Using 2 different GPU’s simultaneously

[Nssa97]

Hi everyone .

Im a flight simmer , and atm my current system consists of :

I7 10700k
32gb @3200mhz
Rtx 5080 
1000w Corsair RMe

I recently upgraded from a 3060 12gb and the goal is to switch to amd , and get something like an 9800x3d on a x870e mobo and ddr5 , but that’s not my mine problem atm

 

Everything works great , although being a bit of cpu bottleneck on MFS2024 the performance is amazing at 1440p ( using MFG and DLSS sometimes , adding even more usage to the vram)

Until I get to a heavy scenario where my VRAM goes up to 98-100% that’s when the stutters become unbearable and even the occasional CTD .VRAM is my biggest enemy on this new and poorly optimised Sim 

After some research and testing I’ve managed to achieve a temporary workaround to reduce the VRAM usage 
Getting from 0.8 -1.1 gb use while idling on the desktop to 0.1 
Simply by using the nvidia-smi command 

Identifying which processes where running on the 5080 and then going into windows settings ->graphics and forcing them to use the lower power graphics , in this case , the intel igfx

Stuff like chrome , discord , Spotify , windows explorer and other programs related to the flight simulator that I don’t redeem as heavy .

Everything is working great inside of the simulator , still haven’t got to a point where I managed to max out on VRAM like before

But I’m experiencing the cons , not being able to use hardware acceleration on discord makes it laggy , same for chrome , and for windows explorer , well yeah you get the picture .

So, let’s revisit the main question. Instead of setting these apps to run on the Intel integrated graphics, what if I simply plug in my old RTX 3060 and configure it as the lower-power graphics option?

What can I expect from running 2 different gpus , my 5080 as the main high performance one and the 3060 for the background stuff .

 

** I’m also planning to buy a second monitor , would that work? To have 2 monitors plugged to 2 different GPUs ?

Sorry for the long post , here’s an imaginary potato 

Thanks

[SorryBella]

4 minutes ago, Nssa97 said:

So, let’s revisit the main question. Instead of setting these apps to run on the Intel integrated graphics

When you disable hardware acceleration, everything runs on the CPU through software translation layer, not your iGPU. So you're just worsening the CPU bottleneck issue.

 

But yeah, no fix for VRAM running out other than reducing settings, especially VRAM hogs like Ray Tracing and Texture Quality. Adding in a 3060 would only help so much and you would have to deal with GPU preferences being a bad implementation in Windows in general, even for something that demands it like Lossless Scaling this is an issue i (and many other) have to bear with every day. 

[Haswellx86]

4 minutes ago, Nssa97 said:

But I’m experiencing the cons , not being able to use hardware acceleration on discord makes it laggy , same for chrome , and for windows explorer , well yeah you get the picture .

You said you are running them on the Intel integrated graphics, right? So you have hardware acceleration, so how is it laggy?

 

I don't even have a discrete GPU so excuse my knowledge if I am wrong, but I suspect your setup is that your display port is connected to your discrete GPU, and your integrated graphics has to run the side programs and send the display data to your discrete GPU, right?

 

Can you try just booting through the integrated graphics and see if those apps lag again?

 

Just now, SorryBella said:

When you disable hardware acceleration, everything runs on the CPU through software translation layer, not your iGPU. So you're just worsening the CPU bottleneck issue.

Read the full sentence. They meant to use a separate RTX 3060 instead of using the integrated graphics.

 

10 minutes ago, Nssa97 said:

what if I simply plug in my old RTX 3060 and configure it as the lower-power graphics option?

Yes, that should work.

 

10 minutes ago, Nssa97 said:

I’m also planning to buy a second monitor , would that work? To have 2 monitors plugged to 2 different GPUs ?

Yes that also works.

[Nssa97]

3 minutes ago, Haswellx86 said:

You said you are running them on the Intel integrated graphics, right? So you have hardware acceleration, so how is it laggy?

 

I don't even have a discrete GPU so excuse my knowledge if I am wrong, but I suspect your setup is that your display port is connected to your discrete GPU, and your integrated graphics has to run the side programs and send the display data to your discrete GPU, right?

 

 

You’re correct on that one , my display is connected to the discrete gpu, and the only program with hardware acceleration turned off is discord , where I manually set it off not thinking that would put more strain on the cpu, but yeah I can enable it again and run it on the iGPU smoothly , but windows explorer and chrome is a heavy toll on the igpu, something I think will be fixed if I switch the igpu for the 3060

[Haswellx86]

Just now, Nssa97 said:

he only program with hardware acceleration turned off is discord , where I manually set it off not thinking that would put more strain on the cpu, but yeah I can enable it again and run it on the iGPU smoothly

You mean you could just make it not use any of your GPUs? How is that? Or is it like you disabling video acceleration or something?

 

Just now, Nssa97 said:

windows explorer and chrome is a heavy toll on the igpu, something I think will be fixed if I switch the igpu for the 3060

Nah, how is that laggy on an I-GPU? Could you try just booting through your integrated graphics without any graphics card in the system, and see of those programs lag?

[Nssa97]

14 minutes ago, SorryBella said:

When you disable hardware acceleration, everything runs on the CPU through software translation layer, not your iGPU. So you're just worsening the CPU bottleneck issue.

 

But yeah, no fix for VRAM running out other than reducing settings, especially VRAM hogs like Ray Tracing and Texture Quality. Adding in a 3060 would only help so much and you would have to deal with GPU preferences being a bad implementation in Windows in general, even for something that demands it like Lossless Scaling this is an issue i (and many other) have to bear with every day. 

That’s something I would like to try , to use lossless scaling on the 3060 and see if it takes the load of the 5080, I’ve already identified dlss and mfg to add a lot to the vram usage 

Will definitely update you with any positive results .

[Agall]

46 minutes ago, Nssa97 said:

What can I expect from running 2 different gpus , my 5080 as the main high performance one and the 3060 for the background stuff .

You could try to do it using Nvidia Control Panel in the Manage 3D settings and set the respective GPU per application.

 

 

You can then validate which GPU engine its using with Task Manager if you right click on like CPU and toggle that column on. It doesn't seem to matter which application the program is on physically to what GPU it uses.

 

Looks like Windows has this built in now too, if you click on the prompt to Windows Graphics Settings in the first image.

[Nssa97]

29 minutes ago, Agall said:

You could try to do it using Nvidia Control Panel in the Manage 3D settings and set the respective GPU per application.

 

 

You can then validate which GPU engine its using with Task Manager if you right click on like CPU and toggle that column on. It doesn't seem to matter which application the program is on physically to what GPU it uses.

 

Looks like Windows has this built in now too, if you click on the prompt to Windows Graphics Settings in the first image.

Wow , I’m amazed I never realized this , thanks for the insight , will definitely try this first .