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  #1  
Old 11-30-2007, 02:17 AM
dogsballs dogsballs is offline
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Default Vista and 3+ displays. FYI type post

For anyone getting a Vista machine or thinking of....

Maybe this is old news but it took me some digging and may save someone some time and/or $$.

Follow on from a previous thread where I was being told by Dell that my Vista machine could not run 2 video cards to have more than the 2 displays I already have running off my PCI-express slot; the PC could only address one of the slots. I didnt really believe the phone people, so I spent a couple of hours trawling the internets.

It seems like Vista constrains the system such that you can have multiple video cards addressed by your machine, but only so long as the cards are run using the same drivers; basically, get the same brand and check they're compatible. I ordered a PCI card that should hopefully work w/ my current PCI-e card to get 3 monitors going; haven't got it yet, but fingers crossed....

Links I found (there are prolly better/more informative ones out there, but...):

http://www.downloadsquad.com/2006/11...r-restriction/
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/device...imonVista.mspx http://ilikeellipses.com/2007/11/07/...tors-in-vista/
http://forums.legitreviews.com/about10730.html

Bottom line: dunno, but I'd prolly get a machine w/ 2 PCI-express slots & 2 identical video cards if I went back and ordered again. But, anyway, just make sure the video cards match with respect to their drivers; Vista isn't forgiving like XP when it comes to multiple video cards.

Edit: Here's a pertinent quote from a post in 1st link: "I haven't had problems with Vista & multi-monitors yet, even when using four cards in the same system. (6800 PCI-e, 6600GT PCI-e, 5200FX PCI, 5200FX PCI) Course they are the same driver. I've not had any luck with vista & ATI cards at all. My R9200SE's don't work, my friend's Xpress 200 didn't work. The "Control Centers" that ATI & nVidia use now do nothing but waste space and anger me. "
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  #2  
Old 11-30-2007, 01:45 PM
T.Arnold T.Arnold is offline
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Default Re: Vista and 3+ displays. FYI type post

Let us know how it goes. Is this in a new dell?
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  #3  
Old 11-30-2007, 06:14 PM
dogsballs dogsballs is offline
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Default Re: Vista and 3+ displays. FYI type post

Yes, new dell inspiron 530 desktop.

Dell Inspiron 530
Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E6550
4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz
256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600GT-DDR3.

I ordered a PNY Geforce FX5200 256MB PCI card after reading all that stuff.

Will update this thread when it arrives.
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  #4  
Old 11-30-2007, 09:56 PM
Josem Josem is offline
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Default Re: Vista and 3+ displays. FYI type post

if you are right that vista can't use video cards from different manufacturers, this is a really, really, bad flaw in vista.

i quite happily ran an AGP ATI card, and a maxtor PCI card and a nVIDIA PCI video card in xp without any troubles.
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  #5  
Old 11-30-2007, 11:51 PM
bdiddy12 bdiddy12 is offline
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Default Re: Vista and 3+ displays. FYI type post

samiam made a similar post quite a while ago and drew the same conclusion. i agree its a pretty crappy downgrade.
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  #6  
Old 12-01-2007, 12:11 AM
Bremen Bremen is offline
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Default Re: Vista and 3+ displays. FYI type post

[ QUOTE ]
samiam made a similar post quite a while ago and drew the same conclusion. i agree its a pretty crappy downgrade.

[/ QUOTE ]
Apparently if you use legacy drivers in vista it will allow multiple drivers to coexist. The downside is all the graphics drivers have to be legacy. I'm not sure if this means that XP drivers will work, or that you need vista drivers that use the legacy windows video display stack.
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  #7  
Old 12-01-2007, 10:45 AM
ryanj247 ryanj247 is offline
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Default Re: Vista and 3+ displays. FYI type post

based on my experience:

one pci-e + one pci card from the same vendor = very slow performance

two pci-e cards from diff vendors run with xp drivers, but no aero

best/only solution for fully functional vista is to replace the motherboard with a motherboard that has two pci-e slots, and install two pci-e cards from the same vendor.
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  #8  
Old 12-01-2007, 03:13 PM
dogsballs dogsballs is offline
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Default Re: Vista and 3+ displays. FYI type post

[ QUOTE ]
based on my experience:

one pci-e + one pci card from the same vendor = very slow performance


[/ QUOTE ]

I hope this was just your particular instance...

I didnt see anyone else mention any slowing down when I was trawling around.
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  #9  
Old 12-01-2007, 07:31 PM
ryanj247 ryanj247 is offline
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Default Re: Vista and 3+ displays. FYI type post

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
based on my experience:

one pci-e + one pci card from the same vendor = very slow performance


[/ QUOTE ]

I hope this was just your particular instance...

I didnt see anyone else mention any slowing down when I was trawling around.

[/ QUOTE ]

if you fire up the pc after installing the card and everything seems to be fine, make sure you're seeing the aero visual enhancements. if you're not, try to get the aero theme to load and see if everything is still running smoothly. if the computer runs slowly with aero enabled, you of course have the option of disabling aero. with aero disabled, you'll probably be fine. but i like aero, and the only way for me to get the full vista experience was to install two pci-e cards (on a board with two slots obv).
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