Multi-GPU Setup

[Shiruxriu]

So this is gonna be a simple question to ask, but likely a toughy to answer. 

 

For background I am intending to run a multi-monitor setup that utilizesntwo different GPUs. One is the Asus PG279Q 144hz gaming monitor running on a 1080 ti, the other would be an LG 27uk850-W running off a vega 64 card.

 

For all intents and purposes, will my system be able to use each GPU with each monitor with little to no issue?

 

I apologize if this is in the wrong thread but i couldnt decide if this was a GPU or Display question.

[-rascal-]

6 minutes ago, Shiruxriu said:

So this is gonna be a simple question to ask, but likely a toughy to answer. 

 

For background I am intending to run a multi-monitor setup that utilizesntwo different GPUs. One is the Asus PG279Q 144hz gaming monitor running on a 1080 ti, the other would be an LG 27uk850-W running off a vega 64 card.

 

For all intents and purposes, will my system be able to use each GPU with each monitor with little to no issue?

 

I apologize if this is in the wrong thread but i couldnt decide if this was a GPU or Display question.

 

It might be possible...but the issue here is driver conflict.

 

From experience ( I think Linus ran into this issue too when he tried to run an AMD + nVidia GPU in one system), if the nVidia drivers detects an AMD card, it will freak out.

I was testing a GTX 750 Ti for a friend 1 or 2 years ago, and it did not play nice when I put my R9-Fury back in with the nVidia drivers still installed.

 

[Electronics Wizardy]

Yea that will work fine, but one gpu will be doing nothing. I don't see the point of multigpu here.

[Shiruxriu]

2 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

Yea that will work fine, but one gpu will be doing nothing. I don't see the point of multigpu here.

Ideally it would be to offload display work of the 1080ti so that it only crunches game display data, not desktop multitasking. It would also be to take advantage of the 4k Hdr offered by the lg monitor for productivity.

 

2 minutes ago, -rascal- said:

 

It might be possible...but the issue here is driver conflict.

 

From experience ( I think Linus ran into this issue too when he tried to run an AMD + nVidia GPU in one system), if the nVidia drivers detects an AMD card, it will freak out.

I was testing a GTX 750 Ti for a friend 1 or 2 years ago, and it did not play nice when I put my R9-Fury back in with the nVidia drivers still installed.

 

I'll look for linus's video, can you confirm if this was a driver conflict on nvidia's side or just a conflict in general?

 

[-rascal-]

7 minutes ago, Shiruxriu said:

Ideally it would be to offload display work of the 1080ti so that it only crunches game display data, not desktop multitasking. It would also be to take advantage of the 4k Hdr offered by the lg monitor for productivity.

 

I'll look for linus's video, can you confirm if this was a driver conflict on nvidia's side or just a conflict in general?

 

 

I'll try to dig up the video for you...if you don't find it.

 

I may or may not be able to answer that question, as I no longer have that GPU, nor do I have a nVidia GPU available.
(unless you count a 15+ year old AGP Geforce TNT2  )

I THINK I mentioned this in detail on an older thread that I responded to....see if I can get some information from that...

[Shiruxriu]

4 minutes ago, -rascal- said:

 

I'll try to dig up the video for you...if you don't find it.

 

I may or may not be able to answer that question, as I no longer have that GPU, nor do I have a nVidia GPU available.
(unless you count a 15+ year old AGP Geforce TNT2  )

I THINK I mentioned this in detail on an older thread that I responded to....see if I can get some information from that...

Okay, even if you cant thank you for trying, the only one i found was linus's insane sli and crossfire in one system video and the only conflict was getting sli to work. I dont intend to use sli due to diminishing returns, so that doesnt seem like an issue I'll end up coming across. Thank you again for helping.

[AskTJ]

The extra monitor wont use the 1080Ti's resources. The 1080Ti will handle both monitors easily. Instead of using a Vega 64, get an old Nvidia card like a GT 710 or older and use that to output the second monitor if you are concerned.

[Electronics Wizardy]

31 minutes ago, Shiruxriu said:

Ideally it would be to offload display work of the 1080ti so that it only crunches game display data, not desktop multitasking.

The desktop uses use very little gpu power, the performance difference is tiny. And if thats you goal, get a gpu like a 1030, not a vega.

 

31 minutes ago, Shiruxriu said:

It would also be to take advantage of the 4k Hdr offered by the lg monitor for productivity.

