2 Graphics Cards without SLI

L

liamnic2

Super Star
Hey guys

I was wandering, since I will be playing old games aswell as new games, I wanted to know If I could have a gtx580 and a gts450 and when I play an old game I jst disable the 580.

My friend also wants to know about this since his 580 is having probs with MD2.

And atlast I finally have a set "rig" after discussion lol

Will be getting in a few months

Case

COOLERMASTER HAF-X FULL TOWER GAMING CASE
Overclocked CPU

Overclocked Intel® Core™i7-2600k Quad Core (3.40GHz @ max 4.80GHz)
Motherboard

ASUS® P8P67 PRO (NEW REV 3.0): USB 3.0/SATA 6Gb/s, CrossFireX™ & SLI
Memory (RAM)

8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz, X.M.P (2 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card

1.5GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 580 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - DX® 11, 3D Vision Ready

Memory - 1st Hard Disk

80GB INTEL® 320 SERIES SSD, SATA 3 Gb/s (upto 270MB/sR | 90MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk

1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)

Power Supply

CORSAIR 1000W PRO SERIES (HX1000) 80+ MODULAR PSU (£170)
Processor Cooling

COOLIT ECO C240 A.L.C (ADVANCED LIQUID COOLER) (£99)
Thermal Paste

ARCTIC COOLING MX-3 HIGH THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND (£9)
Sound Card

ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities

ONBOARD GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps PCI CARD (£16)

Anti-Virus

BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Keyboard & Mouse

LOGITECH® INTERNET 350 USB KEYBOARD (£9)
Speakers

LOGITECH S120 2.0 BLACK SPEAKER SYSTEM (£9)
Warranty

3 Year Gold Warranty (2 Year Collect & Return, 2 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£69)


I cant wait to own shogun 2.
 
G

Gishank

Bright Spark
IIRC the 580 and the 450 are not compatible in SLi, so I am curious as to why you would want both of them in your system? All you'd be doing is consuming unneccessary power. Just buy a 580 and be done with it, it will plow through any game out there. :)
 
L

LFFPicard

Godlike
As he has said the 450 will be used for games that do not run on a 580.

This is actually a very interesting topic as Nvidia have disabled some features in newer cards making older games not work.

I would be more intereste din having my 580 and a ATI card in my system. For the main purpose of playing older games.
For example:

I installed Star Trek Armada over the weekend, it installs fine but will nto run at all. The reason being Nvidia has removed TnL support on new models and Armada runs on TnL.
Now to make this and my other old games work again all I need to do is get a 2series Nvidia card or a ATI card as they still have TnL.

This is a very interesting subject as I would be interested if there will be any issues or conflicts running 2 different cards together as I would be willing to add a ATI to my system just for my older games.
 
L

liamnic2

Super Star
Im trying to find out if I could just disable to 580 using the control panel.
If this is possible then I'll add a 450 soo I can play medieval 2, battle for middle earth.

Im a bit annoyed that you get a free copy of shogun 2 with amd cards even though nvidia runs better.

the 580 does better than a 4gb 6990 !!!
 
L

LFFPicard

Godlike
The promo's are down to the supplier of the cards not PC Specialist, but I also hung my head when I saw shogun this morning. Not that I would buy a ATI card, just the way it goes :/

As for the graphics card the newer games let you specify what card you want to use but for older games disabling the 580 wont work as that is set as your primary display so windows will ask to be rebooted first and then may run off the 450.
Maybe I should do some googling and look into this unless someone does have some experience with this?
 
Kalisnoir

Kalisnoir

Super Star
As previously said, it would be silly to have both in at the same time as you're just using power for no reason, you may as well leave it out and swap it over when needed.
 
JSG10

JSG10

Expert
Kalisnoir said:
As previously said, it would be silly to have both in at the same time as you're just using power for no reason, you may as well leave it out and swap it over when needed.
Click to expand...

Thats a rather laborious process for playing the odd older game now and then.

There must be a software solution to this. You would need both cards plugged into your monitor for a start though which could cause some confusion.
 
vanthus

vanthus

Member Resting in Peace
It's possible to have two gpus without sli or crossfire but depends on your OS. Some (like Vista) only allow one video driver to be loaded, so both of your cards would have to use the same driver. Others, such as XP I know(& windows7,I believe) , allow multiple drivers to be loaded, so you could use any 2 graphics cards.Your monitor would also need to have a selection switch,i know mine has,not sure If some are automatic.
 
