[mjn.mixael]

Anyone know if it's possible to run 2 different driver versions and how?

I have a Quadro FX 1800 that can't run on anything newer than 341.61.

I have a GeForce 550 that can update to the latest drivers.

Updating to 353.62 causes my Quadro to stop working and thus kills my Triple monitor setup. Nvidia's official response is "I'm sorry, Quadro and GeForce do not work on the same computer."

[Bobboau]

my guess would be, aside from open source, third party drivers, nVidia is probably right.

[mjn.mixael]

Blah. In that case, who wants to donate cash to my "Build A New Computer" fund?

EDIT: They funny thing is, I've had these 2 cards working on this computer for years.

[Fury]

I have no idea if this works, but nothing to lose I suppose.

Extract contents of both new and old driver to their own directories. When you launch NVIDIA setup, it should ask you where to extract contents, then cancel setup.

Go to Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\System --> Advanced system settings --> Hardware --> Device installation settings --> No, let me choose what to do --> Never install driver software from Windows Update --> Save changes.

Go to Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Programs and Features and uninstall NVIDIA drivers and software. Then reboot.

After reboot, go to Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\System --> Device Manager --> Find and open your Quadro --> Driver --> Update driver --> Browse my computer for driver software --> Find the drivers from the directory you extracted Quadro compatible drivers into.

Repeat the step for you GeForce card and the newer drivers. I very much suspect that installing GeForce drivers will simply overwrite Quadro drivers too, but you never know...

If this fails, just keep using the older drivers that works for both cards? The cards aren't so new as to get any tangible benefits from newer drivers I suspect.

If this trick actually did work, then you might want to try getting NVIDIA control panel working too. Install the older drivers from NVIDIA setup, and then manually install newer drivers for the GeForce through device manager as explained above. There is a possibility that the control panel may not work with the newer drivers, so you might also want to try the other way. Hell, I still doubt any of this works.

[jr2]

You might be able to hack the .inf file to install the newer driver on the older card if you search the interwebs.  Doubtful, but possible, I know there are sites dedicated to hacking the inf files to allow non-standard setups.


Nvidia INF driver modding (Guide)

Nvidia 341.61 modded inf for legacy cards!

etc, etc, and there's many more:

[mjn.mixael]

Thanks guys, I'll poke around some more and see if I can get it working. Alternatively, I could shell out $100 to replace the quadro with a duplicate 550. Not sure I really want to spend another dime on this rig, though.

[Goober5000]

Blah. In that case, who wants to donate cash to my "Build A New Computer" fund?

Not sure if srs, but I'd be glad to chip in something.

[Mars]

Yeah, considering how integral you and your rig are to Hard Light, I'd happily contribute to such a fund as well, at least after Friday.

[jr2]

I'd have to wait longer, but if you still need funds in a month's time, I'll be glad to help out.

[mjn.mixael]

I'm surprised! If people really are interested in contributing, send me a PM. I really only posted that jokingly because I didn't expect others to want to help buy my PC parts... but I won't reject the offer since I recently ended the studio and now work entirely in freelance. (For creative projects. I picked up a part-time IT job on the side to balance it out.)

[Cobra]

If people are going to throw money at mjn for a new computer, why can't people do that for me?

[mjn.mixael]

Thanks for all the gifts so far. Between those and a few freelance jobs, I've been able to procure the CPU, SDD, RAM, and MOBO. Just need the PSU, GPU, and case! I never expected to get anything back from the community (other than an 'atta boy!') regardless of everything I've done/made. And my wife thinks you're all crazy... of course she thought the same thing about me when I donated to HLP and to Rev's SVN setup, so.... perhaps she just doesn't understand our intense love of Freespace and those who still make it more awesome!

[Goober5000]

Thanks for all the gifts so far. Between those and a few freelance jobs, I've been able to procure the CPU, SDD, RAM, and MOBO. Just need the PSU, GPU, and case! I never expected to get anything back from the community (other than an 'atta boy!') regardless of everything I've done/made. And my wife thinks you're all crazy... of course she thought the same thing about me when I donated to HLP and to Rev's SVN setup, so.... perhaps she just doesn't understand our intense love of Freespace and those who still make it more awesome!

Hear hear!

[mjn.mixael]

Ya'll helped pay for it and it's complete. I worked a crap-ton of freelance jobs, too, in order to gather the parts for this one.

Intel i7 4790k (4.0 Ghz), Currently overclocked to 4.7
SLI Nvidia 970s
32 GB RAM
Booting from an SSD, of course. All fit into a very roomy, yet bland case.

The reasoning here for 2x 970 instead of 1x 980 is for GPU scene rendering purposes. While I no longer have a studio budget to spring for studio cards like Quadro, these GeForce cards are quite capable and this way I can render on one GPU while still working with the other.

FSO related benchmarks...

The Bastion mainhall source file would take about 15 minutes to open on my old rig and I would have to set the viewport to volume-wireframe mode. That's right, not wireframe, but just bounding box wireframe, in order to actually work on it. On the new rig it opens in less than a minute and I can work real-time in shaded mode in the viewport.

One of the BtA cutscenes took about 24 hours to render on my old rig. On my new one, it rendered in 17 hours. Not bad!

BP's Icarus gives me a solid 60 FPS the whole time while BP's Massive Battle gives me a rather playable 20 FPS!

[Klaustrophobia]

You're making me want to unnecessarily upgrade my rig.  Stop it.

[AdmiralRalwood]

BP's Icarus gives me a solid 60 FPS the whole time

This would be the most mind-blowing thing in the entire post if not for what came immediately after:

while BP's Massive Battle gives me a rather playable 20 FPS!