Multiple different GPUs for running two different programs

[Ekreed]

Hi All, I'm struggling with this a little.

I assumed that if you had two different GPUs and connected them to two different Monitors then you would be able to use each GPU to run a different progarm on the different monitor. But that doesn't seem to be the case.

I thought by adding an AMD GPU connected to my second monitor then if I was watching Netflix on that screen then it would render on the AMD card, and then my Nvidia card wouldn't have as much trouble rendering a game on my primary monitor. But that doesn't seem to be the case - everything seems to get rendered on whatever my primary display adapter is. This makes my multi GPU set up rather pointless, so is there any way I can make them share the load? Also, would it be easier if they were both the same brand? Like, if I had both Nvidia cards would I be able to manage that through the Nvidia control panel, or would I still have the same issue?

 

Other topics seem to imply that if both monitors are connected to different adapters, then if a window is all on a screen then that GPU will render it, but info in task manager and GPU utilisation indicates that no matter what, the primary GPU renders everything.

Is there a way to do this, or have I just wasted time and money putting a second card into my PC? Thanks.

[Fasauceome]

Don't forget that your CPU is needed for multitasking as well, so if you're getting a performance hit to your processor, a second graphics card wouldn't solve that.

[Ekreed]

15 hours ago, fasauceome said:

Don't forget that your CPU is needed for multitasking as well, so if you're getting a performance hit to your processor, a second graphics card wouldn't solve that.

I did consider that before I did anything.

 

But when I'm getting slowdowns in game, it is the GPU hitting 100% and the CPU is nowhere near that. And the frame rate drop in games on my primary monitor is easily spotted when I start and stop videos playing on my second monitor.

I don't know if there's an easy way to do what I want - but I am aware that it may not even help since performance can be hit by more than just availability of computing power.

[TheRandomness]

What you’re asking for basically cannot happen. The second GPU will do nothing unless it’s selected by the program to do it. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong, I have a feeling I might be. 

[Ekreed]

2 minutes ago, TheRandomness said:

What you’re asking for basically cannot happen. The second GPU will do nothing unless it’s selected by the program to do it. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong, I have a feeling I might be. 

I did worry that this might be the case.

It doesn't seem logical to me that there's no way to do this, but it certainly is believable. I think I can get it to work the way I want in some games where you can pick the GPU, but most other applications just seem to default to the primary GPU.

 

I think there are other workarounds I could try like, I could have my second monitor just be a whole new VM running natively on the second GPU, but that probably wouldn't be a great user experience. I think the best option is probably to just replace both cards with a single more powerful card.

[Settlerteo]

15 hours ago, Ekreed said:

Also, would it be easier if they were both the same brand? Like, if I had both Nvidia cards would I be able to manage that through the Nvidia control panel, or would I still have the same issue?

It would be much worse due to driver issues.

[Settlerteo]

15 hours ago, Ekreed said:

Hi All, I'm struggling with this a little.
 

If you running Windows 10 there are guides to follow. You can do it from settings->display->graphic settings. Add each app you want to customize and choose it to run between high performance and power saving depending on what gpu you want to run. I think this will work.