My new computer -- AMD Athlon X2 250 -- has a built-in nVidia chipset with 1 VGA port. I'd like to also use my ATI X300/X550 256MB PCI Card for an additional monitors.
Is it possible to make use of both of these competing company's cards in the same system on Windows 7 x64?
Or, would it be possible to choose one as the primary (for example, the ATI card) and install ATI drivers, but to let the other one just use a basic video driver so it won't conflict?
Yes, you can. You just need drivers for both. I've never done it personally, but have heard of it being done quite often and it usually works just fine.
Unfortunately, nVidia has some rather... questionable, code in their drivers related to their physics software ("PhysX") that will cripple the some of the functionality when you have an ATi card in as well.
You may want to look into getting a newer nVidia card, or ATi card, to replace the x300/x550, but it should work.
In theory, yes. I haven't tried it myself either. (Never had the chance to.)
I think this depends on a number of factors. Many BIOS's have settings which allow you to set the primary GPU.
You can also try disabling one of the GPU's in Device Manager if you encounter a bizarre conflict.
