujin :thumbright:

Just a bit of a shame about the PSU that i bought not that long ago.. Brand new off Ebay (so i knew to a certain extend i would be taking that risk), but it has been running fine for a good few months now.

However since the introduction of an extra HDD (as i have set it up for RAID-0 configuration in Windows 7 + 8800GT) it hasn't been so happy and just cutting the power which is highly irratating.

I shall have a look at the PSU's you have mentioned. These prices seem much better then the ones i was looking at.