Old and new GPU

[LFFPicard]

Hi all,

Thought I would come for some clarification, especially for those who have multiple GPU's.
I have a few old games that wont run on my machine specifically due to the newer Nvidia cards not have TnL etc.. I have tried 3D Analyzer and I have tried virtual boxes with my old install of XP neither of witch work. I have got one game in particular Star Trek: Armada to run with a unofficial patch for Win7 but I get a lot of artifacts in game.

Now I had a idea of sticking an old PCI graphics card in my machine and using the VGA port to connect to my main monitor as I can switch between the inputs, now my question is, do you all think this is a viable solution and will it work? Is there a way to tell my machine my 580 is my default card and I will only use my PCI card when I set it in the options of the games I need it to run in. A PCI card will cost pennies so I am willing to try regardless but I thought I might as well ask the question anyway.

My other option was to buy an old PC and get a KVM switch, but that just takes up extra space.

Thoughts?

 

[oferguson]

Hi,

If you are asking what I think that you are, the answer is yes.

If I have understood correctly you want to install an older graphics cards into your PC to provide compatibility with older games, but still keeping your GTX580 as well.

When you say getting PCI graphics card I assume you mean an older one, as the 580 will be PCI based (as are all desktop cards). So you will need to check that you have a free PCI slot in the PC. With regard to switch between cards, this should work well. I have seen it done before with SLI Nvidia cards and Crossfired AMD cards in the same computer (a total of 4 cards!!!). So for you to do it just using twi you should be fine. You will probably need to change to display in windows as well as change your monitor input.

Link here to theLinus Tech Tips video where he does something similar

 

[LFFPicard]

Yeah, I would go for AGP but I do not have a AGP slot as the board has 2x PCI-E.
To be fair I do not need anything fancy either so will only be about £10 on ebay I would of thought, the PCI card will have a VGA port and as my monitors are currently running on either DVI or HDMI I can connect the PCI card to my monitor and and just switch the input mode on the monitor when I use the old card.

It is certainly cheaper and take sup less space than getting an old PC!