Running graphics cards without SLI/Crossfire

[Thresh]

So I'll be upgrading my graphics card to an R9 390 next month, and I was wondering if I could leave my old GTX 560 Ti in there and just switch between them by moving the cable to the monitor between them, or something like that 

 

My reason for wanting that is the I want the R9 for gaming, but I'm also doing a lot of 3D modelling and animation using Blender 3D

I've been told that Blender's OpenCL setting (the setting for using AMD graphics cards) is unreliable and I should always use the CUDA setting (the setting for Nvidia cards) if possible 

 

Btw, the 560 Ti is fine for rendering, giving me a frame in about 0.7 seconds

[Claryn]

3 minutes ago, Thresh said:

So I'll be upgrading my graphics card to an R9 390 next month, and I was wondering if I could leave my old GTX 560 Ti in there and just switch between them by moving the cable to the monitor between them, or something like that 

 

My reason for wanting that is the I want the R9 for gaming, but I'm also doing a lot of 3D modelling and animation using Blender 3D

I've been told that Blender's OpenCL setting (the setting for using AMD graphics cards) is unreliable and I should always use the CUDA setting (the setting for Nvidia cards) if possible 

 

Btw, the 560 Ti is fine for rendering, giving me a frame in about 0.7 seconds

I believe you can leave both in there and have your monitors be powered by the 390. I am pretty sure you can just use the 560ti as a CUDA accelerator with it just connected there. 

However, I would guess that the 390 with the OpenCL settings would beat the crap out of the 560ti and CUDA. 

 

Edit: And AMD cards are getting some sort of support for CUDA soon aren't they?

Edited February 16, 2016 by Claryn

[Godlygamer23]

You might be able to assign the 560 Ti to Blender if they allow you to choose the rendering device. Switching the cables between the cards just seems unnecessary when I don't think it needs to be done. If it's a setting you enable to use CUDA, it should go right to the 560 Ti.

[Citadelen]

Test out the 390's OpenCL first, if you don't like it the use the 560Ti, you might save yourself a lot of hassle.

[Coopernicus]

On 2/16/2016 at 2:57 AM, Claryn said:

And AMD cards are getting some sort of support for CUDA soon aren't they?

CUDA is a strictly Nvidia technology (the graphic acceleration). CUDA cores and strem processors (Nvidia and AMD respectively) are what process the images and are essentially the same thing. The graphics acceleration technology for AMD cards is OpenCL.

 

That being said, Blender 2.76 has official support for OpenCL rendering on AMD/ ATI cards.

[Claryn]

4 hours ago, Coopernicus said:

CUDA is a strictly Nvidia technology (the graphic acceleration). CUDA cores and strem processors (Nvidia and AMD respectively) are what process the images and are essentially the same thing. The graphics acceleration technology for AMD cards is OpenCL.

 

That being said, Blender 2.76 has official support for OpenCL rendering on AMD/ ATI cards.

Yes I know. I just think I read somewhere that they are working on some sort of emulation to have CUDA sort of work on newer AMD cards.