different AMD drivers for multiple GPU's

[Wyzzy Moon]

I run 5 monitors, 3 wide screens on the botom and 2 3x4 on top.
I used to have 2 gpu's in my system, 1 R9 290x for my 3 main displays, and a separate nvidia GT210 for my 2 screens on top.
This worked fine but linux doesnt really like mixed GPU's so I switched my GT210 out for a HD6670.
Amd + Amd seems like it should be easier, and under linux it is, but my windows doesn't like it.

Because the most recent AMD driver for my 290x doesn't support the HD6670.
So I can run everything on an old catalyst driver from 2015, but I'd rather not.
But I cant get the 2015 driver to work for my HD6670 without it also changing it for my 290x.
Does any of you have experience with running multiple AMD drivers for different cards?

[Levent]

cant you just download and install the amd basic driver for HD6670 while having the latest 290X driver installed ?

[NelizMastr]

Try installing the driver without catalyst. Just point Windows device manager to the folder where the driver file is.

[Wyzzy Moon]

Just now, NelizMastr said:

Try installing the driver without catalyst. Just point Windows device manager to the folder where the driver file is.

I did that, but as soon as I change the diver for my HD6670 to the 2015 version, it also switches my 290x to used that driver.
And than If I change my 290x back to the 2018 version it disables my HD6670

[NelizMastr]

Well, then I'm afraid Windows won't let you run two AMD drivers then. Time to hunt for an R5 240.

[Stefan Payne]

10 minutes ago, Wyzzy Moon said:

Does any of you have experience with running multiple AMD drivers for different cards?

Yes, but only under Windows.

 

In short:
You need one that's supported by the driver you use for the main GPU.

Wich means that you need some GCN based card like HD7770...

[mariushm]

I'd suggest upgrading to a RX 550 card ..ex https://www.amazon.co.uk/MSI-Radeon-GDDR5-DVI-D-Graphics/dp/B071YF8QZN/

 

You get 2 or 3 displays (only digital outputs, no vga) and you also get hardware h264 and hevc decoders and encoders up to 4K 60fps based on newer engine and you could also use this secondary card to mine monero or some other coin (no ethereum as that requries 3 gb of memory, and maybe a few dollars/euro a month after substracting a few euro in extra electricity costs, not much but it's basically free money)

[NelizMastr]

14 minutes ago, Stefan Payne said:

Yes, but only under Windows.

 

In short:
You need one that's supported by the driver you use for the main GPU.

Wich means that you need some GCN based card like HD7770...

The cheapest most low end card that'll run on the same driver would be the R5 240 which is equivalent to a 7750 iirc.

 

3 minutes ago, mariushm said:

I'd suggest upgrading to a RX 550 card ..ex https://www.amazon.co.uk/MSI-Radeon-GDDR5-DVI-D-Graphics/dp/B071YF8QZN/

 

You get 2 or 3 displays (only digital outputs, no vga) and you also get hardware h264 and hevc decoders and encoders up to 4K 60fps based on newer engine and you could also use this secondary card to mine monero or some other coin (no ethereum as that requries 3 gb of memory, and maybe a few dollars/euro a month after substracting a few euro in extra electricity costs, not much but it's basically free money)

Yeah, because mining is really his goal, and so is spending $100+  

[Wyzzy Moon]

34 minutes ago, NelizMastr said:

Time to hunt for an R5 240.

 

30 minutes ago, Stefan Payne said:

means that you need some GCN based card like HD7770...

 

19 minutes ago, mariushm said:

I'd suggest upgrading to a RX 550 card ..ex https://www.amazon.co.uk/MSI-Radeon-GDDR5-DVI-D-Graphics/dp/B071YF8QZN/

Well it does work, but only on an 2015 driver that supports both the 290x and the HD6670.
I won't buy a card for this, I can just switch back to some Nvidia card I've got laying around.
I just would have been nice if this worked because I had this one left over.
But I wouldn't sacrifice (by which I mean run a 3 year old driver) my 290x for that card.
Thanks anyways

[Stefan Payne]

2 minutes ago, Wyzzy Moon said:

Well it does work, but only on an 2015 driver that supports both the 290x and the HD6670.
I won't buy a card for this, I can just switch back to some Nvidia card I've got laying around.
I just would have been nice if this worked because I had this one left over.
But I wouldn't sacrifice (by which I mean run a 3 year old driver) my 290x for that card.
Thanks anyways

yes, in short you can only have one driver per manufacturer.

Some Intel or nVidia  Card + AMD Card works and vice versa.

 

But two different generation AMD Cards that need different drivers do not, for whatever reason.

 

And be wary of the long off mode that can mess with everything. I had that Problem on my Kaveri where I had to reboot the system because the Radeon HD 7970 I had in there switched itself off and thus making the Kaveri IGP the primary display thingy.

 

 

And remember:

EVERYTHING is rendered by the Primary graphics card!

So the second one is just a Display Output device. All the 3D Stuff and such is not used.

 

So in theory you could use an FX5200 or other stuff and it wouldn't make much difference...

Though you need a driver for 64bit Windows though....

[Wyzzy Moon]

On 3/29/2018 at 4:29 PM, Stefan Payne said:

EVERYTHING is rendered by the Primary graphics card!

wouw, really? I actually didn't know that. I thought that without any link (like crossfire or SLI) they would operate independently for the displays they're connected to. 
But that's interesting.

[Stefan Payne]

44 minutes ago, Wyzzy Moon said:

wouw, really? I actually didn't know that. I thought that without any link (like crossfire or SLI) they would operate independently for the displays they're connected to. 
But that's interesting.

You don't want to know how long it took me to notice that...

 

But yeah, check it out with GPU-Z or stuff like that. Put something on the screens of the secondary graphics card and look at how much the GPU is utilized. And see that the second one mostly is at 0%...

 

 

But in the end, its a good thing because you can use the lowest power graphics card you can find for your system and don't need to care about its performance, because its only a Display Output Card like in the olden days the Cirrus Logic chips were...

[mariushm]

a small note ... some video players (renderers) or software tools will allow you to select the video card to use to play videos , render, use opencl with it etc etc 

For example with MPC-HC if you use DXVA2 copy-back mode, you can select the video card you want (there needs to be at least one monitor connected to video card to decode videos, without monitors connected to card you can still use card for OpenCL stuff like mining or compressing audio tracks to FLAC using OpenCL or rendering videos etc)

Probably possible to also select the video card for hardware encoding in tools like OBS so you can play games with a primary video card, and use the second video card for hardware encoding of the captured data to minimize slowdowns.