Is it now possible to put an AMD APU's GPU and a Nvidia GPU together?

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Boots27

Boots27

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Dec 31, 2014
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So I've seen recently that is now possible with DirectX 12 to put AMD and Nvidia GPU'S together in SLI/Crossfire which is terrific. I've also seen that you can Crossfire an APU's GPU with older AMD GPU's like the HD 7850. So this got me thinking, is it now possible to get the GPU form the APU and pair it with a newer AMD card or with a Nvidia card? If so what problems would this cause if any and would you see any performance improvements?
 
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13thmonkey
tiny performance improvement if any, and ONLY if the game supports it probably. The APU GPU is so weak in comparison to most cards, it's not worth it.
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caqde

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May 31, 2007
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Performance will still be limited by the slowest GPU in the computer and be limited to a theoretical 2x the speed slowest GPU given using a GPU from an APU that won't be much. Besides that only a few select DX12 game (not all DX12 games) will support this setup so at this point in time there is no real benefit but in the future maybe when using a faster APU.
 
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bigpinkdragon286

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Oct 3, 2012
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Because the GPU portion of an APU is permanently linked to the CPU portion of the APU, the performance of any combination will always be middle of the road at best. While a game can be specifically coded to take advantage of two disparate GPUs, and yes, the game has to specifically be made to do so, you will not see an advantage. So far, such mixed graphics pairings have worked fine, but resulted in less performance than a good matched pair.

A good discrete CPU and GPU will easily perform better and be less prone to issues.
 
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Hlsgsz

Hlsgsz

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Feb 29, 2016
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Time will tell. In theory, if DX12 truely delivers on this front, yes, we'll be able to do such asynchronous configs and benefit from them. Furthermore, this may prove as a great way to reduce energy consumption. Case in point, one migh fully shut down a discrete GPU and only use the APU in windows, whiile waking the "monster" up when needed. Even if there were no performance improvements whatsoever, i would still go for such a config. Even intel iGPU+discrete AMD/NVIDIA.(this has been unsuccesfully attempted by Virtu in the past)
 
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13thmonkey

13thmonkey

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Jan 10, 2006
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my 'monster' uses very little at idle speeds, used to be a problem 3-4 years ago, less so now.
 
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dudeman509

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Jan 23, 2015
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Could be done without DX12 at all - in fact, already is in most laptops with switchable graphics with drivers. They kick in the dedicated GPU for certain programs or when increased graphics performance is demanded. It's gotten much more seamless over the years.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/8568/the-geforce-gtx-970-review-feat-evga/15

Desktops are a different story though, where you've got different display ports. With a clever bit of re-architecturing between card vendors and motherboard vendors, it could be done though - passing data through from video card or motherboard to a single display port.
 
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Hlsgsz

Hlsgsz

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MVP Virtu already did that in the sandy-ivy era, but without succes as attaching your monitor to the integrated port on the MB vould result in lag while gaming because of teh additional overhead. Rendering directly on the iGPU/APU in async crossfie/sli may fix that.
 
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