Can't you do 4k hdr on the 1080ti? Or if you need 10bit, go quadro/firepro

[Shiruxriu]

9 minutes ago, AskTJ said:

The extra monitor wont use the 1080Ti's resources. The 1080Ti will handle both monitors easily. Instead of using a Vega 64, get an old Nvidia card like a GT 710 or older and use that to output the second monitor if you are concerned.

While I'd like to say this is a fine compromise, the problem here is that the second display is freesync 4k HDR.

 

 

8 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

The desktop uses use very little gpu power, the performance difference is tiny. And if thats you goal, get a gpu like a 1030, not a vega.

 

Can't you do 4k hdr on the 1080ti? Or if you need 10bit, go quadro/firepro

While that normally would be a good solution, you cannot use Geforce and Quadro drivers simultaneously, thank you nvidia, and i would not spend money on a 1030. Also the desktop would use far more power given that it will be a 4k hdr desktop. And the 1080ti will be powering a 144hz 1440p monitor that is running games at high-ultra settings.

 

[Mick Naughty]

It will work. You can put any card in and it will display as it should. That’s what basic drivers are for. 

 

I use the cpu for extra monitors. Isn’t worth it to have another card in there for that purpose. Unless you need 4 more monitors. 

[Shiruxriu]

4 hours ago, Mick Naughty said:

It will work. You can put any card in and it will display as it should. That’s what basic drivers are for. 

 

I use the cpu for extra monitors. Isn’t worth it to have another card in there for that purpose. Unless you need 4 more monitors. 

Again, the second card would be driving a 4k HDR monitor with Freesync.

[Mick Naughty]

14 minutes ago, Shiruxriu said:

Again, the second card would be driving a 4k HDR monitor with Freesync.

So does your igpu not support that?

its just a monitor. Doesn’t really matter. Only matters what you think the system can do on it while gaming. 

[Shiruxriu]

11 minutes ago, Mick Naughty said:

So does your igpu not support that?

its just a monitor. Doesn’t really matter. Only matters what you think the system can do on it while gaming. 

I highly doubt my iGPU can run a 4k HDR monitor as its part of an intel chip. Intel HD 530 graphics. I intend to upgrade but even then relying on the iGPU seems like a very bad choice. I'm curious as to what makes you think the second video card to drive the monitor is a bad idea.

[Shiruxriu]

Just going to drop the below link in because I found a similar post to mine thats about a year or so old, and talks about this but otherwise leaves the topic open for debate still. 

 

 

Now with that I will say the following, 1 Most iGPUs should not be ysed on 4k no matter what the specs say, granted this is with my experience of iGPUs. Second the second card is to drive a monitor with similar hardware designs, ie, freesync being an AMD technology. Third the 1080 ti is for gaming period. Fourth the amd card would be used to assist in encoding, editing and more on the 4k monitor. Lastly, I dont want teaming in a post about two different cards working together to run this crazy idea I have.

 

Sorry if this seemed a bit hot for a reply, but it always seems like I'm being told "No, dont do that" rather than a single semblence of information to actually tell me if it will work. If it wont, thats okay, but a counter suggestion if hardware is not what I am asking for. 

 

Again sorry for the fairly heated and ramblomatic post but I felt I needed to put that all out there so that I might get more straight answers, and I'm sorry, I know answers take time.

 

 

[Jon Jon]

It should work, but I don't know how well or stable it will work.

 

https://www.pcworld.com/article/3036760/hardware/the-impossible-has-happened-radeon-and-geforce-come-together-in-directx-12.html

 

This references the setup of just needing to install both drivers.

 

Back in the early 2000s, people used to do similar and having a dedicated GPU for each monitor on Windows XP.

 

I knew someone who did this with relatively no performance impact, and this was with an AGP primary card for gaming, and PCI graphics cards for just monitors.

 

[-rascal-]

13 hours ago, Shiruxriu said:

Okay, even if you cant thank you for trying, the only one i found was linus's insane sli and crossfire in one system video and the only conflict was getting sli to work. I dont intend to use sli due to diminishing returns, so that doesnt seem like an issue I'll end up coming across. Thank you again for helping.

 

I was able to dig up some info...was from April 2016...this was what I said...

The person was switching over from nVidia to AMD.

https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/582116-please-help-radeon-r9-270x-just-stops-working/?tab=comments#comment-7599833

 

Quote

Make sure any remaining bits of your old nVidia drivers are completely deleted.

They will cause havoc if anything AMD / ATi is detected.

 

I had to install and run some tests on a GTX 760 that I bought for a friend.

Given that I was using two AMD Radeon HD 7970's at the time, I had to remove the cards and the AMD drivers -- that was simply and fast.

