Workstation GPU + Gaming GPU together

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vexa

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Sep 22, 2012
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I know we can have both workstation GPU and gaming GPU in a single machine, and it sounds good for the money because we can have one machine to have two different purposes. All I need to do is having these two connected to two different monitors (or one monitor with two inputs). But AFAIK, only one of them is working at one time, means if I'm using my workstation GPU, my gaming GPU stays in idle. Gaming GPUs today has plenty of power for workstation apps, and I wonder if I can use it together with my quadro to gain better performance.

English isn't my first language, but I'll try to explain it this way:
Let say I have 1083 GFLOPS Quadro K1200, and 8228 GFLOPS GTX 1080. When I'm in workstation mode, only K1200 is working, while the GTX 1080 stays idle.

So, my question is: In my scenario, wouldn't it be great if we can also use 1080's processing power for some extra performance? Is that possible?
 
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bambiboom

vexa,

Yes, the idea is to have one GPU that can do everything- work and play. If you're using Photoshop, it will not recognize two GPU's- or two CPU's- anyway. And 3ds is OpenGL the speciaity of Quadros. The critical factor in 3D modeling is the CPU single-thread performance, while navigation and texture rendering is based on the GPU. If you had a P4000 (average Passmark 3D = 10903) - in the US at least, not costing much more than a K1200 and GTX 1060, you could have Quadro P5000 for work (10783) and a GTX 1070 performance (10905) for gaming.

Since writing, I have received and installed the Quadro P2000 in the HP z420 (E5-1660 v2 /32GB /Samsung...
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bambiboom

bambiboom

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Apr 7, 2012
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Bună dimineaţa vexa,

I have wished for a way to have a single system that could switch between a Quadro and GTX but BIOS sets the GPU in the first x16 PCIe slot as primary and that will be the only point of video output. That is why only one card has output.

When you have a Quadro and GTX in the system, the computational power- and video memory-can be additive in CUDA accelerated applications. We have an HP z620, dual 8-core Xeon system for analysis, simulation, and CPU rendering that has a Quadro K2200 4GB + Tesla M2090 6GB GPU coprocessor and in Cinebench R15, (measuring CPU rendering performance), the two cards are performing near the level of a Quadro M5000. Have a look at CompuBench test results for various Quadro /GTX combinations.

Quadro P4000: My suggestion is that you consider changing both cards for a new Pascal Quadro P4000 8GB or possibly a pair of P2000 5GB. the Quadro P4000 is a remarkable bargain. There are only three results in Passmark Performance Test baseilines for 3D graphic performance, but they are impressive: : 11301 , 10846, and 8644. To put that in perspective, the average Passmark rating for the Quadro K1200 is 3505 Quadro P5000: 10782, and for GTX 1080: 11981. That means that the best Quadro P4000 can perform at average P5000 level and not too far under the average GTX 1080. In the US, the P4000 costs about $850 and it's possible that a good used K1200 + GTX 1080 would be worth most of that amount.

Quadro P2000: As it happens, today we are receiving a new Pascal Quadro P2000 5GB for testing. This has similarly fantastic performance for the price (about US $450): Passmark 9995, 8221, 8195. For comparison, the average GTX 980 scores 9598 and the average Quadro M6000 24GB 10301. Again, the best P2000 is faster than the average GTX 980 and only 3% behind a $5,000 M6000. We are installing the P2000 in an HP z620 (Xeon E5-1680 v2 /64GB /Samsung SM951 M.2 /Intel 730 480GB) system and suspect that it will be sufficient on it's own, but there are reports of users using a pair- which equals 10GB memory and 2,048 CUDA cores and that could run at GTX 1080 rates. The best news is that 2X P2000- about $900 is only $50 more than a single P4000. However, if you're using Adobe applications, those will see only one GPU.

My recommendation: 1: Sell the K1200 and GTX 1080 and buy a Quadro P4000 and work at Quadro P5000 level and game at GTX 980 level. Or, 2: buy a pair of P2000's (and possibly) work at P5000+ and game at GTX 1080. If you are animating / video editing, the 2X P2000 will provide more memory and more CUDA cores.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

CAD / 3D Modeling / Graphic Design:

HP z420 (2015) (Rev 3) > Xeon E5-1660 v2 (6-core @ 3.7 / 4.0GHz) / 32GB DDR3 -1866 ECC RAM / Quadro K4200 (4GB) / Samsung SM951 M.2 256GB AHCI + Intel 730 480GB (9SSDSC2BP480G4R5) + Western Digital Black WD1003FZEX 1TB> M-Audio 192 sound card + Logitech z2300 2.1 speakers > 600W PSU> > Windows 7 Professional 64-bit >> 2X Dell Ultrasharp U2715H (2560 X 1440)
[ Passmark Rating = 5581 > CPU= 14226 / 2D= 838 / 3D= 5077 / Mem= 2777 / Disk= 11559] [6.12.16] Single-Thread Mark = 2098 [3.24.17]
[Cinebench R15 > CPU = 1031cb / Single Core = 142 cb / OpenGL= 127.39 fps / MP Ratio = 7.24x] 3.2.17
[FryBench: 3:24 /Efficiency 2177.13] 3.11.17

Analysis / Simulation / Rendering:

