Graphic cards configuration for smooth workflow

[julianb]

Hi all,
I currently have 2 GTX460s and when rendering on both of them my PC gets (naturally) barely usable. I was thinking of buying a separate single slot graphics card (it has to be single due to space constraints) which will be my primary display card (feeding my 2 monitors with data) while the 2 460s will stay plugged into the PC but with no relation to the monitors.
Although I am sure that will solve the "sluggishness" problem I see myself struggling in 3DS Max when working on heavy scenes since the display will be handled by the single slot graphic card which will be less powerful than my 460s.

1. Is there any solution to my dilemma? Or I just have to pick the most powerful single card available out there and deal with it?
2. Could there be a problem if the single card (the one which I will use only for display purposes, not rendering) is not NVidia but ATI?

Thanks a lot.

[roeland]

No, there is no scheduling on GPUs so if you render on the GPU that is driving your display the slowdown is unavoidable.

Octane still works if you use an ATI (or an Intel) GPU for your display.

--
Roeland

[julianb]

Thanks Roeland.