Dual Graphics card (HD3850 + old Radeon PCI)

traycerb · Jan 25, 2009, 02:38 AM

Is it possible to have both the Omega drivers and ATI drivers in place? Or even 2 different version of the ATI drivers at once? I know the short answer is no, but I can't see any other solution.

The issue is I'm trying to drive 3 monitors (2 LCDs and a HTPC projector) so I needed 2 gfx cards.

I had a Radeon PCI-E X1950-xt and picked up a old, cheap Radeon 7000 PCI card on eBay, and amazingly the Catalyst drivers worked and I could use all 3 screens (2 on the x1950 and 1 on the 7000)

My x1950 broke under warranty and they replaced it with a HD3850, but now the setup no longer works! I get stuck in a BSOD ati2mtag reboot loop (on XP/sp3). I can only get one or the other card to work.

I tried using Omega drivers for the old card (using the old 3.8.252 drivers which support the Radeon 7000) and ATI CCC drivers for the new card, but no luck. the issue is both CCC and Omega use same file names for drivers, so one or the other gets over-written.

If I could only move the location of the driver files (or even rename them) it would probably work...

Alternatively, I wouldn't mind just purchasing a newer card, but my only PCIe x16 slot is used up, and the older PCI cards aren't supported by the Catalyst drivers.

Any ideas? My next step would be to pick up an older Nvidia PCI card, but a mixed-dual setup seems fraught with complications too...

blibbax · Jan 25, 2009, 11:14 AM

I can onlu be of limited help here, but I'd advise against trying to run an Nvidia and an ATi side by side.

In the unlikely event that your motherboard has integrated ATI graphics, that could work, but otherwise, you need to find a new enough ATI card that it will run on the new ATI drivers, or buy a crossfire motherboard and another pci-e ATI, or become a driver programming mastermind overnight.

kn00tcn · Jan 26, 2009, 04:45 AM

there's nothing wrong running ati & nv side by side, people have done it for physx

it just wont work in vista since it doesnt allow 2 display drivers at once (but will work in win7)

traycerb · Jan 26, 2009, 05:49 AM

thx for the replies. checked out the ultramon forum and they have a database of dual graphics cards setups and there are quite a few mixed ATI/Nvidia ones listed as working, but it's certainly not guaranteed for sure.

ATI/AMD would make my life a lot easier if the current catalyst drivers just supported at least 1 PCI card....

Jan 25, 2009, 02:38 AM	#1
traycerb DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 2 Rep Power: 0	Dual Graphics card (HD3850 + old Radeon PCI) Is it possible to have both the Omega drivers and ATI drivers in place? Or even 2 different version of the ATI drivers at once? I know the short answer is no, but I can't see any other solution. The issue is I'm trying to drive 3 monitors (2 LCDs and a HTPC projector) so I needed 2 gfx cards. I had a Radeon PCI-E X1950-xt and picked up a old, cheap Radeon 7000 PCI card on eBay, and amazingly the Catalyst drivers worked and I could use all 3 screens (2 on the x1950 and 1 on the 7000) My x1950 broke under warranty and they replaced it with a HD3850, but now the setup no longer works! I get stuck in a BSOD ati2mtag reboot loop (on XP/sp3). I can only get one or the other card to work. I tried using Omega drivers for the old card (using the old 3.8.252 drivers which support the Radeon 7000) and ATI CCC drivers for the new card, but no luck. the issue is both CCC and Omega use same file names for drivers, so one or the other gets over-written. If I could only move the location of the driver files (or even rename them) it would probably work... Alternatively, I wouldn't mind just purchasing a newer card, but my only PCIe x16 slot is used up, and the older PCI cards aren't supported by the Catalyst drivers. Any ideas? My next step would be to pick up an older Nvidia PCI card, but a mixed-dual setup seems fraught with complications too...

Jan 25, 2009, 11:14 AM	#2
blibbax What does this do? Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Oxford, UK Posts: 3,700 Rep Power: 169 System Specs	Re: Dual Graphics card (HD3850 + old Radeon PCI) I can onlu be of limited help here, but I'd advise against trying to run an Nvidia and an ATi side by side. In the unlikely event that your motherboard has integrated ATI graphics, that could work, but otherwise, you need to find a new enough ATI card that it will run on the new ATI drivers, or buy a crossfire motherboard and another pci-e ATI, or become a driver programming mastermind overnight. __________________ Donate the spare computing power of your PC to help to cure Alzheimer's, ALS, Huntington's, Parkinson's disease and cancer: Fold for HH!

Jan 26, 2009, 04:45 AM	#3
kn00tcn DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Toronto Posts: 649 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	Re: Dual Graphics card (HD3850 + old Radeon PCI) there's nothing wrong running ati & nv side by side, people have done it for physx it just wont work in vista since it doesnt allow 2 display drivers at once (but will work in win7) __________________ http://www.kn00tcn.net/site/ati-catalyst-profiles/ http://www.kn00tcn.net/FPSLimiter.rar

Jan 26, 2009, 05:49 AM	Thread Starter #4
traycerb DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 2 Rep Power: 0	Re: Dual Graphics card (HD3850 + old Radeon PCI) thx for the replies. checked out the ultramon forum and they have a database of dual graphics cards setups and there are quite a few mixed ATI/Nvidia ones listed as working, but it's certainly not guaranteed for sure. ATI/AMD would make my life a lot easier if the current catalyst drivers just supported at least 1 PCI card....