Nvidia GTX295/ATI 2600 XT Windows 7 64-bit Issues

[sdonegan]

Hello,
I recently purchased and installed an EVGA Nvidia GeForce GTX295 GPU in my Early 2008 Mac Pro alongside my Apple ATI 2600 XT GPU (the GTX295 in slot 1, the ATI in slot 3.) I have a BenQ FP241W 24" LCD monitor connected to the GTX 295 via DVI and the ATI 2600XT via VGA. Although both cards appear in the Windows 7 Device Manager, the Nvidia card does not output to my monitor and has a "Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems" (code 43) error. I have contacted EVGA Support and they have informed me that Windows does not allow multiple graphics cards that use different display drivers. I was just wondering if anyone had done this and knew of any other way to get Windows to recognize the GTX 295 other than purchasing the Apple Nvidia GeForce GT 120 Upgrade Kit which would cause all of the GPU's to use the same driver. The reason I am doing this is I want to use Windows 7 for gaming and OSX for everything else. It is also my understanding that it is possible to flash the GTX295 with the EFI Firmware from the Apple GTX 285 and use this card in both Windows and OSX but I would rather not do this if purchasing the Apple GT 120 would be easier.
Thank You,
-sdonegan

 

[nanofrog]

Disable the 2600, and enable the 295 in Win7.

This may require physically removing the 2600 temporarily, but try with out doing this first. Easier if you aren't forced to.

 

[10THzMac]

I had to do what nanofrog suggests when trying mixture of 285 and other Ati card. It is windows problem and nothing to do with running on mac, I think.

 

[nanofrog]

I had to do what nanofrog suggests when trying mixture of 285 and other Ati card. It is windows problem and nothing to do with running on mac, I think.

On Vista, Yes, it's an issue, unfortunately. I was under the impression MS had resolved it on Win7 though.

Maybe only in the 32bit versions? Or what I saw was just incorrect?

 

[Umbongo]

Windows 7 does support heterogeneous multi-adapter configurations, i.e one card from ATI and one from NVIDIA. Have you tried booting without the VGA cable connected?

 

[sdonegan]

Windows 7 does support heterogeneous multi-adapter configurations, i.e one card from ATI and one from NVIDIA. Have you tried booting without the VGA cable connected?

The first time I tried this and It worked, after that even with the VGA Cable disconnected from the LCD the Nvidia Card did not output a signal. I have always had the ATI card disabled in the Windows 7 Device manager but it never seems to really disable because it keeps outputtong to my LCD. If I uninstall the ATI card every time Windows reboots Windows reinstalls the drivers for it! I will try removing the ATI card, booting into Windows, and then reinstalling it and disabling it in the Windows Device Manager.

 

[Trev311]

Ati/nvidia

Windows 7 does support heterogeneous multi-adapter configurations, i.e one card from ATI and one from NVIDIA. Have you tried booting without the VGA cable connected?

So Windows 7 supports this, but not Vista? I was under the impression that Windows was the only one out there to not support this (barring an even more obscure OS than BSD like ReactOS or SkyOS). But a VGA cable can cause issues now?

 

[Umbongo]

So Windows 7 supports this, but not Vista? I was under the impression that Windows was the only one out there to not support this (barring an even more obscure OS than BSD like ReactOS or SkyOS).

Windows XP supported it, but they changed how things worked with Vista. Then changed it to work again with Windows 7.

But a VGA cable can cause issues now?

*shrugs* computers seem to do what they want without reason

 

[Umbongo]

The first time I tried this and It worked, after that even with the VGA Cable disconnected from the LCD the Nvidia Card did not output a signal. I have always had the ATI card disabled in the Windows 7 Device manager but it never seems to really disable because it keeps outputtong to my LCD. If I uninstall the ATI card every time Windows reboots Windows reinstalls the drivers for it! I will try removing the ATI card, booting into Windows, and then reinstalling it and disabling it in the Windows Device Manager.

I'm interested to know how you get on with it, might be worth asking on some more generic hardware forums or windows forums. Maybe [H]ard|Forum and the anandtech forums.

 

[nanofrog]

Windows XP supported it, but they changed how things worked with Vista. Then changed it to work again with Windows 7.

This was my understanding, but I don't recall any exceptions (32 vs 64 bit with Win7). I knew from experience with XP and Vista. I use Win7 RC, but don't have multiple cards by different vendors to try. So I figured that maybe something was broken with Win7, and reverted back to what was known with Vista (Win7 is better, but is still built from it).

Have you seen anything along version difference lines on Win7?
Or are you just thinking it's something else causing wonky behavior (i.e. mention of cable)?