Noob dual graphics card question.

[Tmt97]

So I have two very old Graphics cards. One is AMD, the other is Nvidia. The one thing they have in common is they are both shit, but that's beside the point. The other day my new motherboard came in the mail before my new graphcs card did, so to test it I just threw in my two old ones without thinking. To my surprise, both cards turned on, as was evident by the fans. So my question is, what's the advantage of dual graphics cards other than crossfire/SLI, because I can garuntee these cards weren't working together like that. So what DOES happen when you put two random graphics cards in the same machine? Do they compete? Do they divide up the work in a different way? Does it still take some of the burden off the CPU?

FYI, this is more a curiosity question. I have a new graphics card coming, so before you rant, I have no intention of running these two incompatible crappy cards in my rig, just curious.

[The Official Czex]

Use the NVIDIA card for PhysX?

[Tmt97]

Use the NVIDIA card for PhysX?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but if you do that and the card you use for PhysX is way worse than your main one, won't it drag it down performance wise?

Also could multiple incompatible graphics cards be used together for rendering/bitcoin mining or something? Or do they have to be the same for that application too?

[Guest Kloaked]

All that happens is that you have two cards in your system producing heat. Only the one plugged into your display will be the active one.

 

And the answer is no to the rest of your questions.

 

Use the NVIDIA card for PhysX?

 

Can't do that. You'd have to hack it to do that, but I would expect it to be very unstable.

[Guest Kloaked]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but if you do that and the card you use for PhysX is way worse than your main one, won't it drag it down performance wise?

Also could multiple incompatible graphics cards be used together for rendering/bitcoin mining or something? Or do they have to be the same for that application too?

 

No to the PhysX part. The second card will act as a pure PhysX card, which is a waste nowadays and most of the time isn't even worth having in the system at all.

 

Dunno about the mining bit.

[Tmt97]

All that happens is that you have two cards in your system producing heat. Only the one plugged into your display will be the active one.

 

And the answer is no to the rest of your questions.

 

 

Can't do that. You'd have to hack it to do that, but I would expect it to be very unstable.

So what would happen if I plugged one monitor into one card, and another into the other one? Would it just not work? Or would that force them to split the work somehow? Or would the whole computer just crash?

[The Official Czex]

All that happens is that you have two cards in your system producing heat. Only the one plugged into your display will be the active one.

 

And the answer is no to the rest of your questions.

 

 

Can't do that. You'd have to hack it to do that, but I would expect it to be very unstable.

 

It'd be useless, but possible.

[Guest Kloaked]

So what would happen if I plugged one monitor into one card, and another into the other one? Would it just not work? Or would that force them to split the work somehow? Or would the whole computer just crash?

 

They won't split the work like you're thinking. If they do output a picture, it'll just be as if you have more display options. That's it. I don't think a crash would occur.

[Tmt97]

They won't split the work like you're thinking. If they do output a picture, it'll just be as if you have more display options. That's it. I don't think a crash would occur.

So which one would be dominant then? If one moniter is connected to each card, and they arnt splitting the work, then one would have to do the work for both and output through the other card correct? And if so, which card would do everything? So confusing lol.

[Guest Kloaked]

So which one would be dominant then? If one moniter is connected to each card, and they arnt splitting the work, then one would have to do the work for both and output through the other card correct? And if so, which card would do everything? So confusing lol.

 

Whichever one the BIOS is set to I would imagine.

 

I haven't actually messed with this before, having two different brands of GPUs in the same system, so I can't tell you what exactly happens. All I can say for sure is that you cannot put a Radeon and GeForce card in the same system and run them in SLI/Crossfire/whatever hybrid name you can come up with and have more performance for gaming or whatever.

 

People are going to say "WELL HOLD ON THERE, BUB! *puffs up chest* YOU WILL BE ABLE TO DO- *wheezes so uses inhaler* THAT WITH DIRECT X 12!".

 

Don't hold your breath on that. It won't happen.

[Tmt97]

Whichever one the BIOS is set to I would imagine.

 

I haven't actually messed with this before, having two different brands of GPUs in the same system, so I can't tell you what exactly happens. All I can say for sure is that you cannot put a Radeon and GeForce card in the same system and run them in SLI/Crossfire/whatever hybrid name you can come up with and have more performance for gaming or whatever.

 

People are going to say "WELL HOLD ON THERE, BUB! *puffs up chest* YOU WILL BE ABLE TO DO- *wheezes so uses inhaler* THAT WITH DIRECT X 12!".

 

Don't hold your breath on that. It won't happen.

Yea, I wasn't intending to try some wierd crossfire/SLI hybrid thing. Chances are both of the old cards will be thrown out this Wednesday when my new card gets here. Just trying to learn how all this stuff works since I'm still kind of a noob. Thanks for explaining this stuff to me!

[ivan134]

Whichever one the BIOS is set to I would imagine.

 

I haven't actually messed with this before, having two different brands of GPUs in the same system, so I can't tell you what exactly happens. All I can say for sure is that you cannot put a Radeon and GeForce card in the same system and run them in SLI/Crossfire/whatever hybrid name you can come up with and have more performance for gaming or whatever.

 

People are going to say "WELL HOLD ON THERE, BUB! *puffs up chest* YOU WILL BE ABLE TO DO- *wheezes so uses inhaler* THAT WITH DIRECT X 12!".

 

Don't hold your breath on that. It won't happen.

[Citadelen]

Whichever one the BIOS is set to I would imagine.

 

I haven't actually messed with this before, having two different brands of GPUs in the same system, so I can't tell you what exactly happens. All I can say for sure is that you cannot put a Radeon and GeForce card in the same system and run them in SLI/Crossfire/whatever hybrid name you can come up with and have more performance for gaming or whatever.

 

People are going to say "WELL HOLD ON THERE, BUB! *puffs up chest* YOU WILL BE ABLE TO DO- *wheezes so uses inhaler* THAT WITH DIRECT X 12!".

 

Don't hold your breath on that. It won't happen.

Nvidia's drivers kill themselves when they detect active AMD drivers.