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Teaz

Teaz

Godlike
Not to see but if i remeber where it was done in the bios where you disable it but its just a guess.
 
Stappa

Stappa

Enthusiast
liamnic2 said:
Im trying to find out if I could just disable to 580 using the control panel.
If this is possible then I'll add a 450 soo I can play medieval 2, battle for middle earth.

Im a bit annoyed that you get a free copy of shogun 2 with amd cards even though nvidia runs better.

the 580 does better than a 4gb 6990 !!!
Click to expand...

My 580 plays Med2 TW/Third age? I didn't know that modern cards wont play old games My 580 plays everything I throw at it?
 
L

LFFPicard

Godlike
Stappa said:
My 580 plays Med2 TW/Third age? I didn't know that modern cards wont play old games My 580 plays everything I throw at it?
Click to expand...

Try throwing ST:Armada or ST:Command at it :)

If you not into those maybe something like AOE, Sim City 4 (Had trouble with this but managed to solve it) etc. Most old games will have a issue in one way or another, I am talking 10year old games.
 
BAD SANTA

BAD SANTA

Well-known member
LFFPicard said:
As he has said the 450 will be used for games that do not run on a 580.

This is actually a very interesting topic as Nvidia have disabled some features in newer cards making older games not work.

I would be more intereste din having my 580 and a ATI card in my system. For the main purpose of playing older games.
For example:

I installed Star Trek Armada over the weekend, it installs fine but will nto run at all. The reason being Nvidia has removed TnL support on new models and Armada runs on TnL.
Now to make this and my other old games work again all I need to do is get a 2series Nvidia card or a ATI card as they still have TnL.

This is a very interesting subject as I would be interested if there will be any issues or conflicts running 2 different cards together as I would be willing to add a ATI to my system just for my older games.
Click to expand...

You can have a Nvidia and an ATI card working in the same rig, I'm not sure how to configure it but I know you can because I have read of people doing it so they can run a really good ATI card and a cheaper Nvidia card for physx its called hybrid.
 
L

LFFPicard

Godlike
Gorman said:
elaboration and sources please. this is relevant to my interests.
Click to expand...

I will see if I can find more concrete sources, at the moment it is going by a number of forums threads related to a old game I was trying to run.

I will do some digging when I get home. But there is a program that will emulate TnL for you so there is some merit to this.
 
NilSatis

NilSatis

Bright Spark
Im currently running Knights of the Old Republic and Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines on my rig (2500k 6950 2gb). Earlier games people had problems running with Vista, but i would have thought the 580 could be used for old games too on Win 7. Granted they need every available setting turned up to max and sometimes config.ini edited but they work. There were some issues, mostly due to having about 4 times too much memory; not to mention 4 times too many cores! ;)

Critical that old direct x runtime is installed for most of these oldies even if you have the latest direct x 11 etc; I know this causes issues sometimes. The lack of decent resolutions is the only problem for me lol. Always have to hex edit the .exe or get a mod for widescreen for these oldies....makes them look a lot more acceptable on todays monitors. As for lack of t and l; you are right about that.....some bods must have created a way for it to work on the later cards. The 580 is fantastic, and very popular. Someone must still need to play these old gems; and will have found a way!

Try and run it and see what errors you get, and then i will see if I can find a fix :) I love tinkering and searching in order to get these things working...as long as its not a fail in the end!

Many an old game has been installed and beaten already on this new rig but they are golden oldies you are trying to run lol; not sure if there is a limit somewhere to how old will run.......Somehow we shall get it working Id say :)

Hmm edit: Seems this is a bit of a bit** to get working, compatibility mode switches will get it running in theory; and the you have the gpu issues. If you havent yet, joining this forum might help:

http://starmada.freeforums.org/
 
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L

liamnic2

Super Star
Hey guys

just wandering

If I got SLI with 2 580's, can I disable one when its not need, i.e, shogun 2.
This 580 wont be the one connected to the monitor
 
Sleinous

Sleinous

Author Level
I'd stick with teh 450 as teh second card as it will be a decent Phsyx card for new games. However, each time you will want to play an old game you will have to reboot and EITHER switch the 450 and 580 around so that 450 is in slot1 OR if your motherboard (e.g. ASUS Rampage 3 Extreme) has the option - disable PCIe x16 lane 1 so that it displays the monitor from lane 2, obviously youll have to switch the DVI cable or HDMI or w.e. ur using around each time.

Also 2 nvidia cards would be great for folding :p Those 2 alone will make 25K PPD no problem.
 
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