Setting up 3 monitors: PCIe + PCI video card problems

[azherdev]

I just got my new computer and trying to setup my 3 monitor setup.

My last setup:
Dell 8300, Pentium 4HT, ATi 9800Pro AGP (2 monitors, DVI+VGA), VisionTech Xtasy ATi 9250 PCI (1 monitor DVI)

My new setup:
Self assembled ECS P4M900T-M motherboard, Core2 Q6600, ATi X1950Pro PCIe (2 monitors DVI+DVI), VisionTech Xtasy ATi 9250 PCI (1 monitor VGA)

So, my last setup ran fine. Two monitors using DVI and one using VGA. Obviously the monitor connected to the 9250 ran 3D stuff VERY slow. But, windows desktop was fine, and that is what I use it for.

My new setup has major slowdown on the monitor that uses the 9250 card. I see the card "refresh" the screen when it tries to grey out the screen during logout. Dragging windows is VERY slow and you see it redraw. Basically, I can hardly use that monitor because during redraw, my entire system struggles... with my new wonderful four cores!

Anyone have any ideas what is going on? I know the MB is cheap, came as a bundle from Fry's for $300 ( Q6600 + MB ). Is it a fact that we are moving memory from PCIe to PCI?

 

[miker75]

Is the 9250 detected correctly? I seem to recall that the 9250 uses an older driver than the X1950 Pro (ATI dropped support for it in the latest drivers).. That could possibly be why it's so slow? (Catalyst 6.11 looks like the latest driver with support for the 9250, whereas the X1950 Pro can use Catalyst 7.7). I'm assuming you're still using Windows XP?

 

[azherdev]

That does appear to be the problem. When the new drivers get installed, windows "freezes" during startup, presumably when it tries to start the 9250. When the old drivers are installed, the new card is not detected.

I have blown out my setup again by reflashing the bios of my MB. now, I can't even get the two cards to work. ATi emailed me back and basically said they do not support multiple video cards in one system other than CrossFire.

When the drivers install, I notice same filenames are being copied over to the Windows\System32 directory. I assume one driver overwrites the other and bam. The one time I had both working, the new driver probably was using some kind of a "safe mode" to talk to the older card.

I'm going to try to install an nVidia card in the PCI slot, perhaps the two drivers from two manufacturers wiill not conflict. Otherwise, my setup of 4 years is going away in the name of "progress".

 

[azherdev]

Ok, so I went out and got myself a VisionTek X1550 PCI card. So far, so good. One set of drivers runs both. But it is still having problems "refreshing". If I move the window around within the monitor for the 1550, it is ok, but if I move windows between 1950 and 1550, it is very slow then. The entire system lags.

I know PCI is slow, but this is rediculous, especially considering that AGP to PCI and PCI to AGP did not have the same choppy refresh. I am mostly concerned about the fact that when I click SHUTDOWN, and it starts fading to black and white, the system lags a lot because you can see how frame by frame the 1550 refreshes, about 1fps. I can't imagine that the operation there copies memory from PCIe to PCI.

Is it possible:
1. PCIe to PCI memory copy is very slow, even for 2D moving of windows operation?
2. Could it be that my motherboard is very bad and the chipset is the bottleneck?

Has anyone experienced similar problems with additional PCI video cards?

 

[n7]

I'm going to bed, so i'll be short.

Secondary PCI cards don't always work.

In my current mobo, they don't work AT ALL.

Secondary PCI-e cards don't work either.

In my HTPC (previously main system), i have an A8N32-SLI Deluxe, & i could run my X1900 XT + PCI 7000 just fine.

But there was absolutely no way i could even get into Windows with that setup w/ the P5B Deluxe.

Basically put, whenever you use mismatched PCI-e cards or PCI-e + PCI solutions, you have zero support (as neither nV nor ATi support that), so it kinda becomes all luck, since it seems it sometimes works, sometimes sorta works, & sometimes just doesn't work.

Good luck though.

 

[azherdev]

*sigh*

I'm noticing that too. I guess I'll return my X1550 and revert back to two monitors.

I guess I assumed it would work since my last two systems did that just fine. Again, sometimes progress comes at a price of features you've come to rely on before.

Thanks for the help guys. I guess its SLI/CrossFire or nothing now... ... ...