question assigning separate rendering tasks to separate gpus?

[DarkACB]

so, i was thinking about high resolution rendering, specifically the fact that it is an incredibly high burden on the gpu.

heres my question:

is it possible to assign separate rendering tasks to seperate gpus. ex: assigning graphics rendering to one gpu, and assigning resolution rendering in another gpu. im not sure if something like this has been developed or attempted, but out of curiosity, would it be possible to buy a cheaper gpu and a more powerful gpu and assign resolution rendering to the cheap one, and the rest to the powerful one?

 

edit: this would be for video games. sorry, forgot to mention the most important part of the question.

 

edit2: this is a hypothetical question. i'm not currently using two gpus, nor do i even have an extra pcie slot to fit another gpu. i'm simply curious whether it's possible to achieve.

[Electronics Wizardy]

What programs are you using? What type of rendering are we doing?

 

Many programs will let you pick what gpu you want to use.

 

 

[DarkACB]

15 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

What programs are you using? What type of rendering are we doing?

 

Many programs will let you pick what gpu you want to use.

 

 

it would specifically be for video games. i'm not really trying to use one gpu over another, more so asking if it's possible, currently or not, to offload rendering tasks to a separate gpu. this is more of a hypothetical question rather than something i would be personally using. for example: using one gpu for handling the 3d graphics of a game, and another to handle the resolution that the monitor displays.

[SpaceGhostC2C]

Yes. Distributed rendering was introduced many years ago and evolved into current GPU manufacturers' implementations, branded "SLI" and "CrossFireX". These distributed rendering techniques worked through specific distribution of tasks performed by the driver, in a sense transparent to developers. New graphics APIs DirectX 12 and Vulkan allow for more flexible uses of multiple GPUs, although that means that each game developer has to decide whether, and how, to use it, on a case by case basis.

 

If anything, we have seen reduced interest and support for multi-GPU rendering in games in recent years.

[Crunchy Dragon]

12 minutes ago, SpaceGhostC2C said:

Yes. Distributed rendering was introduced many years ago and evolved into current GPU manufacturers' implementations, branded "SLI" and "CrossFireX". These distributed rendering techniques worked through specific distribution of tasks performed by the driver, in a sense transparent to developers. New graphics APIs DirectX 12 and Vulkan allow for more flexible uses of multiple GPUs, although that means that each game developer has to decide whether, and how, to use it, on a case by case basis.

 

If anything, we have seen reduced interest and support for multi-GPU rendering in games in recent years.

OP isn't talking about running SLI, they're talking about having two GPUs rendering separate things, at the same time, in the same system.

[SpaceGhostC2C]

10 minutes ago, Crunchy Dragon said:

OP isn't talking about running SLI, they're talking about having two GPUs rendering separate things, at the same time, in the same system.

SLI is a very specific form of that.