Besides switching AGP/ PCI first boot option in BIOS, you could just disable the required card in Win98 DEVICE MANAGER and alternate between the two cards in question. And even setup two different HARDWARE PROFILES for each card to boot into Windows, if required. A reboot would be required, which is hardly a big deal.

jarreboum, we said here many times: with vodoo1/2 there is no problem to switch D3D, and cpecial soft exist fot it. Voodoo1/2 aren't video adapters for OS.

j^aws wrote:

Besides switching AGP/ PCI first boot option in BIOS, you could just disable the required card in Win98 DEVICE MANAGER and alternate between the two cards in question. And even setup two different HARDWARE PROFILES for each card to boot into Windows, if required. A reboot would be required, which is hardly a big deal.

😁 Thank you for your advice! Unfortunately I have tried it many months ago. Read this if who doesn't know:
In Windows 9X/ME there is no possible to disable Primary Graphics Adapter. Not by DEVICE MANAGER, not by HARDWARE PROFILES, no way!
It's impossible to make it Secondary/Slave, no way!
About real decision nobody told yet. Unfortunately. But thanks anyway.

I believe you misread me.

I don't actually know what PARUS is trying to do with a Secondary card. But a few years ago, in an AGP system using Win98, I was switching between a PCI Voodoo 5500 and AGP 5900 Ultra in a 440BX system. All I did was switch in BIOS the first boot option for AGP/PCI, then switched VGA cable. The relevant drivers loaded in Win98 at boot, and only 1 card was installed as a Primary card (other was diasbled).

Secondary cards are cards like Voodoo 1/2, or PowerVR PCX 1/2, where you can't boot into Windows with these, but you can switch APIs with these cards alongside a Primary (bootable) card.

j^aws wrote on 2017-01-28, 00:14:

I don't actually know what PARUS is trying to do with a Secondary card. But a few years ago, in an AGP system using Win98, I was switching between a PCI Voodoo 5500 and AGP 5900 Ultra in a 440BX system. All I did was switch in BIOS the first boot option for AGP/PCI, then switched VGA cable. The relevant drivers loaded in Win98 at boot, and only 1 card was installed as a Primary card (other was diasbled).

Secondary cards are cards like Voodoo 1/2, or PowerVR PCX 1/2, where you can't boot into Windows with these, but you can switch APIs with these cards alongside a Primary (bootable) card.

I am so sorry for reviving this thread but there is a lot of good info here and i want to do the same thing OP was talking about, running 2 GPUs in win9x.

In my case it is Voodoo 5 AGP and a Geforce 6200 PCI.

i wonder, which chipsets allow this switching? and does it completely disable the other card for windows not to see?

Shishkebarbarian wrote on 2022-02-15, 21:29:

i wonder, which chipsets allow this switching? and does it completely disable the other card for windows not to see?

I think anything that has AGP has the option to set PCI or AGP as primary in BIOS.

The primary card will be "disabled" in dos mode, but once the windows drivers are loaded it acts much like a card with multiple video outs, allowing you to mirror/extend or just ignore whatever monitor is plugged into it.
You can of course manually disable it in device manager if you wish.

I use the "primary card AGP/PCI change in BIOS" trick to switch between an AGP Geforce FX 5900 and a PCI Voodoo 3 3000 .

Otherwise, there is the option described here : D3D Games - switch between Voodoo and Primary GPU?

I use the same BIOS trick everyone else here is suggesting coupled with hardware profiles. This allows me to switch between an NVidia (AGP) card and a Voodoo (PCI) card. It's the only way I have figured to have multiple GPUs in a Windows 98 machine.

I am facing the exact same issue on a "Compaq Presario 100C".

Primary card : SiS620 4MB IGP running on AGP 2x.
Secondary card : ATI Radeon 7000 64 MB running on PCI

There is no AGP slot on board (Compaq OEM FIC C31-A with AMI BIOS) and can't access to BIOS to disable IGP or select VGA priority (unlike with retail version of the same motherboard with AWARD BIOS).
I tried various SOFTPAQs (ex: SP15674 , SP8126, SP8126 etc) with "Computer Setup" but all said unsupported system or "CPQCM.SYS is not loaded or is the incorrect version" .

3D only works on SiS620 IGP running on AGP 2x. But it is pretty useless, more like "seconds per frame".
ATI Radeon 7000 PCI only shows as "DirectDraw" enabled and dual monitor setup works even at 1080p on DVI port.

it's been mentioned in this thread that win2k or XP will let you disable the onboard video in device manager. if you want to stick with that board, perhaps that would be the way forward?

I found a simple solution to disable onboard card. Placed RAM on 2nd slot instead of 1st slot. It disabled onboard AGP card and I can now use PCI Radeon 7000 64MB.
Dual 1080p displays on glorious Win98 with 3D. 😀

The Elsa Gloria XL had both an S3 Virge 325 and a Glint/Permedia graphics co-processor on a single PCI board installed.

Back in the Windows 98 days, I was able to select both for Direct3D independantly in certain games or benchmarks (Final Reality).

Theoretically, an Voodoo card could have been installed too.
And maybe on of these NEC accelerators, if it wouldn't interfere with Permedia/Glint on the Gloria..