OTOY Forums

Hello everyone
I want to buy Octane, but first I have to upgrade my pc.
I wanted to know if they are better than:

2 x (gtx460 2GB)

or

1 x (480 gtx 1.5 gb) and maybe in the future add another 480.

Sorry for my English

Vittorio

See here:
http://www.refractivesoftware.com/forum ... =25&t=4375

Cheers,
Marcus

Thank you for the reply
I see that post.

I know that memory is not cumulative.
But cudacores of 2 cards add up in the rendering?

In this benchmark the 480 much better than the 460.
http://www.refractivesoftware.com/forum ... &mode=view

And I think that 2 gtx480 is better than 2 gtx460
The only 450MB more of the 460 make a difference?

Help me

It's just a personal decision. Recommended is the 2 x 460 in every thread.
If you wish to upgrade later, do it. Maybe it is worth to use instead the 580 as a single card ( less energie and more efficience ) and
upgrade later with a new - rumor,rumor - 580 3Gb.

It all depends on money and what you're trying to do...and red Porsche or not.

Ok but gtx580 its too expensive!
in multigpu the cudacores ar comulative?

I want say if (2x - gtx460 2gb) its more quickly than (1x - gtx480 1,5gb) or (2x - gtx480) in rendering.
there are benchmark of multi gpu??

And i want say if 470mb of difference its important.
Beacuse i don't know ram necessary for animation or architecture project.

Just for clarity:

2 x 460 2gb would render faster than 1x 480 1.5gb

(2x 907 GFlops (1814Gflops) vs 1344 Gflops) (just over 30% extra)

You'd also get the extra half gb of Vram too!

Though be aware of possible 5xx series cards to be released soon which could be more powerful and cause the 4xx series cards to drop in price.

Ok, i purchase 2 x 460 2 gb!

Last questions :

1 - If i purchase one gtx460 2gb and one 768mb, is the same thing of 2 x 2gb?

2 - If i purchase one gtx460 2gb and one 480 o 580 1,5 gb in multi gpu, can i use the 2 gb of 460 for rendering and complessive cudacores?

Thanks at all

1. No, all data has to fit into vram on every card, so you could use 768 MB only.
2. Yes, but multi gpu work with best results with the same cards, mabe the same chip. 580 and 460 is the same chip IIRC.
But it is not tested yet.

Cheers mib

1 - If i purchase one gtx460 2gb and one 768mb, is the same thing of 2 x 2gb?

• No you would be restricted to the 768mb ram as octane is limited to the card with the lowest ram.

2 - If i purchase one gtx460 2gb and one 480 o 580 1,5 gb in multi gpu, can i use the 2 gb of 460 for rendering and complessive cudacores?

• No - Again you would not get all 2gb as you'd be restricted to the lowest. but in this case it would be 1.5gb not 768mb.

You could use both cards together as long as your scene doesn't go above the ram limit.

If you can hold out a little it might be worth seeing what info comes out on the new 5xx series cards as you may get a bigger bang for your buck, or depending on performance differences get a 580 and purchase another 580 if you need the extra power?

Afaik there are 560, 570 and 580 cards being released.

It makes sense to install 4 x gtx460 2 gb on a asus rampage extreme III?
Have I 336 x 4 cudacores in rendering?

Ask you because i don't know if purchase a motherboard with 4 pci-e 16x for the future or not!