F-I90HD onboard video *and* PCIe ??

[MilesB]

Hi,

After 2 days I finally got Vista x64 to install properly on a RAID and boot with no signature issues. I bought this board in the hope of running 4 displays:
Onboard video:
1 22" LCD through VGA1
1 22" LCD through HDMI

Asus EN8600GT PCIe:
1 22" LCD
1 1920x1080 projector

I can't seem to get both onboard video and the PCIe board going at the same time though. I can switch between them in BIOS by selecting either PCIe or Onboard in "Init Display First".

Please help, this is the last thing I need to get working, and the only reason I selected this board!

[MilesB]

More research has revealed Vista won't let you use more than one WDDM driver:
microsoft's website + /whdc/device/display/multimonVista.mspx

Does anyone know if the F-I90HD onboard video uses the same WDDM driver as a 2600HD card? If so I will have to trade in the 8600GT for one of those. If not, well, I'm screwed.

[ABIT Sean]

Using a PCI-E Graphics card will automaticly turn off the onboard display.

[MilesB]

Using a PCI-E Graphics card will automaticly turn off the onboard display.

Uh.... what? So you are saying that even if I have an ATI board in as well, I will not be able to get both working?

I currently have the 8600GT in, and set the onboard to primary in BIOS. I am now using a monitor connected to the HDMI port on the motherboard. The 8600GT popped up a "At least one display adapter on the system has been disabled because its driver is not compatible with the driver for the VGA adapter."

It looks to me a lot like if I had an ATI board it would work. Are you absolutely sure it won't? If it won't, why is this not written in the manual???????
I have seen posts on other forums saying you can have both working at the same time. No clear mention of people who actually own it actually doing it though.
I would really like to know before I go out and blow money on another video card, if it's not gonna work.

[ABIT Sean]

Sorry but it won't work. If the onboard display is set to primary it will disable the PCI-E slot and vice versa. Its because they both use the PCI-E bus.

It is possible to do with a PCI vga card.

[MilesB]

I really don't mean to be rude, but what you are saying doesn't seem to add up. Windows knows the nVidia board is there, and it is showed on POST too. Windows just won't use it because it can only load one WDDM driver.

And what sort of reason is "they both use the PCIe bus"? It's a bus. It's not like the AGP socket. There is another PCIe slot on the motherboard - is that disabled too? There is nothing I can see about one PCIe video device stopping another from working. I should install XP as a hardware test I guess.

[ABIT Sean]

Put this way the board is simple not design to run both onboard and PCI-E graphics at the same time. As they both use the X16 lane.

Windows maybe be able to detect the card but it won't be able to use it.

[MilesB]

Really?

Because I just bought an ATI card and it works fine.


Exactly what do you do at ABIT?
PCI Express is a bus. It is not a port. A bus means it is designed for many devices to connect to it and negotiate their traffic onto it.

[ABIT Sean]

Put this way the board is simple not design to run both onboard and PCI-E graphics at the same time. As they both use the X16 lane.

Windows maybe be able to detect the card but it won't be able to use it.

Sorry what I meant to say is X16 Bus. Although it is a bus designed for many devices it was only ever intended for 1 display device.

If you have managed to get this to work your are doing something that the board was never designed to do. I do not know what affect this will have on the system or the stability of operation.

[MilesB]

"X16 bus"? There is no such thing. Mate seriously, there are plenty of boards with 2 x16 slots on the bus. It is one PCIe bus and each slot can participate in a chosen number of data lanes. When a PCIe device wants to transmit to another on the bus, it negotiates a time to own the bus and puts its data on.

If it was a single point to point connection, there is no way in hell how I am running would work. Think serial cable with a splitter plugged into a modem and 2 PCs. This was the AGP.

Buses are designed to connect MANY devices sharing the same data pathway. Your comments are bizarre and erroneous. I would encourage ABIT to put someone on this forum who has some better technical knowledge. I encourage users of this forum to not take what you are saying as gospel.

I am doing EXACTLY what the PCI Express bus was designed to do. Allow many high speed devices to communicate. My query was never a question of was that possible, it was merely a question of if the F-I90HD's BIOS will crazily disable the onboard video. It will not. The problem was with Vista and its single WDDM driver limit. Never designed for more than one video device? Wrong wrong wrong. The main reason for upgrading from PCI to PCIe was that PCI could not handle multiple high bandwidth devices. That was designed into PCIe right from the start. Hence the multiple x16 socket SLI/Crossfire boards.

ABIT, get rid of this guy. He is talking your products down.

[ABIT Sean]

I am only telling what the motherboard was designed to do. What you do with that information is entirely upto you.

I am happy that you have found a solution to your problem and hope the system runs fine for you. All my information on this subject has come direct from the engineers who develop our motherboards. Hence why my terminology is a bit off.

I consider this case now closed.