ix3D Ultimate Rez cards and two monitors: a follow-up
ix3D Ultimate Rez cards and two monitors: a follow-up
The problem is not with two cards. The problem is that Apple-branded (which both of mine are) Ultimate Rez cards must be in one of the first two PCI slots in an S900 in order to function (alone or not). Since the UMAX E100 card must be in slot 1 (due to the special connector that is next to the slot), it is not possible to make two Apple ROM Ultimate Rez cards function in an S900 that contains an E100 card. (I do not know what other machines have such bus restrictions, if any.) Since it seems the problem is not with the number of cards but with the placement of them, as long as you put an Apple ROM card in slot 2 (or slot 1, if it's empty) you can use another video card in slots 3-6.
Dusan Kostic confirms this, adding some technical detail: "This problem received quite a bit of discussion on the SuperMac mailing list. S900 and J700 machines have a PCI bridge chip controlling all PCI slots except the first two, which use the 'normal' Apple chip. As a result, only cards that are PCI 2.1 compliant can be installed in slots 3-6 (3-4 for J700). Problematic cards are usually older SCSI cards, and, for some reason, these ixMicro cards (but not the older ixMicro Twin Turbo cards). There were claims on the list that even ixMicro-branded cards have slot preference, and in a multiple-card setup at least one has to be in slot 1 or 2, while the other can be in slot 4 or 5. I do not know that, but from my own experience with a single Apple-branded card in J700, it definitely wants to be in one of the first slots."
Update: Jill Cook (of ixMicro) confirms that "you can connect two monitors to two Ultimate Rez cards and have dual-monitor support. However, we are coming out with the ix3D Dual Monitor card that allows you to support two monitors with only one card."