Jump to content

GPU Priority


Methanoid

Recommended Posts

How does it work? ;-)  

 

Seriously though, if i have a machine with 2 GPUs, one PCIe for XP and one PCI for 98.

If I boot into 98 how do I stop 98 seeing a GPU it cannot use (the PCIe one has no drivers)? 

If I boot into XP how do I ensure it uses the better PCIe GPU.

 

I am sure I have seen something here about it but I cannot find the right search terms to find the thread.

Link to comment
Share on other sites


Isn't it enough for you if you disable the unused one in Device Manager?

How do you manage the video output though? Do you have a separate monitor for each card? Or you use two cables hooked to different ports of a single monitor? Or just one monitor and one cable which you move between the cards on every reboot?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have not done this myself so I do not know exactly. I would make the BIOS have the PCI card be the one to boot to if possible or otherwise Win98 will boot to the PCIe card of which a standard or Universal VESA driver would be installed. If BIOS has no discrepancy between PCI and PCIe then possibly the PCIe card has to be disabled in Device Manager in Win98 once all is established but look for default display device in Display Properties; graphics's cards control panel or Device Manager etcetera first.

I have just seen Rainy Shadows post above and that reminds me. The BIOS should switch to the card the monitor is plugged into and a KVM switch unit for the monitor would be the go. Switch manually the desired input to the KVM before booting. If it does not work then a mechanical switch may need to be used but introduces degraded graphics display as the impedance is difficult to be kept at the correct value and also cross talk is a problem. A Quad slide switch might be best with ground on one pole of each switch. I had a home made rotary switcher for this early on, now using a proper KVM between computers.
 

Edited by Goodmaneuver
Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Goodmaneuver

There is no need for a KVM if the monitor has enough ports to enable connecting both cards at the same time. Just switch the input from the monitor controls, or enable auto-switching if it has such option.

Anyways, we don't know yet what setup Methanoid uses.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks guys

I have KVMs and I have monitors with multiple inputs. Given I expect to boot into XP 90% of time and Win98/DOS only 10%, I would be happy to use monitor to switch when needed. So, just set BIOS priority to PCI and disable device not needed in XP.

@Goodmaneuver your post had me wondering.. is there a reason why I should bother with PCI FX5200 when surely a PCIe card with 10x (or more) performance of that card would be sufficiently quick to make the difference even with a VESA or Std Driver?  Do I need an FX5200 for DOS or would a modern (RX570 for example) blow it out of water? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

>> Do I need an FX5200 for DOS or would a modern (RX570 for example) blow it out of water?

Universal VESA driver has no 3D support. Apart from this the VESA drivers on the RX570 would be good. Some of us use a 7900 series nVidia PCIe card as an all rounder or just for best 98/ME performance. Flash should work with the VESA driver.

>>So, just set BIOS priority to PCI and disable device not needed in XP.

It could be required for 98 though if the BIOS does not auto switch the the PCI card and you want to run 98 on this card.

I had to change my original post here because the native WinME OpenGl screen savers did work on the standard driver so did various 3rd party screen savers. Unfortunately the VESA driver does not like my video card - 7900GS when going above 16 colors. In so testing at 16 colors native WinME and 3rd party OpenGL screen savers did work using WinME's OpenGL.dll. ( Slowly though due to no video card 3D acceleration )

Edited by Goodmaneuver
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...