multiple nVidia cards

[Jaberwocky]

Using mulitple video cards for Octane.
Rules:
1) SLI is not needed.In fact if you have SLI enabled on your machine for games then disable it before running octane.Just use the multiple X4/X8/X16 PCIE slots in your motherboard together with a decent power supply capable of powering all of your cards.
2) octane uses multiple cards in parallel.IE 2 x 1GB cards still use only 1GB of memory as the scene is loaded into both cards simultaniosly and is worked on both of the cards by Octane in their memory spaces.If one card is 2GB and one card is 1GB in size then the lowest memory size is defaulted to as the scene needs to load into both cards at the same time.Best rule of thumb is to get two or more cards that are of identical types EG 2x 460's or 2x 465's or 2x 470's etc with same amount of memory.Be aware that if all cards are assigned to Octane for rendering then you will not be able to do much else on your computer whilst the rendering takes place.If this is the case also see point 3 below.
3) Alternatively use your old Nvidia legacy card as just a display card and purchase 2 or more identical cards to assign to Octane for rendering.The old legacy card would just be to take up the display function of your computer so that you can get on with other work whilst Octane Renders in the background.
4) be aware that the latest Nvidia Cards are Dual slot in height.Ensure that the PCIE slots are spaced far enough apart to enable that you get all the cards in your machine with suitable air gaps in between.The cards run hot enough as they are without the Circuit boards of the next card in line being cooked by the fan off the heatsink from the adjacent card to it.
5) If your machine is fairly old then consider a GPU-X expander and slot your cards into that instead.

Hope these answers help.

[fati_r]

Thanks Jaberwocky, that helped indeed

thanks again
fati

[jmlepretre]

Hi all folks,

i am not very techie and having many crash with only the GTX260 when i try to render a large image in pathTracing,
what is the workflow to re-install back my old VGA card on my motherboard aside with my GTX260 ? (assuming that i effectively have 2 PCI 8X onboard)
I mean , is there an order to do that well, a config to save before to put my hands inside the box ?

Thanks for advice or links, as i have found nothing about this on internet.

Jean-marc

[tbansront]

a question; maybe stupid..

when i export a scene from 3dsmax to octane. octane doesn't want to add my second card gtx 470 (the button is grey and unclickable)
in device manager it tell me to disable sli parameter but i don't have SLI. i 've checked with my resseler who have confirmed me about this...
so how i can use my two card together???

thanks for your answers!!

cheers!

[face]

I don´t know if the option is actual working on the 3dsMax exporter, it should, but there is a checkbox in the gui that tells Octane to use specified gpu´s.
If you enable that option, there is a field, type in the number of gpu´s you want to use, space seperated.
Also for gpu 1+2 type in 0 1, for gpu 1+2+3 type 0 1 2, for gpu 2+3 type 1 2.

Hope that helps.

face

[tbansront]

ok! i'll try!

thanks a lot for the answer!

thierry

[Refracty]

Hi,
I am considering a setup with 3 graphic cards.
2 * GTX 460 (2G) and a cheap 1* G 310 (512 MB) for display but I am not sure if that would work fine because I know that the VRam for the calculation will not add up and stay with 2GB.
But would the 512MG Card used for display limit the Ram Size to 512 MB?
Or would it stay at 2GB because the two 2GB cards are used for calculation only?

And what card would you recommend for display purposes for those who work with 2* GTX 460 additionally?
Thanks
Refracty

[face]

If you are not include the G310 in the Preferences under Cuda Devices or via a export plugin, you have the 2GB from your 2x460.
For the display, your 310 should be enough...

face

[Refracty]

hi face, thanks for the info!