Secondary GPU for more consistent performance using Windows' Power Saving/High Performance profiles and a low-power secondary GPU

clanginator · April 8

So I just put together a new build with both an Arc A310 and a 7900XTX, with the intention of using the Arc for Intel's superior encoding in OBS for streaming/recording.

However, I discovered a secondary benefit to this approach. Windows automatically detected the Arc as a "Power Saving" GPU as it would integrated graphics in a laptop. This allows me to assign Waterfox, MPC-HC, VLC, or anything else to run on the Arc. Depending on what you're playing, this can be a significant reduction in background overhead for your primary GPU. I found that videos playing in background using this method use no primary GPU resources, only tapping the primary GPU when the video is actively displayed through that adapter, and even then using less resources.

Basically you won't see a performance BOOST from this method, but you can mitigate performance loss from doing other things in the background while gaming.

So far I've encountered no real issues with this dual-GPU setup, and it's been working even better than I had hoped!

This is also IMO a great solution vs picking up a capture card and running a secondary PC. Minimizes any overhead associated with streaming, super simple setup (runs off board power, just slot it in), only $99.

I'm also able to record at the highest quality preset, CQ4, 3440x1440x60, AV1 with no performance penalty. Basically lossless video at about 1GB/min. Not bad.

Thought I'd share in case it helps anyone's considerations on a new build.

emosun · April 8

i spose this would be a very good solution for anyone who bought a second gpu on accident and didn't know their primary gpu could already do this by itself.

clanginator · April 8

43 minutes ago, emosun said:

i spose this would be a very good solution for anyone who bought a second gpu on accident and didn't know their primary gpu could already do this by itself.

Intel encoder is also much better than AMD's, which if you're limited to streaming bitrates can make a big difference in overall quality. AMD's encoder can also stutter when anti-lag is enabled, and higher bitrate recording impacts gameplay framerates. Also everything I already talked about in the post. It's as if you didn't read anything I said about how it offloads workloads from the primary GPU to prevent impact to gaming.

This obviously won't be of benefit to everyone, but if you're interested in streaming, for $99 this would be a great solution for those looking for a simple way to improve their stream quality and make a PC that struggles to stream able to do so easily, without having to build an entire second PC to stream from.

Go ahead and try recording 3440x1440x60, CQ4, slowest preset, AV1 on your GPU's encoder and let me know how many FPS you lose. I lose zero.

emosun · April 8

6 hours ago, clanginator said:

It's as if you didn't read anything I said about how it offloads workloads from the primary GPU to prevent impact to gaming.

i guess i don't have a gpu or computer slow enough where that's an issue.

i don't see how this would be an improvement over using a secondary machine because it has less redundancy than just using a streaming pc. basically you've reduced the streaming pc to an add in card and now if the gaming pc disconnects or crashes so does the stream.

clanginator · April 8

4 hours ago, emosun said:

i guess i don't have a gpu or computer slow enough where that's an issue.

i don't see how this would be an improvement over using a secondary machine because it has less redundancy than just using a streaming pc. basically you've reduced the streaming pc to an add in card and now if the gaming pc disconnects or crashes so does the stream.

It doesn't just matter on "slow enough" machines lmao. If you're recording high bitrates or you just care about encoding/streaming quality this is worth it. It'll save disk space, and/or give you better quality recording, and/or improve your performance while gaming/streaming.

>basically you've reduced the streaming pc to an add in card and now if the gaming pc disconnects or crashes so does the stream.

Yes that's exactly it. It's a cheaper alternative to a streaming PC. It's not as reliable but for someone not sure if they wanna invest in a whole second PC, a $99 add-in card to improve their existing stream quality and make it more reliable is a worthy upgrade. And since this is such a simple card to install, it's an extremely simple slot-in upgrade that fills the gap between not being able to stream well at all and running a stream off an entire secondary computer, using all that extra electricity, hardware, space and complexity.

And the Arc can always be moved to a full stream PC for encoding later on.

You're just unimaginative and can't come up with a use case where this is beneficial and you're insecure so you feel the need to insult other people's rigs to try and feel good about yours when you can't even comprehend the points the other person is making about why a different use case can be beneficial.

If this tip is "too low performance" for your rigs, ignore it and let people with less powerful rigs for whom it's helpful find it. Don't continue being an intolerable elitist.

emosun · April 9

11 hours ago, clanginator said:

It's not as reliable but for someone not sure if they wanna invest in a whole second PC

.... then they can spend 0$ and use their current pc to stream and invest in a better setup if they decide its worth pursuing.

Pcs have been able to stream video for a long time without buying 99$ add in cards. It's free to use their current machines , and more redundant to use a separate machine should they want to pursuing broadcasting further. No need for stopgap solutions for overly specific senerios.

Your own senerio of having a higher end pc , but wanting to record higher bitrates even though the deliverable is via the web , not having a lot of drive space , also wanting a few extra % of performance that isn't visible in the deliverable , whilst assuming the success of the stream hinges on it's bitrate vs the actual content of the stream..... is going to be not very common. This setup benefits you specifically , but i wouldn't recommend people waste 99$ on a card insisting it's the only correct way of doing it.