AMD and nVidia Graphics cards

[The Borg]

Hi All,

Looks like my PSU has blown and my motherboard has got stuck (i7 - 1366). It is not a dead BIOS, but more like a stuck BIOS. Freezes when it is 'Initializing._' the INTEL HDD adapter BIOS.

Anyway, was looking at a replacement MB. My current one is rather nice as it has a space between the dual slot PCIe cards. I have 2 x GTX295 cards.

The new boards have places for 3 PCIe slots but not with the extra space. May not be a big problem. I got to thinking about adding an AMD card. It seems like they do quite well on some of the DP projects (DNETC from what I have seen).

Question is, will say a 6000 series card work alongside the 2 GTX cards? I had a 1000W PSU. Any suggestions on a replacement size?

Any comments please before I start replacing the components.

Regards,

The Borg.

 

[petrusbroder]

Well, this is not too easy.
I have tried running NVIDIA (GTX460) and ATI Radeon 5870 in the same computer but that did not work well due to driver problems - conflicts ... I put the ATI into a separate computer. I had no problems running 2 NVIDIA in one and two ATI in an other computer.

About the PSU: The GTX295 really draw a lot of power. The 6000 series does not draw too much juice - but that depends on the model ... the 6990 uses probably approx 100W more than one GTX295 if you compare the system power usage e.g. here.

I hope this helps!

 

[The Borg]

It does. what about putting in another nVidia card? The 2 GTX295's make it Quad SLI, but I don't run it like that - messes around with the 4 monitors I have. And even Crysis 2 does not push one chip very far. Can you go more than Quad? Maybe then I will go for a GTX 590???!!!

 

[petrusbroder]

If you do not run them in SLI, the addition of the 5th GPU should not matter. If I had the resources I would try it.

 

[OVerLoRDI]

If you do not run them in SLI, the addition of the 5th GPU should not matter. If I had the resources I would try it.

I'm not sure if NVidia drivers support more than 4 gpus in one machine in windows. I know AMD's do not.

One concern you also have to consider is that as your add more cards is if you are going to be pulling too much juice from the pci-e slot. Dual GPU cards, especially the 6990 (I don't know about the 590) sucks lots of power from a board, more than 2 of them in one board and you run the risk of pulling too much power through the ATX plug. Which results in the plugs melting and stability issues.

To get around this you can modify pci-e risers and solder a +12v in to the riser so that the card will pull power from the psu and not the motherboard. Like this: http://blog.zorinaq.com/images/flex-pcie-4x-modified.jpg.

To summarize:
>4 GPUs in windows might not be possible
>4 GPUs, you might want to consider risers with power modifications

 

[OVerLoRDI]

Well, this is not too easy.
I have tried running NVIDIA (GTX460) and ATI Radeon 5870 in the same computer but that did not work well due to driver problems - conflicts ... I put the ATI into a separate computer. I had no problems running 2 NVIDIA in one and two ATI in an other computer.

If you are running Windows XP or 7, you should easily be able to run both NVidia and ATi cards in the same machine. With windows Vista it is not possible.

Only conflict I have come across is that you cannot edit the powertune settings of a 6xxx card with a NVidia card present.

 

[The Borg]

Guys,

As usual, great advice and feedback. Thank you very much.