Dual graphics card users

I have been working on a utility for dual graphic card systems. It's a small program that lets you 'slide' the mouse from one monitor to the other that is constantly running in the background and you can also assign it to a key with FKey to change a screen on a specific monitor on demand so there's no more randomly jumping from one monitor to the other when flipping screens or the screen your using on one monitor being changed while trying to find the screen you want on the other.

The bad news for some is the exe is not native, it's written with AmiBlitz so is a 68k executable.

What I want to know is how many people are using dual graphics cards, if anyone would find it useful and whether anyone would like the source to port it to an OS4 native executable.

The source is 200 lines of code - partly because I cheated for one part and use an external program (mpos) to reposition the mouse on the opposite side of the screen when switching monitors - and uses system libraries where possible so should be easier to port.

If anyone wants to try the program or wants the source PM your email address.

@Severin

That sounds like a really cool project! Thanks

@magnetic

Email sent.

@Severin

Got it thanks! dont have dual setup atm but will report back when i do.

@Severin

I tried running two 5450 cards in my X-1000, but with mixed success. Although I was able to boot up on one and subsequently use the other, the system was unstable and would crash for no apparent reason from time to time. I also had strange reports like disk timeouts on the SATA bus while the two cards were in use.

It was bad enough to prevent me from doing any development work on the machine, so eventually I had to remove the second card and revert to a single card. All the instability disappeared again.

I used the A-Eon instructions as distributed in a descriptive pdf.

tonyw : I had the exacty same behaviour when I tried a dual card setup on my X1000.

@tonyw

I have the same with 2 5450's it seems they do not play well together. I've been using a 7700 and 5450 together for a few weeks but yesterday had major problems getting the x1k to boot after using it for several hours so I removed the 5450 and it's booting fine now.

I think the problem with my 5450 is cooling, it's passivly cooled and nearly touching the 7700, so restricting the airflow to the 7700, it's a pity only the first and third pci-e slots are usable for gfx cards, first and fourth would have greatly improved air flow.

I was also getting the occasional lockup, usually when monitor switching so thought it was my program, maybe it wasn't :)

As for the dual monitor docs, do you have an early beta version (2 monitor files, second called pcigraphics) or the last version (3 monitor files, one for each card and pcigraphics) ?

@Severin

Quote:
No I don't, yet...

But once I get the X5000/040 I plan to use dual gfx-cards (if that's possible)

@SeverinQuote:
Try to put one (or more) more fan on the case and see if that helps.

@Severin

Hi Nick,

I'm using the version with two monitor files. Perhaps I should look around for a later version.

@tonyw

Emailed tp you. I've never released it to the masses, I rarely do anymore for anything written with amiblitz. Many years ago I just got fed up with the elitist snobs complaining that whatever I wrote "wasn't native".

@Severin
Im going to try to test your driver on os 3.x ill report back when i do.

@Severin
Quote:

You could take a dremel to the 5450 and convert it into a x1 card. If you don't fancy that idea, there are x1 versions of some low end cards or your existing 5450 you could use a x1 to x16 adapter with no problems.