Quad dual GPU's.

[HeathCliff]

Before I even start, Yes I can pretty much imagine the stupidity of the idea and the majority of the responses that you will write however, I hope you'll look past this and be as straight forward as possible.

 

Now to onto the subject. One of my relatives, currently in Dubai, has just got a promotion. A big one. And he needs a new PC where money is not a restriction for him. He has basic understandings of the computer world, so he'll be able to set everything up at his end.

 

However the problems lie with his component choices. He wants to use dual Titan-Z's (Quad SLI) and dual R9-295 X2 (Quadfire) on a 4960X RIVBE. Yes you heard right. Now in a few days I will be talking to him over skype and having a rational debate on why the hell he won't give it to me and my 13 year old system...joke. But anyway, aside from having one of the biggest e-peens in the world, what other benefits are there really?

 

I have watch Linus's mixed gpu video and I can get a basic grasp of the advantages, but I need him to think about it carefully. I'd doubt that he'll be using the system to it's full intention. 

 

So can you guys give a hand?

 

(His work is based around professional 3D modelling, physics and stuff)

 

(Compulsory, but it's not him)

[antoainb]

Why? Just why? Dem powerbills and thermals.

[Freaky_spider]

there isnt any, just tell him to no do that

 

seeing as he will do editing, go with dual titan z 's. NVIDIA>AMD when it comes to editing, the 290x2 would be useless and useless

[Maslofski]

he could have a lot of monitors one for each perspective in his 3d software

[Bloodyvalley]

If he has the money, let him spend it.

[HeathCliff]

It's not possible, you can't access the PCI-E lanes.

 

Please can you further explain this? I looked around. And I wasn't able to find a reasonable explanation. 

[Freaky_spider]

It's not possible, you can't access the PCI-E lanes.

uhm, there are, X79 has enough lanes for quad SLI/CF

[WunderWuffle]

Before I even start, Yes I can pretty much imagine the stupidity of the idea and the majority of the responses that you will write however, I hope you'll look past this and be as straight forward as possible.

 

Now to onto the subject. One of my relatives, currently in Dubai, has just got a promotion. A big one. And he needs a new PC where money is not a restriction for him. He has basic understandings of the computer world, so he'll be able to set everything up at his end.

 

However the problems lie with his component choices. He wants to use dual Titan-Z's (Quad SLI) and dual R9-295 X2 (Quadfire) on a 4960X RIVBE. Yes you heard right. Now in a few days I will be talking to him over skype and having a rational debate on why the hell he won't give it to me and my 13 year old system...joke. But anyway, aside from having one of the biggest e-peens in the world, what other benefits are there really?

 

I have watch Linus's mixed gpu video and I can get a basic grasp of the advantages, but I need him to think about it carefully. I'd doubt that he'll be using the system to it's full intention. 

 

So can you guys give a hand?

 

(His work is based around professional 3D modelling, physics and stuff)

 

 

(Compulsory, but it's not him)

You could do that, but there's a slight problem that I see. The Titan-Z is thicker than a regular two slot card. It actually takes two and  a half slots.

 

As for if it would work or not, there was a guy on OCN who made a system with an Nvidia Quadro and an AMD FirePro... I'm not sure how that'll work, but if you can figure it out, it'll work...

[HeathCliff]

there isnt any, just tell him to no do that

 

seeing as he will do editing, go with dual titan z 's. NVIDIA>AMD when it comes to editing, the 290x2 would be useless and useless

 

This will most likely be recommendation that I will offer him. 

[TriBeard]

there isnt any, just tell him to no do that

 

seeing as he will do editing, go with dual titan z 's. NVIDIA>AMD when it comes to editing, the 290x2 would be useless and useless

That's not exactly true. Nvidia since the 600 series hasn't been so hot for compute (opencl mostly), which is what most editing software and stuff is based around. Now, if what he uses needs the double precision performance, the titans might be an ok option, but if OpenCL support is what he needs, the 295x2's in crossfire would probably be better and half the price. 

[Freaky_spider]

Please can you further explain this? I looked around. And I wasn't able to find a reasonable explanation. 

its possible, but it be ghetto to set up and they cant work together, so you'd be using the NVIDIA cards OR the AMD cards, never together, im no expert but thats how it goes

[antoainb]

Please can you further explain this? I looked around. And I wasn't able to find a reasonable explanation. 

