Problem with 8600GTS

Joined a couple of weeks ago and have been posting up regularly but never thought to ask about this

A while ago i had to replace my Mobo as i had left the case cover off and the window open and rain got inside the machine, therefore replaced the mobo with a Gigabyte G41M-combo board

Have been runnning onboard graphics ever since then as for some reason cant get my nVidia GeForce 8600 GTS to work, tried installing drivers and still nothing, cant see it in device manager either, dont know if its a BIOS change i need to make or what but it doesnt seem to like the card, i know the card is pretty old now so im not sure how it compares with new ones, it was pretty good when i got it

but also wondering how it compares to the new nVidia cards, looking at doing an SLI setup at somepoint in the future (once i can afford it)

finally is it possible to run one monitor through onboard graphics and a second through the GTS?

cheers

Please? someone? lol

I'm not quite understanding what you're saying. Was the 8600GTS involved in the rain incident, or is this some other video card?

Assuming you have everything plugged in correctly, including the 6-pin power connector, then the card is probably dead. If it got rained on, then you have your reason why.

As for how it compares to the current Nvidia cards... it doesn't. The 8600GTS is slightly slower than the GT220, which in turn is considerably slower than the GT430, which is the lowest-end card in Nvidia's current lineup.

And no, you can't run one monitor off the IGP and one off a video card. The onboard video is disabled completely whenever a PCIe graphics card is installed. But I'm not sure why you'd want such a setup anyway, considering that the GTS, as well as most other video cards, has two monitor outputs.

It is never a good idea to mix Intel integrated graphics with external NVIDIA or ATI video card - there is a great possibility of crashes when turning 3D. But here, if device manager does not even show 8600GTS - something is wrong.

Go to BIOS and switch primary display initiative from PCI-E to PCI and back, see what happens. Make sure that external VGA is supported is BIOS.

8600GTS is comparable with current GT 220 - has slower memory, but 12 more cuda cores and does support NVIDIA Physix. GT 430 is a waste of money in my eyes - it is a very "chopped" product - a version of GT 240 with DX11 support with half ROPS. 8800GT destroys it.

It is never a good idea to mix Intel integrated graphics with external NVIDIA or ATI video card - there is a great possibility of crashes when turning 3D.

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Huh? I'm not sure where you got that idea. The IGP is completely disabled when a PCIe card is installed, and it therefore would have no effect whatsoever on the add-in video card. But even when using a PCI video card, which won't disable the IGP, Nvidia and Ati cards can (and do, in many thousands of machines) coexist peacefully with the Intel graphics.

GT 430 is a waste of money in my eyes - it is a very "chopped" product - a version of GT 240 with DX11 support with half ROPS. 8800GT destroys it.

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I agree with you there, don't mistake my comment as a recommendation for it. I only gave it as an example of how bad the 8600GTS is, compared to the current lineup of cards. The 8600GTS was an alright card for its time, and I still prefer it over the current generation for HTPC use, but for gaming, its days are pretty well over.

Old Thrashbarg said:

Huh? I'm not sure where you got that idea. The IGP is completely disabled when a PCIe card is installed, and it therefore would have no effect whatsoever on the add-in video card. But even when using a PCI video card, which won't disable the IGP, Nvidia and Ati cards can (and do, in many thousands of machines) coexist peacefully with the Intel graphics.

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Don't argue with me if you don't know. I had this experience personally when mixing external VGA with internal Intel IGP - i experienced many BSOD errors, even though IGP was disabled in BIOS. And i asure you that it was due the conflict between IGP and VGA.

However, the new Intel chips might work perfectly with external cards.
By bad experience was with S775 boards.

Whatever the case, i do not recommend mixing Intel IGP with external VGA.

Thats not true, I have a PC which is a 775 based FAH unit, that has IGP by Intel and with an 8800GTS as an add-on card in the PCI-E slot. Device manager recognises both, i fold on the 8800GTS and output windows and desktop on the IGP. Simples.

Would it have to do with the chipset and not the socket? Since different chipsets existed on the same socket.

Don't argue with me if you don't know. I had this experience personally when mixing external VGA with internal Intel IGP - i experienced many BSOD errors, even though IGP was disabled in BIOS. And i asure you that it was due the conflict between IGP and VGA.

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I just noticed this, and your rudeness is uncalled for.

I am not doubting that you had troubles, and it's entirely possible that you could have a poorly designed or defective board. But the fact of the matter is, you're basing your argument off of one anecdotal experience, which is, quite frankly, meaningless.

If there was any sort of actual incompatibility, it would have been noticed and widely reported a long time ago, given the huge numbers of boards and systems in circulation that have both an IGP and an expansion slot for graphics. Instead, it is a common practice to use an add-in video card in a board with an Intel IGP, and it is extremely rare to hear of any issues with such a configuration.

Rizo-uk said:

Device manager recognises both, i fold on the 8800GTS and output windows and desktop on the IGP. Simples.

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There are some boards that can do that, but it's an unconventional design... they use the PCIe lanes from the southbridge in order to make that possible, and it tends to be a reduced-speed slot, either 4x or 8x. I know there are some Gigabyte G35 and G45 boards set up that way, and a couple from Asrock, and there may be others too.