Dual GPU Questions

[RobertVanGilder]

So, I have a Saphire 6970 and a Gigabyte 5870. I ran them together but they caused some problems while playing games, meaning that the system picked the 5870 as the main card and the 6970 was just sitting there doing nothing. Should I sell the 5870 or is there any other way to use the 6970 as my main card and the 5870 as a secondary card which boosts the system? (note: they can'r run in crossfire mode)

Thanks a lot guys,

Rob

[Brendan]

No, putting the 5870 in is pointless.

[Beeblebrox]

I guess my question would be, why are you even trying to do this?

To answer your question though, generally whichever card is in the top slot gets assigned as the primary card. But not always. You can change it either in your BIOS or the Catalyst Control Center.

[RobertVanGilder]

I guess my question would be, why are you even trying to do this?

To answer your question though, generally whichever card is in the top slot gets assigned as the primary card. But not always. You can change it either in your BIOS or the Catalyst Control Center.

I'm doing this because I have a spare graphics card...

[RobertVanGilder]

No, putting the 5870 in is pointless.

Are you 100% sure? :P

[Brendan]

No, putting the 5870 in is pointless.

you can't crossfire, meaning there's is absolutely no point.

[Dave :)]

Just because you have a spare graphics card doesn't mean it will help any performance. As you say, you can't crossfire them, therefore you are effectively running 2 GPUs separately - which won't boost anything, will most likely cause more problems. Sell your 5870 and use the money to either buy another 6970 if you really want better performance; or, ( and what i would do ) would be to sell both cards and buy a 7870 or a 660Ti.

[RebelliousTyke]

Honestly, I would just sell the 5870. I don't see much of a point in even keeping it in your system. I'm sure you could get a alright deal on it and depending where you go I'm pretty sure you could get another 6970 cheap if you really want more power.

[Beeblebrox]

I guess my question would be, why are you even trying to do this?

To answer your question though, generally whichever card is in the top slot gets assigned as the primary card. But not always. You can change it either in your BIOS or the Catalyst Control Center.

Right, but there's absolutely no reason to do it. Its just going to sit in your case, and block airflow.

The only reason I can think of to use a 2nd gpu that isn't to Crossfire/SLI, is to use an extra nVidia card as a dedicated PhysX card.

[RobertVanGilder]

No, putting the 5870 in is pointless.

thanks buddy. I'm selling it for 120 bucks

[RobertVanGilder]

Just because you have a spare graphics card doesn't mean it will help any performance. As you say, you can't crossfire them, therefore you are effectively running 2 GPUs separately - which won't boost anything, will most likely cause more problems. Sell your 5870 and use the money to either buy another 6970 if you really want better performance; or, ( and what i would do ) would be to sell both cards and buy a 7870 or a 660Ti.

Yeah, I'm probably going to sell it to a buddy of mine for 120 bucks...