Using an External PCIe Graphics Adapter as the Primary Device on Windows XP

Note: Intel^® EMGD supports this feature only on Intel^® Atom™ Processor E6xx and Windows XP.

Intel^® EMGD can be configured to work with an external PCIe graphics adapter card as the primary graphics adapter device with the Intel internal graphics device (GMCH) as the secondary graphics device. You can configure your system to boot with a PCIe graphics adapter in the System BIOS (note: check with your BIOS vendor as not all BIOS supports the option). When designating an external PCIe graphics adapter as the primary graphics adapter, the Intel GMCH becomes the secondary graphics device.

Note: The term secondary adapter refers to the adapter that is not the boot-up, or VGA-Compatible, adapter. The secondary adapter is not necessarily the secondary display as assigned by the OS.

You can configure an external PCIe card to work with the Intel^® EMGD as follows:

• The external PCIe card as the primary graphics adapter and the GMCH internal graphics device as the secondary.

• The external PCIe card as the secondary graphics adapter and the GMCH internal graphics device as the primary.

Note: When using an ATI card, first install the ATI driver and do not reboot the machine. Reboot after installing Intel^® EMGD.

Intel^® EMGD lets you specify which display is primary, secondary, and tertiary. It allows Clone configurations on the internal graphics device when the external PCIe display is the primary graphics adapter. It also allows Clone configurations on the internal graphics device when the external PCIe device is the secondary graphics adapter.

An external PCIe graphics driver runs independently without sharing resources with Intel^® EMGD.

The following figures show several configurations when an external PCIe adapter is the primary graphics device and when it is the secondary graphics device.

External PCIe Graphics Card as Primary Driver and Intel^® EMGD as Secondary Driver shows an External PCIe card as the primary graphics adapter card and Intel^® EMGD as the secondary. The drivers do not share hardware resources. The OS decides the framebuffer content and handles that by drawing to the respective driver independently.

External PCIe Graphics Card as Primary Driver and Intel^® EMGD as Secondary Driver

Intel^® EMGD as Primary Driver and External PCIe Graphics Card as Secondary Driver shows the interaction between Intel^® EMGD and the External VGA driver when Intel^® EMGD is booted as the primary driver. Again, the drivers do not share hardware resources. The OS decides the framebuffer content and handles it by drawing to the respective driver independently.

Intel^® EMGD as Primary Driver and External PCIe Graphics Card as Secondary Driver

Intel^® EMGD as Primary Driver with Two Displays and External PCIe Driving a Tertiary Display shows a sample configuration where the internal graphics device is primary and configured to use two ports to drive two displays while an external PCIe graphics adapter is used to drive a tertiary display. Note that regardless of the number of ports being assigned to a driver, the external PCIe graphics run independently without sharing resources with Intel^® EMGD.

Intel^® EMGD as Primary Driver with Two Displays and External PCIe Driving a Tertiary Display