Dual GPU questions non xfire

HardwareWhore

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Feb 8, 2013
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Ok so, This is going to sound really stupid but I kow this was benneficial in th past and I have not tried this in 10 years but here's my question: I have two GPU's a 7970 and a 6970. Is their any bennefit to run both? Will having the 6970 plugged into the board allow the 7970 to use it's resources, or will it just be an unessesary power drain? Can it be used and for what bennefit?
 

maxcellerate

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Mar 17, 2013
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A graphics card can't use the 'resources' of another without crossfire or sli. Some apps, such as renderers, can use more than one card. Photoshop can use only 1 gpu. It will run with a dual gpu card, but will only use one of the gpus. With 2 cards, it can use one of the gpus on 1 card IF both cards are IDENTICAL. Using non identical cards is likely to result in PS's 3D options being greyed out and it's gpu accelerated features, such as filters, falling back on the cpu.
As you have the cards why not download a few demo programs and try them?
Or you can just run zillions of monitors.
 


Graphic cards never use the resources of the other card. And options do not get greyed out with 2 different cards. Only the primary is used. Most video editing gpu renderers and 3d renderers will use all cards. These are final renderers just to be clear, not the viewport or preview windows.
 

maxcellerate

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Mar 17, 2013
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I had a box with an amd and an nvidia (an 8800 gtx, I can't remember the amd) both cards were correctly recognised by the system neither was recognised by photoshop as anything other than a generic video card- until I disabled one or the other, then 3d options were selectable again.
This link might be of use: http://forums.adobe.com/message/4289204#4289204
In in sli or crossfire one card outputs video while receiving alternate frames from the other, so I don't think inaccurate to say that each card uses 'resources' of the other; unless one is feeling particularly pedantic;)
 
This can confuse people thinking it could use each other's vram, and you don't want that. You can say they work together and you can say they share workload but they don't share resources at all. I don't think it's pedantic. When giving help you need to be clear and concise and don't want to say anything that can confuse them.

2 gpus work fine for me and the age of the 8800gtx makes me have to bring up the fact that there were a lot of issues with both gpus together back then.