# Adding a graphics card to a system with integraged graphics

## depontius

I recently got a too-good-to-pass-up deal on an nVidia 8800GT.  The system I want to put it in already has integrated ATI HD4200 graphics, which have been decent so far, but of course aren't in the same league as the 8800GT.  The next question is the optimal, most flexible, and especially most recoverable sequence of events for installing and enabling the new hardware.

First off, in the BIOS it appears that the system console will priortize PCIe over embedded.  So as soon as I plug it in and power up, and move the cable, I'll see initial display on the new adapter.  I have this sneaking suspicion that once the kernel kicks over to KMS, the display will move to the embedded adapter.

Seems to me that the "bet the farm" approach would be to build a new kernel without any of the Radeon, DRM, or KMS stuff.  Then install nvidia-drivers against the new kernel.  I don't know if I need to modify "VIDEO_CARDS" in "/etc/make.conf" and rebuild necessary packages at this point or if I could do it at my leisure, later.  Theoretically I would expect that Xorg will just "do the right thing" and start X on the nVidia card.  Then I can do the previously mentioned "-uDN" rebuild.

As I said, I'd like to take the most recoverable approach possible.  About the worst thing would be to switch off the integrated graphics, then discover that the 8800GT is a DOA, leaving me with no display and scrambling for some other card to plug in.  This is the first time I've tried this.

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## eccerr0r

Very valid concern...

For my onboard video motherboards, which tends to be Intel graphics, they tend to be default if no video card is inserted.  The option "initialize PEG or PCI or AGP first" means to tell which display should show the BIOS screen.  If none is inserted, the onboard will be used.  Some boards will automatically disable and reenable the onboard depending on what's inserted into the graphics card.  Some will leave both enabled for another output.

I found that the OS itself is the more annoying thing.  When going from ATI (fglrx) <-> Nvidia (binary) <-> OSS drivers, a lot of things need to change.  "eselect opengl" is something you need to keep in mind to select different opengl solutions.  Likely you will need to re-emerge world with --newuse to make sure the new VIDEO_CARDS is picked up.

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## audiodef

 *depontius wrote:*   

> 
> 
> First off, in the BIOS it appears that the system console will priortize PCIe over embedded.  So as soon as I plug it in and power up, and move the cable, I'll see initial display on the new adapter.  I have this sneaking suspicion that once the kernel kicks over to KMS, the display will move to the embedded adapter.
> 
> 

 

It doesn't work that way. Once you set your BIOS to use a particular video adapter on boot, that's what your hardware will stick with. Anything needing graphics, whether it's console output or Xorg, will ask the hardware where to go and the hardware will say "why, here, of course". 

 *depontius wrote:*   

> 
> 
> Seems to me that the "bet the farm" approach would be to build a new kernel without any of the Radeon, DRM, or KMS stuff.  
> 
> 

 

You can leave it in if you plan to use your onboard video in the future. If you never plan to use it again, you can take it out. But it won't hurt to leave it in. 

 *depontius wrote:*   

> 
> 
> Then install nvidia-drivers against the new kernel.  
> 
> 

 

Yes, you need to do this or your nVidia will not work. 

 *depontius wrote:*   

> 
> 
> I don't know if I need to modify "VIDEO_CARDS" in "/etc/make.conf" and rebuild necessary packages at this point or if I could do it at my leisure, later.  Theoretically I would expect that Xorg will just "do the right thing" and start X on the nVidia card.  Then I can do the previously mentioned "-uDN" rebuild.
> 
> 

 

Nope. You need the nVidia driver and the relevant programs compiled with it. Xorg only does what you tell it to do, and no nVidia driver means you will get less-than-optimal performance and maybe ugly video. 

 *depontius wrote:*   

> 
> 
> As I said, I'd like to take the most recoverable approach possible.  About the worst thing would be to switch off the integrated graphics, then discover that the 8800GT is a DOA, leaving me with no display and scrambling for some other card to plug in.  This is the first time I've tried this.

 

That's nothing to worry about. You will ALWAYS be able to boot into setup and see it on a monitor. This is because if your preferred video card fails for any reason, it WILL fall back to the built-in/default/whatever. This is the way video handlers are designed at a basic level, otherwise, people would indeed have the problem you suggested and might set their computers on fire and complain to the computer company.

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## audiodef

And yes, you will need to run eselect opengl and select nvidia when you're done setting up. 

