AMD OpenGL sucks...any way to add in an NVIDIA card?

[Echino]

TL;DR: AMD OpenGL sucks, any way to run an NVIDIA GPU in the same system and have that run my OpenGL games, with or without a second monitor?

 

Hello everyone!

 

I recently purchased an HP AMD OEM RX 480 off of eBay for $112. Sick deal, right? Well, I have a very specific few games that I play -- the list is slowly expanding, but right now my main games are CS:GO, Destiny 2, and...Minecraft. Yes, Minecraft. I play it with my two little siblings, who I hope will turn into true PC Gamers as the years go on.

 

Anywho, I slotted in my RX 480, installed AMD's Radeon Software Version 18.9.2, launched Minecraft, anddddddd...was greeted by eye-grating unstable "75" fps. And by 75, I mean that it's not actually 75. I'm getting huge frametime spikes and framerate dips.

 

Now, after searching around for a while I noticed that this was actually a known problem. AMD's GPUs are notoriously bad at running OpenGL games.

 

So now I turn to you, oh great forum: can I run two GPUs in one system? I have an NVIDIA GT 720 sitting next to me, waiting to be used. Can I slot this into my machine, plug in a second monitor and run the game on that monitor? Or, is there another way to do that without having to buy a second monitor?

 

Thank you all,

 

Echino

 

[PlayStation 2]

Can I ask what CPU you own? That sounds awful for an RX 480.

[Mooshi]

Running Nvidia and AMD drivers at the same time is a great way to have a bad time.

[Streetguru]

32 minutes ago, Echino said:

 

Something probably broken then

 

try one of the performance mods?

[GDRRiley]

is it one of those card with only a 6 pin?

[Echino]

52 minutes ago, Dan Castellaneta said:

Can I ask what CPU you own? That sounds awful for an RX 480.

Ryzen 2200G. When I had my GTX 950 in here it ran silky smooth. But now it sucks. And considering that Minecraft is more CPU-bound than GPU-bound, it should be performing similarly. 

There's also this benchmark of a CPU I personally had that could easily shoot up to the 90s or above with my GTX 950, which the 2200G surpasses by about 15%, and here's what the benchmarker had to say about AMD GPUs and Minecraft:

"I have installed optifine and tried to make a new Minecraft video. But unfortunatly I've come to a conclusion: AMD hardware runs very bad on Java games. Even with optifine, I got the same results."

So what I would appreciate is if y'all could help me figure out whether or not I can run an NVIDIA GPU alongside my RX 480.

[Streetguru]

15 minutes ago, Echino said:

So what I would appreciate is if y'all could help me figure out whether or not I can run an NVIDIA GPU alongside my RX 480.

It shouldn't be necessary and there's probably a fix somewhere.Could be that it's broken on Ryzen for whatever reason.

Does that GPU run everything else just fine?
 

 

[KarathKasun]

Your problem lies elsewhere.

 

Can confirm that reference RX 470 plays Minecraft at stupid high FPS in a properly functioning system.  I was using 8x AA and still getting over 60fps with no dips, even in a world with amplified terrain.

[Echino]

13 hours ago, Streetguru said:

It shouldn't be necessary and there's probably a fix somewhere.Could be that it's broken on Ryzen for whatever reason.

Does that GPU run everything else just fine?

Yes. Overwatch plays at a solid 75fps on 1080p Epic settings. Not Ultra, Epic. CS:GO is...unstable at times, but usually performs beautifully.

 

So, after snooping around some more, taking your suggestion into mind, I found this thread on /r/AMD. Now, this probably should have occurred to me, but my stupid ass didn't think about the difference between Intel and AMD's CPUs -- while AMD crushes in multi-threaded, in single-threaded Intel is superior. Well, turns out, it was probably caused by two issues:

 

A: "Ryzen + Windows power management don't work well together for Java. Make sure you enable "High Performance" mode at all times[.]"

B (this is the main one): "Minecraft unmodded is unoptimized and only runs on one core. Try installing Optifine, it will get you much smoother and better gameplay."

 

Now, on the 12nm Intel chips in the videos above, that isn't necessarily detrimental to performance. But when you're on a Ryzen chip and single-threaded performance is good, but not great, it can cause issues.

 

Thanks, y'all. I'll keep you guys posted if the solution (installing Optifine) works.

[Streetguru]

49 minutes ago, Echino said:

Now, on the 12nm Intel chips in the videos above, that isn't necessarily detrimental to performance. But when you're on a Ryzen chip and single-threaded performance is good, but not great, it can cause issues.

Even so AMD is about equal to a 4th-5th gen Intel CPU, it'll be fine for most things in that regard.