ATI and NVIDIA in one build for two separate tasks?

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nikoli707
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nikoli707

nikoli707

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Jan 4, 2012
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sounds like a pain in the butt. i guess you could run two separate os installs and dual boot. but i would imagine it would be better off just getting the gpu you need for your compute needs and dealing with the gaming performance. green vs red are close to each other in gaming performance anyways, tier wise. do you need opengl compute AND cuda?
 
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caqde

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May 31, 2007
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This should technically work using a modern OS although it depends on the application being used and how it picks the render output device. Some applications default to the 1st render device so that can cause issues with certain applications I'd imagine but again it depends on the software you are using. Although I would guess the biggest issue would come from one GPU being forced to render the output for the other GPU's connected monitor...
 
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k1114

k1114

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You don't need to dual boot to have multiple gpus. You can't render the output and force it to the other gpu's monitor. It won't default to the 1st device, it defaults to the main device. The difference being you can switch which is main in windows with multiple monitors. Or if you only have 1 monitor, the one connected to the monitor. How many monitors do you have? Why can't you just use 1 gpu for both? Specs? Software in question?
 
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MrBeardley

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Sep 19, 2014
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I only have one monitor, but I really have no problem switching which GPU the monitor is plugged into to switch between rendering and gaming. I'm just wondering about any software issues that might arise between having both NVIDIA and AMD drivers installed. The problem I've run into so far is that the R9 270X isn't supported by the program I'm using, Blender, but apparently this program LOVES cuda so it supports almost every single NVIDIA card. That's also kind of why I asked if maybe there was a software that did support this GPU, which, of course, would be a lot easier and probably cheaper than getting a second graphics card.
 
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MrBeardley

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That's the main thing I'm getting at, I guess. If the driver programs will fight and not work on the same PC, that will basically put a halt to everything.
 
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nikoli707

nikoli707

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well... you could likely still get a decent price for your used 270x, lets say $100. with the recent release(today) of the gtx970(and 980), you might look into either getting a 970 for $330 or just watch for the gtx760 to come in at around a $200 price mark or less, ive already seen them at $200 on daily deals in the past month. in gaming the 760 is slightly faster than your 270x, though you would probably never notice. so you keep your gaming performance but gain cuda for $100, if you can indeed sell your 270x.

but i dont know what nvidia card your looking for to use the cuda cores. i do know the old gtx580 is still hugely popular for those in the non gaming apps, and im not sure about cuda performance this vs that, but the 580 is much much faster in compute performance than even a gtx780... though the 580 is roughly equal or slightly slower than your 270x in gaming, but puts out much more heat and consumes much more power. not to mention, the 3gb 580 models are much more desirable over the 1.5gb models, but again all used, and 3gb models are hard to find, so have to factor that in. otherwise there is always the brand new flashy low power ultra high performance 970 if you like your games to be much faster and get a huge boost in your blender render speeds.
 
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MrBeardley

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Honestly, not if there's a program that's compatible with an R9 270X. My problem is that the program I use isn't compatible with OpenCL, I think. There's a wiki about the program that states that they're only experimenting with OpenCL at the moment, so it's disabled. Therefore, the program supports almost every single NVIDIA card, as it's optimized for CUDA. Google search doesn't really get me anywhere with trying to find a program that's good with the Radeons; basically everywhere I look it says just use an NVIDIA. But I JUST built this computer and already have the R9 installed, so I don't really want to get rid of it already just for a program I'm only kind of playing around with.
 
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nikoli707

nikoli707

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well what is your budget? i dont really see you putting a low level nvidia gpu like a gtx750 just for cuda, plus its already $100. besides the 750ti, the gtx760 is really the only other option at $220 currently, though this will definitely come down in the next couple weeks now that the gtx970/980 are out and there is likely a gtx960 and/or 960ti that will replace the gtx760. anything after the gtx760 is going to be much much faster at gaming than your 270x, which would make it basically useless... unless you have some other non gaming app that needs opengl performance.
 
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MrBeardley

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Sep 19, 2014
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Hmm... Fair point. I don't know, I might consider it in the future. I went with the R9 because it got pretty good benchmark scores for a good price, and honestly, it's fine for everything else right now, except, of course, the rendering. But if I do get more serious with the 3D rendering, I'll probably look into it some more. Hopefully by then, the 760 would be more affordable, or the 970 so I can go uber hardcore on both, haha.
 
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