HP z620 (2012) (Rev 3) 2X Xeon E5-2690 (8-core @ 2.9 / 3.8GHz) / 64GB DDR3-1600 ECC reg) / Quadro K2200 (4GB) + Tesla M2090 (6GB) / HP Z Turbo Drive (256GB) + Samsung 850 Evo 250GB + Seagate Constellation ES.3 (1TB) / Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium PCIe sound card + Logitech z313 2.1 speakers / 800W / Windows 7 Professional 64-bit > > HP 2711x (27" 1980 X 1080)
[ Passmark System Rating= 5675 / CPU= 22625 / 2D= 815 / 3D = 3580 / Mem = 2522 / Disk = 12640 ] 9.25.16 Single Thread Mark = 1903
[ Cinebench R15: CPU = 2209 cb / Single core 130 cb / OpenGL= 119.23 fps / MP Ratio 16.84x] 10.31.16
 
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vexa

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Sep 22, 2012
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OMG you really provide numbers and actual data! thanks for that. Actually, sorry but I haven't lay my hands on these cards yet (For now I have 3770k with GTX 970) but I am planning on building something like this probably in the next couple months. The K1200 I mentioned above, is just an example so I can explain my question better. I know it has bad price to performance ratio and I wasn't looking to get that one. I was looking around the web and found that some people do have workstation and gaming GPU in one PC. Most of them have dual OS setup [link], one with quadro driver and GTX GPU disabled from device manager, and the other with GTX driver and quadro GPU disabled. Some of them even figured out how to make it works without dual OS [link]. I don't really know the bios setting for this 2 GPU yet, but I'll figure it out later when I actually have the card.

For my very own question: wouldn't it be great if we can also use 1080's processing power for some extra performance? Is that possible? actually I found the answer in this video and your answer confirms that too. In that video, Linus is building a video editing rig with Quadro 4000 as the main GPU, and GTX 780 for CUDA accelerator. He didn't show the configuration for these 2 card to work together but this configuration is exactly what I have in mind, so maybe I'll go with this route and add one extra OS for the GTX card so I can play games.

Again, thanks for your time, I really appreciate that. Also, seems like you're really good at workstation GPU, so what do you think about the new radeon pro WX series? the specs and pricing looks promising. I'm using 3dsmax, autocad and photoshop most of the time.

Oh, and also
My recommendation: 1: Sell the K1200 and GTX 1080 and buy a Quadro P4000 and work at Quadro P5000 level and game at GTX 980 level. Or, 2: buy a pair of P2000's (and possibly) work at P5000+ and game at GTX 1080. If you are animating / video editing, the 2X P2000 will provide more memory and more CUDA cores.
Click to expand...

Are you saying that I can game with Quadro?
 
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bambiboom

bambiboom

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Apr 7, 2012
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vexa,

Yes, the idea is to have one GPU that can do everything- work and play. If you're using Photoshop, it will not recognize two GPU's- or two CPU's- anyway. And 3ds is OpenGL the speciaity of Quadros. The critical factor in 3D modeling is the CPU single-thread performance, while navigation and texture rendering is based on the GPU. If you had a P4000 (average Passmark 3D = 10903) - in the US at least, not costing much more than a K1200 and GTX 1060, you could have Quadro P5000 for work (10783) and a GTX 1070 performance (10905) for gaming.

Since writing, I have received and installed the Quadro P2000 in the HP z420 (E5-1660 v2 /32GB /Samsung SM951) and the results were very good as I had hoped. The Passmark 2D = 855 and 3D = 8945- about the same as the average GTX 780 Ti (8904).

As the Passmark graphics test is DirectX as are GTX and not OpenGL whcih is the Quadro speciality, that means the P2000 would be about as good as a GTX 780 Ti for gaming, and a couple of years ago, that was the top gaming GPU.

So, if it's in the budget where you are, have a look at the Quadro P4000. If you were running a higher compute application- animation, heavy 4K video editing, I'd suggest a different approach, but a single strong GPU seems the best course to me.

I hope others will comments to give other views.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

The z420 yesterday:

HP z420 (2015) (Rev 3) > Xeon E5-1660 v2 (6-core @ 3.7 / 4.0GHz) / 32GB DDR3 -1866 ECC RAM / Quadro K4200 (4GB) / Samsung SM951 M.2 256GB AHCI + Intel 730 480GB (9SSDSC2BP480G4R5) + Western Digital Black WD1003FZEX 1TB> M-Audio 192 sound card + Logitech z2300 2.1 speakers > 600W PSU> > Windows 7 Professional 64-bit >> 2X Dell Ultrasharp U2715H (2560 X 1440)
[ Passmark Rating = 5581 > CPU= 14226 / 2D= 838 / 3D= 5077 / Mem= 2777 / Disk= 11559] [6.12.16] Single-Thread Mark = 2098 [3.24.17]

The z420 today:

HP z420 (2015) (Rev 5) > Xeon E5-1660 v2 (6-core @ 4.2GHz) / 32GB DDR3 -1866 ECC RAM / Quadro P2000 (4GB) / HP Z Turbo Drive M.2 256GB AHCI + Intel 730 480GB (9SSDSC2BP480G4R5) + Western Digital Black WD1003FZEX 1TB> Creative SB X-Fi Titanium + Logitech z2300 2.1 speakers > 600W PSU> > Windows 7 Professional 64-bit >> 2X Dell Ultrasharp U2715H (2560 X 1440)
[ Passmark Rating = 5920 > CPU= 15129 / 2D= 855 / 3D= 8945 / Mem= 2906 / Disk= 8576] [6.12.16] Single-Thread Mark = 2322 [4.20.17]

(The CPU is now running at 4.2GHz on all cores)



 
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