Hi.
I'm new to this, and after spending the last couple months reading up online, then experimenting, try again, buy something new, repeat, I am finally hoping someone smarter than me can just resolve my questions once and for all.
Question
Which GPU(s) to keep, and which to get rid of?
Background
I built my first PC a year ago, and upgraded several components a couple months ago. I use this machine for Solidworks and Agisoft Photoscan. Solidworks likes NVIDIA Quadro GPUs, while Photoscan likes multiple, fast gaming GPUs. This is my own personal machine, so it isn't anything fancy, but all the more reason to get this right.
Goal:
To maximize performance in Solidworks and Photoscan. To do this, I am hoping that I can get the Quadro GPU to handle all Solidwork tasks, but then work together with a more powerful GPU in Photoscan. These cards are not linked in any way, but I've read that Photoscan, like some other programs, can divvy up the work between the two cards. The tests I've seen have been with two matching cards, but I've read that it's OK to mix them if they are both NVIDIA.
GPUs tried:
NVIDIA GTX 750i
NVIDIA GTX 1060 (3gb)
NVIDIA Quadro K2200
NVIDIA Quadro M2000
Tests:
I've used a built-in performance test in Solidworks and tried two GPU-aided jobs in Photoscan as benchmarks for each individual and also combinations of these GPUs.
Results:
Best results in Solidworks - using a Quadro K2200 with nothing, or the M2000 in the second PCI slot. If I have a GTX card in the second slot, then results are much worse in the graphics test (even though I read all over the web that Solidworks only uses the one GPU that it's plugged into).
Best results in Photoscan - in one test (align photos) was with a single K2200, and the other test (build dense point cloud) with the k2200 + GTX1060, which was only marginally better than 2xK2200. Amazingly, all Photoscan tests on my PC took twice the time that they took on my 2012 MacBook Pro! I would just use the laptop for photoscan but for the fact that I have some big datasets that are going to need a day or DAYS to process, AND I don't have the storage space on the laptop for the hi-res photos. This makes no sense, my PC is way faster...
Cinebench results are best when I use the K2200 in the primary card position, but when in the secondary card position (and the monitor plugged into the GTX1060), it still registers the K2200, but then underperforms and HW monitor shows the GTX was hardly utilized.
Thoughts/leads:
1. I found that since using the GTX1060 card, Solidworks says I need to update my GPU driver. I try and it can never complete the install. I tried downloading the driver for the 1060 on my own and updating and I get the same problem. Using Device Manager, I checked and it says both my K2200 and GTX1060 are using the correct drivers.
2. I used NVIDIA utility to try to designate which GPU handles regular tasks, and which is dedicated to graphics, but this functionality went away with the new GTX1060...I don't know why, it just doesn't even show it there to choose from.
3. I considered whether my PSU is just not handling the new GTX1060, but I used a calculator online to figure out how much power I need, and it came out to 450 (and I have a 650W PSU).
So I'm at a loss...
?Do I need to stop messing around with the GTX cards because they just aren't improving my results?
?The GTX1060 is faster and has more CUDA cores, so it SHOULD have a significant positive effect on Photoscan and in Cinebench, Is there something wrong here?
?Why would a second card, of whatever type, affect solidworks when it's only supposed to use the card the monitor is plugged in to?
Sorry for such a long post, I've been saving up my questions so I don't waste anyone's time when the answers are a search away. Thanks for any pointers.
I'm new to this, and after spending the last couple months reading up online, then experimenting, try again, buy something new, repeat, I am finally hoping someone smarter than me can just resolve my questions once and for all.
Question
Which GPU(s) to keep, and which to get rid of?
Background
I built my first PC a year ago, and upgraded several components a couple months ago. I use this machine for Solidworks and Agisoft Photoscan. Solidworks likes NVIDIA Quadro GPUs, while Photoscan likes multiple, fast gaming GPUs. This is my own personal machine, so it isn't anything fancy, but all the more reason to get this right.
Goal:
To maximize performance in Solidworks and Photoscan. To do this, I am hoping that I can get the Quadro GPU to handle all Solidwork tasks, but then work together with a more powerful GPU in Photoscan. These cards are not linked in any way, but I've read that Photoscan, like some other programs, can divvy up the work between the two cards. The tests I've seen have been with two matching cards, but I've read that it's OK to mix them if they are both NVIDIA.
GPUs tried:
NVIDIA GTX 750i
NVIDIA GTX 1060 (3gb)
NVIDIA Quadro K2200
NVIDIA Quadro M2000
Tests:
I've used a built-in performance test in Solidworks and tried two GPU-aided jobs in Photoscan as benchmarks for each individual and also combinations of these GPUs.
Results:
Best results in Solidworks - using a Quadro K2200 with nothing, or the M2000 in the second PCI slot. If I have a GTX card in the second slot, then results are much worse in the graphics test (even though I read all over the web that Solidworks only uses the one GPU that it's plugged into).
Best results in Photoscan - in one test (align photos) was with a single K2200, and the other test (build dense point cloud) with the k2200 + GTX1060, which was only marginally better than 2xK2200. Amazingly, all Photoscan tests on my PC took twice the time that they took on my 2012 MacBook Pro! I would just use the laptop for photoscan but for the fact that I have some big datasets that are going to need a day or DAYS to process, AND I don't have the storage space on the laptop for the hi-res photos. This makes no sense, my PC is way faster...
Cinebench results are best when I use the K2200 in the primary card position, but when in the secondary card position (and the monitor plugged into the GTX1060), it still registers the K2200, but then underperforms and HW monitor shows the GTX was hardly utilized.
Thoughts/leads:
1. I found that since using the GTX1060 card, Solidworks says I need to update my GPU driver. I try and it can never complete the install. I tried downloading the driver for the 1060 on my own and updating and I get the same problem. Using Device Manager, I checked and it says both my K2200 and GTX1060 are using the correct drivers.
2. I used NVIDIA utility to try to designate which GPU handles regular tasks, and which is dedicated to graphics, but this functionality went away with the new GTX1060...I don't know why, it just doesn't even show it there to choose from.
3. I considered whether my PSU is just not handling the new GTX1060, but I used a calculator online to figure out how much power I need, and it came out to 450 (and I have a 650W PSU).
So I'm at a loss...
?Do I need to stop messing around with the GTX cards because they just aren't improving my results?
?The GTX1060 is faster and has more CUDA cores, so it SHOULD have a significant positive effect on Photoscan and in Cinebench, Is there something wrong here?
?Why would a second card, of whatever type, affect solidworks when it's only supposed to use the card the monitor is plugged in to?
Sorry for such a long post, I've been saving up my questions so I don't waste anyone's time when the answers are a search away. Thanks for any pointers.
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