 

Sorry, I read your post but when I made my reply I forgot he was using dual GPU cards.

[HeathCliff]

You could do that, but there's a slight problem that I see. The Titan-Z is thicker than a regular two slot card. It actually takes two and  a half slots.

 

As for if it would work or not, there was a guy on OCN who made a system with an Nvidia Quadro and an AMD FirePro... I'm not sure how that'll work, but if you can figure it out, it'll work...

 

It'll all be watercooled. I asked EK, and they said the waterblocks are in the works.

[antoainb]

uhm, there are, X79 has enough lanes for quad SLI/CF

 

With 2 slot cards you can only access half of them.

[Tam3n]

Get quad Titan Z or quad R9 295 2x instead.

 

edit: Though quad R9 295 2x tube and rad management...

[Doxxy]

there isnt any, just tell him to no do that

 

seeing as he will do editing, go with dual titan z 's. NVIDIA>AMD when it comes to editing, the 290x2 would be useless and useless

Yeah, because AMD gets lower KH/s and also their processors suck at editing compared to Intel.

[WunderWuffle]

It'll all be watercooled. I asked EK, and they said the waterblocks are in the works.

Oh, alright.

 

Another thing I thought of is that the X79 chipset only has 40 PCI-E lanes. You're going to have four dual-gpu cards, so you might not have enough lanes... I mean, you need 8x for each GPU. If you get an Asrock 11 Extreme, that might be a different story.

 

Get quad Titan Z or quad R9 295 2x instead.

 

edit: Though quad R9 295 2x tube and rad management...

He's watercooling.

[helping]

you should be able to run them as switchable graphics or possibly mirror Windows installs. I don't think Windows can readily switch easily between 8 physical GPU cores since IIRC Windows can only address 4 at once? (might be patchable)

if he's using Linux then ignore that, but regardless.

[HeathCliff]

That's not exactly true. Nvidia since the 600 series hasn't been so hot for compute (opencl mostly), which is what most editing software and stuff is based around. Now, if what he uses needs the double precision performance, the titans might be an ok option, but if OpenCL support is what he needs, the 295x2's in crossfire would probably be better and half the price. 

 

Get quad Titan Z or quad R9 295 2x instead.

 

edit: Though quad R9 295 2x tube and rad management...

 

Yeah, because AMD gets lower KH/s and also their processors suck at editing compared to Intel.

 

The majority of the tasks will be 3D modelling (AutoDesk) and compute tasks. Knowing this which would you say is better?

[smjpl]

You can only use up to 4 GPUs at one time. So putting in 2 dual GPU cards will work but putting in 4 dual GPU cards won't work. I am not too sure about having 2 sets of SLI/CFX dual cards being used at different times but you definitely won't be able to use them at the same time.

[HeathCliff]

you should be able to run them as switchable graphics or possibly mirror Windows installs. I don't think Windows can readily switch easily between 8 physical GPU cores since IIRC Windows can only address 4 at once? (might be patchable)

if he's using Linux then ignore that, but regardless.

 

This is pretty much the backup I was looking for. If it comes to what @Bloodvalley said, I'll have to study up on this.

[Freaky_spider]

With 2 slot cards you can only access half of them.

forget that, 

 

also who told you that? thats total bullshit, im sorry

 

it still only has 16 lanes per card, if there are 1 or 2 GPU cores on it

[smjpl]

You can only use up to 4 GPUs at one time. So putting in 2 dual GPU cards will work but putting in 4 dual GPU cards won't work. I am not too sure about having 2 sets of SLI/CFX dual cards being used at different times but you definitely won't be able to use them at the same time.

 

 

you should be able to run them as switchable graphics or possibly mirror Windows installs. I don't think Windows can readily switch easily between 8 physical GPU cores since IIRC Windows can only address 4 at once? (might be patchable)

if he's using Linux then ignore that, but regardless.

 

Is that only a Windows limitation?

[HeathCliff]

forget that, 

 

also who told you that? thats total bullshit, im sorry

 

it still only has 16 lanes per card, if there are 1 or 2 GPU cores on it

 

Would it still work on the P9X79-E WS? Since all of it's lanes are 16x, it should be sufficient. shouldn't it?

[antoainb]

forget that, 

 

also who told you that? thats total bullshit, im sorry

 

it still only has 16 lanes per card, if there are 1 or 2 GPU cores on it

 

The actual slots, god dammit, the cooler covers them.