Dedicated Display Video Card?

[RyanTScottLLC]

Hi all. At present I'm using 2 GTX 1080's and am contemplating putting back in my old GTX680 as the dedicated display video card in the hopes that it would increase render performance. Would the setup above create an appreciable increase in render performance?

Win10 64 | 2xGTX1080 | i73930 ! 64GB

[RyanTScottLLC]

So I did some basic math based on the assertion that Octane scales linearly relative to total CUDA cores. The GTX 680 has 1536 CUDA cores which when added to the 5120 CUDA cores of 2xGTX1080's equates to a 30% increase in CUDA cores. Would that equate to a 30% increase in render speed?

[VISUAL360]

Hi Ryan,

I use a dedicated card for monitors and leave my two 780tis (looking to upgrade) for just octane rendering.

If I'm not mistaken, when you mix cards for rendering, octane defaults to the lowest card memory. So you're 8GB cards will only use 2GB (based on the 680).

Someone correct me if I am wrong.

Edit. Sorry, I read you wrong. Not sure the Cuda cores are added if the 680 is solely used for monitors. I don't think so, though.

[RyanTScottLLC]

Hey V' thanks for the reply. You're certainly right about the RAM on the 680 so that would be a consideration when building scenes. Is there an appreciable difference when using a dedicated monitor card in your setup?

[itsallgoode9]

Unless things ahve changed in v3.0, a dedicated display card is pretty much nessesity. I definitely would say use that 680 for your display.

[grimm]

I have two cards, a GTX460 and a GTX980. I use the 460 for my monitors and it works fine. I don't really add the 460 in with the 980 because of memory, like Visual360 mentioned. But also because the 460 just doesn't add much to the mix. You really can't equate the CUDA cores between major versions of Nvidia cards. But if you have an open slot and enough power to run an extra card, put it in and see. I like having a dedicated card so I can do other things with my computer while it's rendering and not get any lag.

[RyanTScottLLC]

Right on Grimm I'll give it a try. Do you notice a difference in Octane performance when you use your 980 for monitors as well as rendering vs the 460 for monitors and the 980 for rendering?

[VISUAL360]

Hey Ryan

Not really sure I've seen or can even tell a difference.

[grimm]

Right on Grimm I'll give it a try. Do you notice a difference in Octane performance when you use your 980 for monitors as well as rendering vs the 460 for monitors and the 980 for rendering?

I don't know. I have never plugged my monitors into the 980, in fact I think I still have those little plastic port protectors on the card. Before my 980 I had two 460s and it made a huge difference. With Octane V3 I think this has improved a lot, so much so that I think the devs were going to remove the priority option from the card preferences. At this time I think the main concern is vram, because every monitor you plug in to your card will take some of the available memory for it's display.

[aggiechase37]

Why not plug the monitors into the motherboard and use the igpu for the monitors. That's what I do and it works great.