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I'm using on-board Nvidia 6100. I got an offer to buy a second-hand, cheap, ATi 4350 card. The card only have one VGA output (not DVI/HDMI). My plan is to buy it and a second monitor. So, one monitor will connect to the onboard Nvidia, and another to the ATi card.
Is it doable? What steps should I prepare?
Thanks in advance.
Edit: I don't game.
I'm running my on board Nvidia card with an ATI quad monitor card for a total of five monitors on a digital audio workstation in Windows 7, and aside from a few quirks (my favorite screensaver Flurry won't run), it seems to be stable.
In order to do this, both cards would require crossfire or SLI support. Typically, onboard cards do not have this, and cheap ATI cards do not either. So in short, no you cannot do this without the cards having crossfire compatibility or SLI support.
Assuming they do have the support though, and the BIOS also has the support for it, you should be able to use both cards by configuration in the BIOS, but as to that I cannot help you.
I don't think there is any safe way to run 2 different drivers. I really like the ATI HD5450. It looks very nice with Ubuntu (and Windows 7 for that matter) and it has both a DVI and HDMI output. Lowish power consumption and no fan. The best part is that it's only $50.
Not a gamers card but it will support Compiz just fine.
Oh yes, and when you get the HDMI cable be sure it has the RF Cans on both ends (those big round things). I've had weird problems with cables without them.
