OTOY Forums

Hi,
I bought a Gigabyte GTX570 OC [with excellent Windforce 3x cooler.. ] - it arrives today, i think - to retire my hd4890 cf and have CUDA to do some renders..

Octane seems the best choice in render quality/speed/price.. But the question is:
Only with one GTX570, for display and CUDA, octane is still fast? Or with one 'weak' gpu for display [maybe.. a 9800GTX+] and the GTX570 for CUDA is much faster?

The ''problem'' is:
- From what i read to have CUDA.. the display gpu must be a Nvidia too, and the only decent gpu i have is the 4890, nvidia i just have a very very weak & old 8500 gt.. I think that even Windows Aero will have slowdowns with a 8500gt..
Is it worth buy a second nvidia gpu?

- I am not a 'hardcore' player but i like to play games sometimes [in 1980x1080 res] and having a GTX570 in idle just for CUDA and playing with a 9800gtx+ [or a gtx260, ...] doesn't make much sense. Just one of my 'old' 4890 [pcs+] is 15%/20% faster then gtx260 in games..


Have someone tested just one [for display and CUDA] gtx460/gtx470/gtx480 or gtx560/gtx570/580 in octane, and then tested the same gpu only for CUDA and a weaker gpu only for display...?
Is the performance have a good improvement?



My hardware:
i7 920 @ 3.80 ghz
P6T Deluxe v2
6gb ddr3 @ 1600/1700mhz [?]



This weren't a problem...if i buy another GTX570.. But more 360€.. is expensive..



edit: sorry for any english mistake.. i can understand everything when reading or listening, but to write and speak is much dificult..

Octane won't be faster if you have a dedicated GPU for display. It's just that you'll be able to use your PC while rendering

Thanks for the reply..


So performance is the same/similar .. but the windows/display and CUDA at same time.. display will 'eat' some ram from GTX570 right?
I think i have to try first only with the GTX570.. and see if the old 8500gt still works to make a test with gtx570 only for CUDA..

Yes, you'll probably be happy with the 570, unless you absolutely need to use your PC for other stuff while rendering. With a second card for display only you'll be frustrated when you want to play games if it is not powerfull enough. And if it is, you'll want to use it for Octane too

Try both your nvidia cards with a kvm or HDMI switch box.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KVM_switch

If you want to play a game with the 570 then switch over to the 570 as your main display card,then back if you are rendering and using your older card for display.

The only problem then would be if you wanted to render and play a game at the same time,which of course the older card would not be able to do.

Using a domestic HDMI switch box however would also need the purchase of a few DVI to HDMI adapters.

Hope that helps