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How to install drivers for multiple cards?

kiwidude

kiwidude

kiwidude

Associate
Joined
16 Oct 2006
Posts
8
I have an 8800GTX and a 7600GT, with an Asus P5B-Deluxe and Windows XP.

Unlike previous driver generations NVidia seem to have separate installers for the generations of chipsets. I can install the 8800GTX 97.92 drivers ok with , but they dont recognise the 7600GT - if I then try to install the "93.71" installer Im pretty sure it is wiping out the other drivers and I end up with a bluescreening system each time I boot.

I'm not trying to get SLI - just drive one monitor from the 8800 and the other two monitors from the 7600GT.

Can anyone help please? Much appreciated.
 
Can't see why that wouldn't work to be honest, if you were trying to run an Nvidia and an ATI card I could see the drivers having some serious problems but two Nvidia cards running seperately shouldn't be a problem as lots of people do it to drive multiple monitors.

I would try running Drivercleaner or something and reinstalling the drivers from scratch.
 
Hi mate,

The problem as I see it is that the driver installations are not designed to be "side by side", so installing the Geforce ones is in fact uninstalling the 8800 ones.

I don't have definitive proof of this since I dont know exactly what files each installs. However if you go to add/remove programs after first installing the 8800 ones and then the "Geforce" ones (which I can only do in Safe mode due to the bluescreening) then it only shows one "NVidia Drivers" entry in the list.

Was hoping that someone else may have a similar setup and have a definitive yay or nay on what is going on... I shall try the DriverCleaner route and if it works post back here.

Thanks for your reply,
Grant.
 
Forceware drivers aren't card-specific though so 9*.** drivers should work with any Nvidia card as far back as the GeforceFX series or even earlier. Can't see why there would be a problem TBH just installing the latest XP drivers.
 
elmuzzy66. said:
wouldn't having the two cards make the lanes x8 you need 16x lane for the 8800 series unless the mobo has 2 x16 lanes
Click to expand...
Booo, as if I didn't think of that.

I think he's right. If you're cutting the first PCI-E slot to 8x then your 8800GTX will suffer.

Though review sites say it should take a performance hit, not disable it. So I dunno.
 
elmuzzy66. said:
wouldn't having the two cards make the lanes x8 you need 16x lane for the 8800 series unless the mobo has 2 x16 lanes
Click to expand...

Ahhh - so it could be a hardware related problem. Bummer - I was hoping that it would just degrade the performance of the second card rather than affect the 8800.

What's the all-singing and dancing 2x16 lane m/b that is flavour of the month nowadays then that anyone recommends? Sounds like I may have to go that route - no point in spending money on the 8800 if it's just going to be crippled...
 
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