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Old 12-27-2009, 04:52 PM   #1
phil.d.g
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2 nVidia graphics cards (not using SLI) on a motherboard with crossfire?


Will it work?

From what I've read there is no problem running one nvidia card on a crossfire motherboard, but not much information running two cards.

Some context: I currently have a Core 2 Duo on a motherboard with an nForce chipset supporting SLI. I have 2 nVidia 9400 graphics cards not in SLI mode driving my 3 monitors.

I'm toying with the idea of upgrading the CPU and motherboard (maybe the RAM if I go for DDR3), and am leaning (back) towards the AMD camp, however most of the motherboards for AMD CPUs that have 2 PCIe x16 slots also have Crossfire.

Thanks in advance,
Phil
 
Old 12-29-2009, 04:47 AM   #2
business_kid
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Why not try it and tell us?
The basic theory is: You put a section for each bit attached (video cards, monitors) in xorg.conf. There may be issues if nvidia have done different things inside their proprietary versions of libs. You will have 2 drivers called 'nvidia' unless you have 2 of the same card. mebbe call one 'nvidia2' and rename it.

In all this bad weather in Europe we could use a laugh. Try it - it might work. It shouldn't explode anything.
 
Old 12-29-2009, 07:36 AM   #3
phil.d.g
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The software and configuration isn't a problem.

The reason for the question is I don't want to spend £220 to £300 on a motherboard/CPU/RAM to find out that for some weird and exotic reason my nVidia graphics cards won't work as 2 individual cards in a motherboard that supports Crossfire and have to buy 2 new ones.

Question still stands.
 
Old 12-30-2009, 03:52 AM   #4
business_kid
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Personally, most people who stuck at it seem to get going, but not always as they wanted. I saw enough trouble to settle for one monitor. Have you 2 cards of the same model? On the same Bus? Using the same driver? These all matter, you know.
 
Old 12-30-2009, 06:54 AM   #5
phil.d.g
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You're misunderstanding me, probably my fault so I'm sorry.

My current setup comprises of a Core 2 Duo CPU, a motherboard with an nForce chipset, 2 GeForce 9400 graphics cards driving 3 monitors. See "Conroe" in the link in my sig for the exact hardware. This all works absolutely perfectly.

Now I'm getting a bit restless and fancy updating the CPU, motherboard and if needed RAM. I need to know if a motherboard with Crossfire support will handle 2 nVidia graphics cards not in SLI. I might be being overcautious here, years ago I used AGP and PCI graphics cards together with out any problems. However, I haven't found any article/post where this setup is used.

If the hardware plugs together, is compatible and exposes the 2 graphics cards as 2 separate controllers to the kernel, then the software configuration is trivial, it's a case of booting a live cd, mounting my OS filesystems in a chroot environment and rebuilding the initrd so that the correct modules required to boot are present.
 
  


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