Vista - Windows Display Driver model question...

since this is my first post, let me start by saying hi.

as I understand it, under the Vista WDDM architecture, only one driver can be used to run all video outputs, so when I bought my graphics card, I made sure to buy one that worked on teh same driver as my onboard chipset ( my card is an Nvidia GeForce 6200 OC, my onboard is an Nvidia GeForce 6150). At the time, I didn't know that Vista ( or BIOS maybe?) automatically disables the onboard graphics once the card is installed.

My question is, is there any way around this disablement? I would really like to have a third monitor to hold certain interfaces, my Sidebar, yahoo messenger etc, but since the expansion slots onmy PC are quite limited, buying another video card is my last resort...

unreconstructed welcome to the forums.

Don't know of any Nvidia based motherboards that offer that option, that isn't to say that there isn't one. The only boards that I know of that offer that are ATI based boards that have Hybrid Crossfire support. This allows you to use up to four monitors when paired with an ATI card (called Surround View, at least on my board), and if used with the correct card (up to the HD34xx series I believe) allows for Crossfire as well.

well, Nvidia has hybrid SLI support, but the 6150 and 6200 came out before that was made available...

it wasn't a problem before, as I used maxivista, but since Vista won't accept heterogenous video drivers, mxivista is out of the question...

sad part is, no matter how many monitors I add, it seems like I just want to add more...

I believe that I have found a solution. since my PC isn't equipped with an AGP expansion slot, I have found a PCIe 16X Nvidia 6200 card. now the big question is, the 2 cards should still work right under WDDM even though they are from different manufacturers, correct? or do I specifically need to find a card produced by the manufacturer of the PCI card?