Hi people I've just set up a system with a 7100GS in a 4x slot and 7950GT in a 16x slot. There are no options in the BIOS to make one the primary, it just seems to make the 7100GS default for everything. In windows I can set a monitor on the 7950GT to be "primary" but all that does is stick the taskbar on it. Is there an option somewhere in windows, or the nVidia software to make the 7950GT be the primary card? The problem is that some Matrox software I'm using is looking at the 7100GS and turning its nose up at it. If I could force windows to make the 7950GT primary, all would be good. I've tried unistalling the 7100GS and reinstalling it after the 7950GT, but no luck Any ideas? Thanks ch424
You could try switching to classic control panel in the hope that some obscure option shows up. You could try NVtweak which can give you access to some advanced options. You could try the 7950GT in the x4 slot and the 7100 in the x16 slot, it could be your mobo checking and using the x4 slot first. The perf penalty shouldn't be at all significant, certainly less than 5%. The latest mobo BIOS could help, but I doubt it. BIOS' have had gfx boot options for ages now but they only seem to enable you to select between AGP/PCI or PCIe/PCI rather than choosing which PCIe card to boot with. Perhaps Windows has some obscure setting somewhere? Chances are no-one's really thought about it.
Thanks Austin. I've now swapped the cards, and yes, the 4x is always primary... thanks for the heads up on the performance front, I was completely unaware it'd affect it that little. GamePC had the same problem (see 4th para). There isn't an option in the BIOS, sadly, but I've contacted Tyan tech support and asked if they could possibly add that as a feature in a future BIOS revision. It's a Tempest i5000XT by the way. That GamePC review reports that the board reconfigures the slots as 8x and 8x, but that didn't happen for me. I've gone all the way though the settings the nVidia control panel, but no luck. It's fine in the 4x slot though, so doesn't really matter that much. Thanks for the help! ch424
