1x to 16x PCIe For Rendering

[VortXChannel]

Is it ok to use 1x to 16x pcie risers to improve render performance? I have 3 extra 1x PCIe slots available and I'm wondering if it would work if I used a 1x to 16x pcie riser and connected a GPU that way. I'm looking at 2 products, the best configuration would be if I could get a 1x to triple 1x extension then add a 1x to 16x riser to each of those slots. If not, i just want to know if 1x to 16x risers would affect render performance and by how much. I use Blender, After Effects, Premiere Pro, Davinci Resolve, and Lightroom. Thank you.

 

[drtweak]

what kind of video cards are you using? If they are high end and you are really pushing them this will only slow them down as you are making a 16x card run at 1x and then have 3 of these 16x cards that have been converted to 1x all run over a single 1x off the board. Looks like a total bottleneck to me.

 

[photonboy]

In general, you should just put one single good card such as GTX1060 6GB (depending on needs) into the x16 slot and that's it.

Most software isn't great with multiple GPU's, and as said above you're bottlenecking everything severely anyway.

Even if you COULD benefit with a second card in a x1 slot it's doubtful it would be by very much (unless the x16 card is really crappy but then why not upgrade IT?).

 

[photonboy]

These types of devices appear to be for connecting low-bandwidth items, though I'm struggling to understand a use case that couldn't be done better with some other device.

 

[k1114]

Different software have different needs. Video frames are rendered faster than a 3d scene. For video, there is a lot more info being swapped off the gpu and you will see a drop in performance. How much I couldn't say. You rarely see multi gpu rendering because it typically scales horribly and other components will be limiting render times. Before you add more gpus, you should check usage of everything when rendering. Adding more cards maybe pointless in the first place.

3D render times won't be affected by the lower bandwidth and you'll see others that have done x1 riser setups. All load is on the gpus so it's more common.

 

[VortXChannel]

what kind of video cards are you using? If they are high end and you are really pushing them this will only slow them down as you are making a 16x card run at 1x and then have 3 of these 16x cards that have been converted to 1x all run over a single 1x off the board. Looks like a total bottleneck to me.

Do you have any personal experience? I'm going to be using 1060s because I don't have the power capibilities of higher end cards. I also use them to mine but all I care about right now is the rendering aspect

 

[VortXChannel]

Different software have different needs. Video frames are rendered faster than a 3d scene. For video, there is a lot more info being swapped off the gpu and you will see a drop in performance. How much I couldn't say. You rarely see multi gpu rendering because it typically scales horribly and other components will be limiting render times. Before you add more gpus, you should check usage of everything when rendering. Adding more cards maybe pointless in the first place.

3D render times won't be affected by the lower bandwidth and you'll see others that have done x1 riser setups. All load is on the gpus so it's more common.

So this is a viable solution in terms of Blender? Blender matters the most to me as my CPU can handle the others pretty well but Blender render time is horrendous.

 

[k1114]

It could be an issue with cycles. It shouldn't be too bad if your specs are right and you are running a 1080ti + 1060 3gb. Check usages?

 

[VortXChannel]

It could be an issue with cycles. It shouldn't be too bad if your specs are right and you are running a 1080ti + 1060 3gb. Check usages?

Usage is all maxed, that's why I was asking if I should expand. I have alot of simulations in my blender scenes so I expect my GPUs to be hit really hard.

 

[k1114]

Then go for it.