Uninstalling the nVidia drivers, switching back to AMD, was more of a hassle -- so many folders and files were left under 'Program Files' and in my 'Documents.'

Even Windows had a mini hissy-fit when it saw AMD GPU's and bits of nVidia drivers... 

 

Another one from March 2016

https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/558075-where-to-get-amd-drivers/?page=2&tab=comments#comment-7347147

Quote

Its' the nVidia drivers kicking in to NOT let you install the AMD GPU drivers -- software to hardware conflict.

 

I had to remove my two HD 7970's and the AMD drivers to test out a GTX 760 for a friend.

The nVidia drivers leaves behind so many extra bits and pieces, once uninstalled, that is causes Windows warning messages when I install my HD 7970's back in, and try to install the AMD drivers. I didn't have much problem going from AMD to nVidia; the "Express uninstall" pretty much completely removes all AMD driver files at one go. Going back from nVidia and AMD took a bit more time. 

 

Ah, it was a used MSi TwinFrozr GTX 760 2GB.

Buying it for a friend whole lived ~2 hours away from me.

Bought the card, and decided to test it before giving it to her...this was back in January 2016 when I made the purchase.

[Mick Naughty]

If the program is actually gonna use the card itself, it won’t matter which the monitor is plugged into. 

 

So so if this is for a real purpose and not just having a second monitor up for YouTube and stuff like that. It’s all gonna go through the main card unless the program can choice it. 

 

Didnt say it it was a bad idea. Just lack of details drive a simple answer. 

 

4 hours ago, Shiruxriu said:

I highly doubt my iGPU can run a 4k HDR monitor as its part of an intel chip. Intel HD 530 graphics. I intend to upgrade but even then relying on the iGPU seems like a very bad choice. I'm curious as to what makes you think the second video card to drive the monitor is a bad idea.

 

[Shiruxriu]

22 hours ago, Mick Naughty said:

If the program is actually gonna use the card itself, it won’t matter which the monitor is plugged into. 

 

So so if this is for a real purpose and not just having a second monitor up for YouTube and stuff like that. It’s all gonna go through the main card unless the program can choice it. 

 

Didnt say it it was a bad idea. Just lack of details drive a simple answer. 

 

 

Ah i see, technically it'd be running AMD's video encoder while simultaneously playing back a stream on the 4k HDR monitor through chrome. Any more details needed cause I guess I don't want to waste money, but alsp don't want to have insufficient hardware for the use cases. I guess it'd also be running a live wallpaper for the desktop. 

[Mick Naughty]

2 hours ago, Shiruxriu said:

Ah i see, technically it'd be running AMD's video encoder while simultaneously playing back a stream on the 4k HDR monitor through chrome. Any more details needed cause I guess I don't want to waste money, but alsp don't want to have insufficient hardware for the use cases. I guess it'd also be running a live wallpaper for the desktop. 

Well I know with two nvidia cards, the main card will still do the video decoding watching youtube. 

Cant say for sure if running an amd card is gonna change that. 

[Shiruxriu]

1 hour ago, Mick Naughty said:

Well I know with two nvidia cards, the main card will still do the video decoding watching youtube. 

Cant say for sure if running an amd card is gonna change that. 

I don't know much about decoding a YouTube video, but I do know setting the amd gpu to encode the stream and send it off will force all of the video transcoding work to the amd GPU while simultaneously displaying on the 4k monitor.

[Mick Naughty]

35 minutes ago, Shiruxriu said:

I don't know much about decoding a YouTube video, but I do know setting the amd gpu to encode the stream and send it off will force all of the video transcoding work to the amd GPU while simultaneously displaying on the 4k monitor.

Well if you know you can choose the card to do the work, there isn't an issue then.

[Shiruxriu]

4 hours ago, Mick Naughty said:

Well if you know you can choose the card to do the work, there isn't an issue then.

True, but thats only true for obs and my encoder settings, I dont know how thats going to play with the monitor hence why I'm asking. Especially cause I was under the impression that if you have two displays hooked up to different video cards then those cards are each working on displaying for a seperate monitor. Now im wondering and getting the sense that is mistaken.

[Shiruxriu]

So I went digging some more and felt I might need to ask this more concisely.

 

I want to run two GPUs, one nVidia and one AMD. I also want to run two monitors, one 1440p 165Hz and one 4k HDR at 60Hz. I would be hooking up the nVidia card to the 1440p monitor, and the AMD card to the 4k monitor. Will each card operate each monitor seperately or will that be a pointless venture?