You also do not need to rebuild world. Once you change make.conf to include the nvidia driver and set the nv flag for xorg-drivers, emerge -uDN world should be sufficient.

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## depontius

So it sounds like I can simply install the nvidia-drivers now, and until I install the nVidia card it'll only be wasted disk space.  Then when I actually install the card, everything will automagically switch over.  Maybe I'll finally get a round tuit tonight, then.  I've been postponing, trying to be prepared for annoying and stupid problems.

Thanks

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## audiodef

You can install the drivers now. It doesn't technically "automatically switch over", it's simply that the drivers are in place when you tell your BIOS to use your new card.   :Smile: 

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## depontius

Well I installed last night, and all is well.  Only 2 minor hitches.

1 - DVI isn't DVI isn't DVI.  The display DVI wouldn't plug into the new card, so I ended up using the VGA adapter and used the VGA input on the display.  I had thought that the only variations on DVI had to do with the flat tab connector being parallel or perpendicular to the long dimension, but apparently that's not the case.  Nor would the DVI-VGA adapters that came with the card plug into the DVI on my integrated graphics.  I know DVI is a complex standard, but never looked into it that hard.  I need to understand better.

2 - I had no xofg.conf, and when running without one, Xorg will never choose nVidia.  I grabbed the minimal xorg.conf from one of my other sytems, and all is well.

I can now run doom3-demo acceptably, which I've never been able to do, before.

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## audiodef

Wait'll you try Mass Effect - if you can do that, you got it made.

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## eccerr0r

DVI-I is DVI-A and DVI-D, most video cards have DVI-I which will go to either DVI-D or DVI-A.  Some video cards have this weird DVI-looking connector that has a lot more pins, that's not really DVI...

Basically DVI-A has the four pins near that wide slot that's parallel with the wider metal sides of the connector.  Three of them are Red/Green/Blue of the analog.  Digital uses only the rows of pins.  The wide metal pin is a GND used as shield and to make doubly sure you don't plug it in the other way while hotplugging, having digital signal zapping analog monitors...

If you want all open source software, and like driving simulators, take a look at speed-dreams (in portage).  While not quite as intensive as Windows games, well... it's OSS and not quite the typical shooter game...

(or just get the OSS screensavers in rss-glx (also in portage) and run pixelcity module ... my i945 has trouble with it, but my "real" graphics accelerators run it smoothly.  Also xscreensaver's sproingies module runs really fast on recent 3d accelerators, but at least runs smoothly on older ones.)

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## depontius

I'll have to take a closer look at those DVI connectors.  One thing I think I noticed was that the blade was different lengths between the two, but I'm not sure.

As for games, I'm not a hard-core gamer.  I kind of dropped out somewhere between Hexen and Quake3.  Running Doom3-demo was more of a graphics-wish.  I do run Doomsday/VaVoom, so if I'm running ancient games I at least get better graphics.  I'll have to give speed-dreams a try, since the risk-cost is only compile/install time.

But the nVidia card is now out of the machine.  Upon install it worked, and I did indeed walk through Doom3-demo a bit.  But I was doing some later work and found that the machine wouldn't stay up more than an hour or two.  My initial presumption was an anemic power supply and/or a very hungry 8800GT.  That seemed surprising, because the power supply included the 6-pin connector, which I wouldn't expect it to have unless it had enough beef to supply it.  Also, when the crashes happened the box was either idle or compiling, not doing anything graphics-intensive.  I know that nouveau doesn't have much in the way of power management yet, but I thought nvidia-drivers did.  Anyway, as I was removing the card I noticed that one of the "wire control" thingies in the case had a plastic knob that had slipped into the fan opening on the 8800GT.  I'd been surprised at how quiet the fan was - now I strongly suspect that it was just plain stopped, and the shutdowns were caused by overheating.

Anyway, the task at hand was migrating from mythtv-0.23.1 in portage to mythttv-0.24.1 in the mythtv/git overlay, so I left the card out and did the upgrade.  

After the upgrade I noticed that the system was rather flakey, having moved back to the integrated graphics.  I'd forgotten to eselect opengl back to xorg.  Even that didn't fix it.  Eventually I had to remove every trace of the nVidia stuff, and the system is now back to stable.

When I get some spare time, I'll try the nVidia card again, making sure that the fan is free, this time.

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