Using both an AGP card and a PCI card (not PCIe)

[Comrade]

I've been running dual-monitor setups for a long time (a MultiSync FP1350 and an FE2111SB side-by-side) and one day I decided to grap an old Cirrus Logic PCI video card I had lying around and plug it into my comp. I took the 21" P815 ViewSonic that I had lent my friend and plugged it into the PCI card. After changing the BIOS "INIT Display First" to PCI from AGP, I got the three monitors working side-by-side, and I was really stoked.

Only problem was that the ancient Cirrus Logic PCI card only went to 800x600 in 24-bit color, and only to 1024x768 in 16-bit color. On a 21" monitor, it was fugly (but a really neat iTunes monitor, and it worked nicely when I was editing in Vegas!). I looked up PCI card offerings from Newegg that actually run decent resolutions and decent color depths, and I planned on buying a ~$50 PCI card and plugging that in. Of course, since it has both VGA and DVI-I ports, I'd plug in a fourth monitor (this time just a decent 17").

I'm worried, though, that I'll buy a card that won't be cooperatively subservient to my AGP card. I just bought a PNY 6800 GT and that will replace my 9600 Pro, so the new PCI card has to be compatibly subservient to the 6800. However, I don't know how to tell if a card will peacefully coexist with the 6800.

I figure the first thing is that the PCI card should have an nVidia chipset, but I'm not sure if that's enough. Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated.

[corrosion231]

get a geforce 2mx pci if you are worried about it.

[H2]

I have heard that the PCI video cards only work in PCI slot 1 and the 6800 cards block slot 1.
My 6800LE does block PCI slot 1 and I am interested in doing just what you are doing but I don't have a PCI video card. Good luck. I'll keep watching this post to see how it works out for you.

[blurry]

get a geforce 2mx pci if you are worried about it.
Only problem with that is he'll only get one output.

[corrosion231]

Only problem with that is he'll only get one output.

unless he buys one of the dualhead geforce 2 mx cards. The 2mx was the first nvida card to have dualhead. Though i doubt the pci ones had any form of dvi on them.

[Comrade]

I have heard that the PCI video cards only work in PCI slot 1 and the 6800 cards block slot 1.
My 6800LE does block PCI slot 1 and I am interested in doing just what you are doing but I don't have a PCI video card. Good luck. I'll keep watching this post to see how it works out for you.

It blocks PCI slot 1 even though it only takes up one slot? wtf?

Thanks for the good luck!

[sevendevilhell]

yeah... pci geforce2 MX probably won't have any DVI.

i would say try a geforce FX 5200 on PCI, but those won't have DVI either, at least not when it's a ~$50 card.

[Comrade]

I like this one, but it's out of stock:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-150-079&depa=1

I've owned an AGP GeForce4 MX440 (except it had dual-VGA ports), so I think it'll be nice with the DVI/VGA and S-video out. I've got it on auto-notify.

[H2]

I've only seen two different 6800s in person and the heatsink and fan were so large that they totally block the PCI slot 1 in my Asus PC-DL and my Abit NF7.
Maybe some motherboards have PCI slot 1 spaced down far enough but mine aren't.

Anyone else able to comment on that?

[atigamerguy]

About the pci card only working in the first slot thats not true on my old pc i put the pci card three pci slots away from my 9800pro.

[CrashOveride]

TNT2 should work, and it's cheap. It worked w/ my geforce 4 mx, but not with my ATI card.

And PCI cards work in any slot - at least on modern motherboard (modern = like... Pentium II or greater... AT LEAST)

[man_utd]

They have worked even on older ones, you just had to know how to change the irqs (which on most boards you can still do, in case it doesnt work)