Message boards : Graphics cards (GPUs) : Using two different GPUs.
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Hello. Currently I use a GTX 670, but I was wondering if it was possible to add another card other than the 670 for the sole purpose of crunching. | |
ID: 26613 | Rating: 0 | rate: / Reply Quote | |
I have a 680 and 570 running in mine with no problems. Probably as long as the driver you use lists both cards as supported, I would think it would work. | |
ID: 26614 | Rating: 0 | rate: / Reply Quote | |
I would suggest avoiding the GTX 295. These can be troublesome on their own, and are several generations behind a GTX 670 (170W TDP). A bit of a challenge to Boinc, the drivers, the project, the system and the user. I would suggest a GTX470 or something more recent. As more GeForce 600 cards are due to be released in a week, wait for the release. At the very least GeForce 500 prices will fall. | |
ID: 26620 | Rating: 0 | rate: / Reply Quote | |
I agree with everything above but can say that it does definately work as I just took my GTX295 off a rig where I was running it alongside a GTX480 with the with the 301.42 driver. I did not have any problems getting work or completing work (was overclocking and could return long WUs in less than 24 hours). If you still have interest in a GTX295 drop me a PM and we'll see how cheap you can get it from me :-) | |
ID: 26627 | Rating: 0 | rate: / Reply Quote | |
Currently the GTX660Ti looks like a sweet deal for GPU-Grid: should be about as fast as GTX670, but is significantly cheaper. | |
ID: 26692 | Rating: 0 | rate: / Reply Quote | |
If youre going to buy an older card, why not go with a 460. Its a fermi card, and they have been showing up on ebay for $75-85. The 460 is a better choice than the 470 as it is more efficient on a power to performance scale. A 560 would also be a good choice since they are going for about $100-$130 on ebay now. | |
ID: 26848 | Rating: 0 | rate: / Reply Quote | |
If youre going to buy an older card, why not go with a 460. The GPUGrid client can use only the 2/3rd of the shaders of any CC2.1 card. The 460 is a better choice than the 470 as it is more efficient on a power to performance scale. While it's true for gaming, it's false for GPUGrid. A 560 would also be a good choice since they are going for about $100-$130 on ebay now. A GTX 570 or 580 would be even better. But it's highly not recommended to buy older GPUs for crunching. At the moment the best choice considering the price/performance and running cost/performance ratio is the GTX660Ti. | |
ID: 26851 | Rating: 0 | rate: / Reply Quote | |
The 'GeForce GTX 660' is supposedly due out soon. Expected specs are GK106, 960Cuda Cores, 980MHz, 1033MHz, 192-bit, GDDR5, 3000 MHz, 140 watts (specs to be taken in mildly saline solution). | |
ID: 26855 | Rating: 0 | rate: / Reply Quote | |
The rumored GTX660 (non-OEM) has to be significantly cheaper than GTX660Ti, though, as the performance difference is rather large. | |
ID: 26858 | Rating: 0 | rate: / Reply Quote | |
I am running a GTX580 with a GTX660Ti on the same PC without issue. Both use Driver 306.02. | |
ID: 26860 | Rating: 0 | rate: / Reply Quote | |
Rumor has the GTX 660 from around $229/£145/185 Euros; 75% of a GTX660Ti. So it's fairly sweet, and these will be the only mid range GeForce 600 cards to date (one 6-pin power connector). | |
ID: 26864 | Rating: 0 | rate: / Reply Quote | |
Now I have a Zotac Geforce GTX 680 2Gb. I am tempted to buy another one, exactly the same and connect them with a SLI bridge. I am just thinking how much more productive the rig will become? Will it crunch 2 WU at the same time or 1 but twice as fast? | |
ID: 26984 | Rating: 0 | rate: / Reply Quote | |
Now I have a Zotac Geforce GTX 680 2Gb. I am tempted to buy another one, exactly the same and connect them with a SLI bridge. I am just thinking how much more productive the rig will become? Will it crunch 2 WU at the same time or 1 but twice as fast? Hello: Hello: First do not connect the SLI bridge. Install the second card and nothing else, otherwise the two cards will not work. Perform two tasks simultaneously. According to the Windows driver that uses BOINC may not recognize the second card, you must modify the configuration file of Boinc, cc_config.xml, adding "<use_all_gpus> 1 </ use_all_gpus>". In Linux (Ubuntu) no problem and recognizes the two cards directly. Greetings. | |
ID: 26985 | Rating: 0 | rate: / Reply Quote | |
I have Windows7-64. | |
ID: 26986 | Rating: 0 | rate: / Reply Quote | |
Hello: That is correct can not increase the performance of a task with SLI, is that BOINC does not recognize external SLI, only internal card GTX590 or GTX690 type double. | |
ID: 26988 | Rating: 0 | rate: / Reply Quote | |
From my experience with the recent drivers you can have the bridge installed and SLI enabled and still crunch on GPUGrid just fine. | |
ID: 26992 | Rating: 0 | rate: / Reply Quote | |
Ok after a while Chrome and also Internet Explorer were VERY laggy when running 2 tasks while SLI is enabled. So you can definitely have the bridge installed but I would not recommend having SLI enabled while you are crunching. You can snooze BOINC and exit, enable SLI and play your game, and the disable SLI and then reopen BOINC if you want. | |
ID: 26993 | Rating: 0 | rate: / Reply Quote | |
Hmm, good point, I think it will be possible to disable SLI in NVidia control panel. Also, if I decide to really load the GPUs with crunching only, I can switch the video output to the CPU built-in graphics, which is quite powerful they say. Thank everyone for the advice. | |
ID: 26995 | Rating: 0 | rate: / Reply Quote | |
I could not find cc_config.xml, I'll have to create it in Notepad? Is there an example of how it should look like? Here is a little guide on how to check and create the cc_config.xml on Win7, if you've installed the BOINC manager into the default location. | |
ID: 26996 | Rating: 0 | rate: / Reply Quote | |
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ID: 27006 | Rating: 0 | rate: / Reply Quote | |
Here is the log: | |
ID: 27007 | Rating: 0 | rate: / Reply Quote | |
:-) Solved. | |
ID: 27008 | Rating: 0 | rate: / Reply Quote | |
I'm using my i7 IGP to drive desktop and light gaming (actually, all my gaming since some time) since some time. Keeps my GPU happily crunching undisturbed :D | |
ID: 27018 | Rating: 0 | rate: / Reply Quote | |
I can only imagine that when more powerful integrated graphics come out, one may be able to use that for some decently intensive gaming while their dedicated cards can crunch, as you said, undisturbed. In addition, one might be able to use integrated graphics itself for crunching, but then you wouldn't be able to play games that well. | |
ID: 28722 | Rating: 0 | rate: / Reply Quote | |
On APU's such as AMD's A10-5800K you can already game and crunch. You can't do this at GPUGrid of course as their GPU isn't an NVidia and NVidia don't make traditional desktop CPU's or APU's. The do of course have a Tegra lineup which is used in mobile devices, but they are not powerful enough for here. | |
ID: 28741 | Rating: 0 | rate: / Reply Quote | |
Message boards : Graphics cards (GPUs) : Using two different GPUs.