multiple nVidia cards

[samschad]

Afternoon-
I am thinking about getting the new GTX 470, and adding it to my existing GTX 280 from a year or so ago.

It got me thinking: how in the hell does that work? Sitting side by side, will this cause any problems with my existing display drivers? What experiences/problems have other folks had?

I don't intend on putting them in SLI....

[timbarnes]

You have two choices: run Octane on the 470 and your display on the 280, or try to run Octane on both. The first choice ensures you will get good interactivity from your system (and you'll be able to run other interactive apps while rendering; the second may give you better performance.

In my case, with a Quadro FX 580 and GTX 470, Octane is slower with both cards, because the 580 is so much slower than the 470. Your mileage, as they say, may vary. Also remember that as the entire model has to be loaded into each card being used for rendering, the total memory available will be that of the smaller card. This is because performance requirements make it impossible for one card to access the memory of the other card.

But if you have enough power and space, it's an excellent idea to have multiple cards, with one dedicated to the display.

tim

[samschad]

Thanks Tim. So the answer really is: two nVidia cards work just fine. I could have searched around for the answer all day, and still not have found a suitable response.

[iknowmedia]

So multiple video cards don't gives you extra render memory? like 2x gtx480 1.5 = 3 gb for rendering.

[matej]

Nope!

[ROUBAL]

@Iknowmedia: I have a 8800 GTS 512 for my two screens, and two GTX 480 mounted externally in a Cubix box. I get the computing power of 480x2=960 cores, but the usable memory is 1.5GB, like if I had only one GTX 480.

If you need more memory for bigger scenes, you can find some Geforce cards with 2GB with less cores, or much more expensives professionnal cards with more VRAM, and also less cores (Tesla C1060 (non Fermi) with 240 cores and 4GB of VRAM around 1200 Euros each) Or Tesla C2050(Fermi) with 448 cores and 3GB of VRAM around 2500 Euros each ! C2070 should come soon also with 6GB of VRAM, around 5000 Euros !

So, the current most affordable solution allowing speed and reasonable memory amount seems to be two GTX 480, or some slower cards of limited series with 2GB. If speed is not important for you (if you render still pictures only and don't plan to do animations in larges resolutions), one old Tesla C1060 could also be a reasonable choice.

[katerlake]

I have in my system an GTS250, but i will by me an gtx 460.
Will work both cards together? Rendering with the GTX, desktop with the GTS?
My motherboard is an Asus P5Q with SLI.

Thanks for answering.

[radiant]

hmmm i have a GTX 285 and got gifted a GTX 480.

~I run both my tow monitors on my 480 [No problem]
~I usually render my projects with my 480 and leave my 285 for my desktop [No problem]
~But i use both of my cards for overnight rendering.[No problem]
~And when i play my games it chooses the 480 as default [No problem]

[foxid]

Guys, can I use 2x460 2gb for render and gtx 275 for UI in Octane?

thx

[fati_r]

Hi there,
got a question here, I'm about to buy a new pc, so I got a big Issue here on choosing the motherboard! now some motherboards (on wicht I will instal a xeon processor and later on buy another one, wich means dual xeon - for other reasons then octane) allow SLI and some of them do not even if you can install 2 graphic cards on them!
So is SLI important for rendering on both cards!? cause there are differences on the price! (I'm low at the budget at the moment!)
how does it actually works the rendering on more then only one card!? (other then only plug'n'render) and how/what to decide?

hlep!

thank you
fati.