Multiple GPU's Not in SLI/Crossfire

[DioOmicida]

Would a machine be able to run multiple GPUs but not be in SLI or Crossfire?

The idea would be to have two GPU's powering separate monitors.
This set up theoretically being able to run two games at once.
A more probable use case would be to play a game on one monitor while the second is dedicated to everything else.
[Update]
The main goal would have a single card dedicated to games so it's resources are not allocated anywhere but on one screen and one game 

A second, ideally cheaper gpu, would be used to handle everything else.

[Oshino Shinobu]

Yes, it is definitely possible.(running SLI/Crossfire is actually less common in the grand scheme of things) Running a game from each would be difficult to configure, though. 

 

If you're thinking that having other monitors running from the same card playing the game would decrease performance, then you'd be wrong (to an extent). The performance impact from running multiple monitors is negligible and is more reliant on what programs are running. 

[Nexxus]

4 minutes ago, DioOmicida said:

Would a machine be able to run multiple GPUs but not be in SLI or Crossfire?

The idea would be to have two GPU's powering separate monitors.
This set up theoretically being able to run two games at once.
A more probable use case would be to play a game on one monitor while the second is dedicated to everything else.

you can already do this while in SLI...so why would you not just do it?

[Oshino Shinobu]

4 minutes ago, Nexxus said:

you can already do this while in SLI...so why would you not just do it?

Well, in SLI both/all cards work together, rather than being able to assign monitors (all monitors have to be plugged into the same card, anyway) and loads (excluding PhsyX dedication), so what he is asking here isn't technically possible in SLI (might be in Crossfire, but I don't have any experience with it)

 

 Having different cards is also a possible situation. 

[C1intFunWood]

3 minutes ago, Nexxus said:

you can already do this while in SLI...so why would you not just do it?

He's talking about setting up two virtual machines, to run two separate instances of a game.

[Oshino Shinobu]

2 minutes ago, C1intFunWood said:

He's talking about setting up two virtual machines, to run two separate instances of a game.

He's not. He just said it was theoretically possible to run two instances of a game(s). He's simply asking if you can have two cards outside of SLI/Crossfire and have each one running its own monitor, nothing about VMs. 

[C1intFunWood]

1 minute ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

He's not. He just said it was theoretically possible. He's simply asking if you can have two cards outside of SLI/Crossfire and have each one running its own monitor, nothing about VMs. 

 

He didn't say anything about VMs but that's how you would do it, he wants to run two instances of a game with two GPUs with one GPU assigned to each game.

[Oshino Shinobu]

1 minute ago, C1intFunWood said:

He didn't say anything about VMs but that's how you would do it, he wants to run two instances of a game with two GPUs with one GPU assigned to each game.

"A more probable use case would be to play a game on one monitor while the second is dedicated to everything else."

 

He mentioned running multiple games, but that's not what his question is about. He is talking about monitors assigned to GPUs, not just games. If he is talking just about running multiple games, then the wording and title is terrible and pretty much unrelated. 

[DioOmicida]

13 minutes ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

Yes, it is definitely possible.(running SLI/Crossfire is actually less common in the grand scheme of things) Running a game from each would be difficult to configure, though. 

 

If you're thinking that having other monitors running from the same card playing the game would decrease performance, then you'd be wrong (to an extent). The performance impact from running multiple monitors is negligible and is more reliant on what programs are running. 

So example: You'd see almost negligible performance loss using a single card on two monitors, one running [generic AAA title] with a second monitor having a few browser tabs open, a skype call, [extended list]?

13 minutes ago, Nexxus said:

you can already do this while in SLI...so why would you not just do it?

An example I know a lot of my friends do is to play League of Legends and between matchs run a game of rocket league. I know those aren't taxing games but that's where the original concept is coming from.

 

9 minutes ago, C1intFunWood said:

He's talking about setting up two virtual machines, to run two separate instances of a game.

I'm not talking about virtual machines. I didn't mean to confuse the concept that I'm trying to express above ^.

[DioOmicida]

4 minutes ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

"A more probable use case would be to play a game on one monitor while the second is dedicated to everything else."

He mentioned running multiple games, but that's not what his question is about. He is talking about monitors assigned to GPUs, not just games.

Mostly what I am trying to get at. Gaming is just the easiest use case I could think of to try to express the idea.

The main goal would have a single card dedicated to games so it's resources are not allocated anywhere but on one screen and one game while a second, ideally cheaper gpu, would be used to handle everything else.

[Oshino Shinobu]

1 minute ago, DioOmicida said:

So example: You'd see almost negligible performance loss using a single card on two monitors, one running [generic AAA title] with a second monitor having a few browser tabs open, a skype call, [extended list]?

 

Not almost negligible, it is negligible. I spent a few hours testing the performance impacts of running various monitor setups and found no performance loss when running desktop, browser or other light applications, even when running an additional 4K and two more 1080p monitors. Running 1080p video has a small impact and 1080p Youtube takes up a bit more, however, that's likely to be down to CPU as well. 
 

 

3 minutes ago, DioOmicida said:

An example I know a lot of my friends do is to play League of Legends and between matchs run a game of rocket league.
I know those aren't taxing games but that's where the concept is coming from.

If it's different games, you can run multiple games at once anyway. If you wanted to dedicate it to one card, you can go into application settings in the Nvidia control panel and set a game to use one GPU or another (may be able to do it through the game). If you had each monitor on different cards, having the game in Windowed mode so it can be moved to the next monitor should switch which GPU is being used. I've not tried that myself, so I can't be sure on it. 

[BigBig5]

Well it can work if you have a lot of cores and have one game in a virtual machine that's using one of the gpus.

[DioOmicida]

3 minutes ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

Not almost negligible, it is negligible. I spent a few hours testing the performance impacts of running various monitor setups and found no performance loss when running desktop, browser or other light applications, even when running an additional 4K and two more 1080p monitors.  ...likely to be down to CPU as well. 
 

If it's different games, you can run multiple games at once anyway. If you wanted to dedicate it to one card, you can go into application settings in the Nvidia control panel and set a game to use one GPU or another (may be able to do it through the game). If you had each monitor on different cards, having the game in Windowed mode so it can be moved to the next monitor should switch which GPU is being used. I've not tried that myself, so I can't be sure on it. 

I don't think you could have given me a more clear cut answer.
This is exactly what I wanted to know. Thank you.