Is it worth running ATI and Nvidia in one system?

[Bacstar]

I'm just waiting for some parts in the mail in preparation to do a CPU/Motherboard upgrade. I went ahead and installed an ATI HD 4890 along side a Nvidia 8800GT in my current system. The ATI card is driving my primary monitor.

The only issue I have so far is the ATI Catalyst Control Center fails to install. Everything else seems to be working fine. I'm not too worried about it just yet, since I'll be doing a full reinstall of Windows 7 64-bit next week once all my parts come in.

My main question is: Will it be worth keeping the Nvidia card in the system? I always like driving my secondary monitor on it's own video card, just on the assumption I'm off-loading some work off the primary.

 

[BD231]

I'd say you're using *more* system resources rather than saving them with that extra card. Dual display for a 4890 should be a walk in the park.

 

[CurseTheSky]

Two monitors on a single graphics card should be no problem.

 

[Jeffman]

Word. Get rid of the second card, unless you plan to do more than 2 displays. Even then you're better off buying a cheap ATI card for that too, as using ATI and Nvidia drivers could cause confilcts.

 

[Bacstar]

I'll go ahead and pull out the Nvidia card tonight. I was having some fun troubleshooting the problem of getting the card working, but I'm over it now.

Anyone know what I can get for a combo of Athlon X2 6000+, 4gigs of ram, 8800GT, and an ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe-Wireless? or am I even allowed to mention that here?

 

[Genx87]

2d is no problem for any of these cards. I wouldnt run the Nvidia card unless you are trying to hack PhysX from it. And dont bother with CCC. Big pile of junk imo. I only install the drivers for my 4850.

 

[Bacstar]

2d is no problem for any of these cards. I wouldnt run the Nvidia card unless you are trying to hack PhysX from it. And dont bother with CCC. Big pile of junk imo. I only install the drivers for my 4850.

I ran into an interesting issue with PhysX. While I was troubleshooting the CCC install problem, I unstalled all the Nvidia software and drivers. I fired up Dragon Age: Origins, and it gave me an error message that PhysX wasn't installed and failed to start. Once I reinstalled the Nvidia driver package, it worked fine. I'll have to wait and see what happens once I pull out the Nvidia card tonight.

 

[thilanliyan]

I used my 8800GT alongside a 4870 for PhysX but in the end it wasn't worth it. The extra power used, heat, and noise was not worth the relatively minor benefits in those games that used PhysX.

 

[BD231]

I ran into an interesting issue with PhysX. While I was troubleshooting the CCC install problem, I unstalled all the Nvidia software and drivers. I fired up Dragon Age: Origins, and it gave me an error message that PhysX wasn't installed and failed to start. Once I reinstalled the Nvidia driver package, it worked fine. I'll have to wait and see what happens once I pull out the Nvidia card tonight.

2 options there:

1) Open up the game with your nvidia card installed and disable physx

2) Uninstall the current install of the game, then do a reinstall with only your 4890 present

The Catalyst Control Center is indeed bloatware for the most part. If you're interested in overclocking your 4890 the CCC suite is a nice app but there are better. If you're working on a junky monitor and need to increase the color depth it can do that for you also, but thats more handy with laptops that have no physical LCD control panel.