Important lesson in humility!!! I've been getting too cocky in this market felt I was invincible making huge money every day and today crude and the market crushed me to the tune of 10K!!! Oh man... back to basics next week! Never think the market can't do something.... trust me.... it can.
ok... got the 2600's and tried installing... it looked so hopeful. When I installed the first card it worked fine. When I added the second one and booted up I only get to the Windows XP loading screen then it goes blank. What a bummer. If anyone out there is running more then four monitors please tell me what hardware you are using. Got my ass throttled today in the markets and now this!!!
Can't be sure, of course, but I suspect the problem is that one of your cards is from a "3rd-party" maker.. that Visiontek card is not a "genuine ATI". If you're going to stick with ATI's, use "genuine" versions when you install more than one card. And if you go with 3rd-party makers, both cards should be of that maker (and that also may not work... not all cards are "expecting" to be part of a multi-card setup and their drivers are not friendly to the idea.) Another possibility is that both cards "expect" to be the only and "primary video"... and the one in the secondary position is fighting to be primary. Did you install both drivers? If so, uninstall both and reinstall only one... if that doesn't work, reinstall both drivers again and reinstall the other. If that doesn't work, you'll likely need to change out one of those cards.
I know you had a problem with the NVS 440. But if I'd been in your shoes, I wouldn't have given up on Nvidia so readily. Mobos which won't run a 440 may in fact run NVS dualheads just fine.
windows itself has the ability to run something like 10 monitors? or is it 16? Anyway, its usually a matter of the mobo or slots isn't it gnome? just curious.
I think the limit is 10... NT would accommodate 16. (Can you imagine 16?) You just need a mobo with enough of the right kind of slots and video cards which are compatible... both with the mobo and with each other. It SHOULD be that anything you can plug in would work together, but it's not always the case. The more monitors you run, the more important it is to plan ahead before you buy hardware. You need to first determine "how many monitors, what resolution, DVI or VGA".. second, "what video cards do I need for the monitors", and last "what mobo will accommodate those cards". 2 monitors is no problem these days. 3-4 monitors requires a bit of consideration. >4 has much fewer solutions. Most buy a computer, then try to get monitors and video cards... sometimes there are problems that way.
The issue usually comes down to the drivers being compatable with different cards. Do what gonad said: Stick with nvidia and their DRIVER SOFTWARE that allows unified installation. You guys need to check with TECH dept before you buy stuff that requires drivers. Do your homework before you buy cards for more than 400 a pop. That guy that said the mobo was no good for the cards. I WONDER if the mobo is/was perfectly fine and the real issue was the proper drivers were not installed. I have used ABIT and never a flaw one. I also have used Gigabyte with nary a flaw either. Ok, off to Chicago to do some winter shopping for new duds. Winter is fashion time.
Why are people putting two different types of GPU's in the same PC? Seems like a setup for a driver conflict to me. Nvidia does have a great thing going for multiple monitors.
Correctamundo on both counts. Matrox Millennium and Matrox G are OK too, but they're not as good as Quadro NVS. Matrox has come with a new line.. called, "M"... cards look very much like Quadro NVS and cost a lot more. "M" does have a card or two which will run 30"ers @2560x1600 though, which NVS does not. You can sometimes get certain ATIs to work together, especially legacy ones. But ATI is in the "high performance gamer" market, not multi-card workstation. And putting 2 gamer cards in the same rig is almost asking for trouble.... though even some combinations of those will work... not worth the hassle if it turns out yours don't, however.
One point here I would like to discuss... You say ""M" does have a card or two which will run 30"ers @2560x1600 though, which NVS does not." I wonder how many traders run their screens at that high of a resolution. Does anyone? Does anyone run higher res then 1920x1200? (quadro specs) The monitor and GPU will still work together even if the GPU does not support the full capability of the monitor.