I have been building and taking apart computers since 1996 (first grade no joke ;p), and my question is simple. If I have a 8800GT, and another card like the ati 3870 in the same computer what would happen? Could I run both cards at once, or will my motherboard shut one off or what.

although i never really test it, but i'm sure it will never run.

Actually they should both run i believe. they will allow you to do a multimonitor setup in windows. so you can support up to 4 monitors.

One will basically shut off for direct 3d apps (games). so only the one that is designated as the primary card will render 3d. They will not scale to increase 3d rendering performance.

There are no stupid questions in this world.
If you can try it, just try it and tell us the results!

Windows XP has no problem running 2 different cards for multi-monitor setups (I always ran my GeForce 6800 AGP & Radeon 7200 PCI with no problems at all).
Vista only allows more than one graphics card if they both use the exact same driver.
Supposedly will be changed in the next version of Windows (v.7) to be back to being able to use different cards with separate drivers.
Would be nice.

this is funny
i just gained knowledge from someone who believes that this question is stupid
so i will try this at home
thanks for this question

Hey...your question is very valid.

The answer is YES you can run both the 8800GT and 3870 on the same mobo ... like I do.

But of course you can't simultaneously run both cards at the same time... you'll have to remove one to place the other.

What's the point, you can't crossfire or sli them. Good question though. What would they call if if they would work together, cross Sli? or sLi fire?

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Intel E4600 GA-P35-DS3L XFX 8800GT 512mb ADE Antec NeoHE 430w 2GB Crucial Ballistix 800 WD 1600AAJS Altec Lansing VS2330 X-Fi XtremeGamer

Well I'm not sure it's practical at all, but I was thinking of something like game on one screen, hd movie/tv on the other. I'm not too sure though.

If there are no stupid questions then what kind of questions do stupid people ask? Do they get smart just in time to ask questions?

I think if there's an answer to every question then there are no stupid questions in the world. Every people have their own sets of questions, which, depending on their 'class', and if in your case, stupid people, maybe you and me and the mass may think of it as a stupid question, but if there's an answer to it, it's just a question like all others, only, a little, doesn't make sense or stuff. I'm not a philosopher so I can't give the perfect answer, but most importantly, even if there are stupid questions, no matter how stupid the question is, most importantly the guys who asked the question learned something.

they ask questions like what kind of questions do stupid people ask?