Building a new 3D-workstation

[chrleon]

Hi



I'm bulding a new workstation for 3D and want to get the 2GB version of the GTX 460 and an 'ASUS GeForce 210 512MB Silent' for drivng the GUI when rendering in Octane.
Do I have to have to screens for this config to work, or can he GF210 just sit there waiting?

Instead of a dedicated GFX-card for the GUI, can I use the builtin chipset on the motherboard to drive the GUI?

Thanks!

- christian

[pixelrush]

No you dont need to have monitors plugged in.
I use a Quadro 570 for my usual applications and Octane display.
This is the only card driving a monitor.
The GTS250 I also have is running as well but its just sitting there waiting on Cuda rendering missions to arrive.
Using on board graphics is not possible for Windows but may be possible with Linux.
If you want to run your usual apps on the 460 rather than the 210 you will need to change the monitor cable over as needed and possibly the Nvidia settings as well.

[chrleon]

Hmm. I'm not sure I understand, yet

The card driving the GUI is connected to the monitor right?
That means that the 460 is not used by anything but CUDA / Octane?

Or is the 460 connected to the monitor and can be used for Octane, while the 210 is running GUI?

The card running GUI, I assume, has to be connected to a monitor, right?

thanks, pixelrush

[pixelrush]

The 210 has the monitor connected to it. This displays the usual Windows GUI and is where you will interact with Octane and see the render in progress just like any other program.
The 460 doesnt have monitor connected to it. It is dedicated to Cuda processing = only runs Octane gpu render code in the vram.
When you install a Nvidia video driver it also comes with Cuda for gpu computing use.
In the above scenario the display performance of your pc will be that of the 210.
The Octane render performance is of the 460. Rendering progress and display is smooth because the two are mostly independant. With one card doing both tasks there are interruptions and navigation and screen refreshes bog down.
If you leave this arrangement Blender, Office or whatever else you use at other times will only be running on the 210 while the 460 will be running but not doing anything.
This may be fine but if you wish you could make use of the better performance of the 460 for other programs when you arent rendering by swapping the monitor from the 210 to it. The 210 would then be 'unused'.
Both the 210 and the 460 will use the same installed video driver.
Another option would be to plug in another monitor to the 460 when you arent rendering and extend the desktop window across both screens - ie both cards are running video and each has a monitor.
I am not sure about Vista or Win7 but I think for Windows XP the display card has to be in the first pci-e slot which might limit your choices.
In some cases you can nominate in the mobo bios which pci-e slot is the primary one.
Really though you should be going with Win7-64 for Octane - in which case it may not be a problem where you place things. Some one else here might be able to confirm that more flexibility exists for Win7.
HTH

[chrleon]

Thanks. Now I get it.

I'll be running win7-x64 on it, and my mobo has room for two PCI Express 16x.

I don't have 2 monitors though, so I just might stick with a GTX 460 2GB for now.
Might want to play some games too, you know

- christian