Question Can games make use of two GPU?

[undeadlord]

I'm in a big dilemma about upgrading my current pc or building one from the start, the end specs that I want are 24gb vram and 128gb ram, my current pc has already a rx 580 8gb vram and the mobo has one more slot for a second gpu, if I buy a second gpu with 16gb vram will I get a performance of 24gb or it doesn't work that way? can the game make use of both GPU?

 

[rgd1101]

no. and no

 

[Corwin65]

I'm in a big dilemma about upgrading my current pc or building one from the start, the end specs that I want are 24gb vram and 128gb ram, my current pc has already a rx 580 8gb vram and the mobo has one more slot for a second gpu, if I buy a second gpu with 16gb vram will I get a performance of 24gb or it doesn't work that way? can the game make use of both

As above

 

[DSzymborski]

No on a bunch of levels.

First off, RAM from multi-GPU solutions doesn't add up this way. It's simply reflected.

Second, only a handful of games supported the explicit multi-GPU function that allowed you to use very different GPUs together in games.

And lastly, multi-GPU support peaked as "sort of OK" in the 2008-2012 timeframe. Since then, support has disappeared with fewer and fewer games supporting it in a useful way past the mid 2010s and driver support has been completely abandoned for years now.

In other words, this isn't really an option. The best contribution an RX 580 can give in a multi-GPU setup, at this point, is the money from its sale going to the other GPU, not its performance.

 

[USAFRet]

or it doesn't work that way?

No, it does not work that way.
Or at all.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Multi-GPU setups stopped being supported LONG ago. The last two-GPU setup that I ever had that was useful for more than just 3DMark was a setup with twin HD 7970s in Crossfire.

 

[Eximo]

If you need 24GB of VRAM, you buy a card with 24GB of VRAM. That would be 3090/3090Ti/4090 for Nvidia and the 7900XTX. There are also older Quadro and Firepro cards that have double the memory capacity.

For someone willing to buy 128GB of system memory, shouldn't be a problem. Though 32GB is really all you need for gaming unless you leave all your other software running while you game.

 

[undeadlord]

If you need 24GB of VRAM, you buy a card with 24GB of VRAM. That would be 3090/3090Ti/4090 for Nvidia and the 7900XTX. There are also older Quadro and Firepro cards that have double the memory capacity.

For someone willing to buy 128GB of system memory, shouldn't be a problem. Though 32GB is really all you need for gaming unless you leave all your other software running while you game.

I plan to multibox diablo 4 and its very demanding game, wouldn't more vram improve the performance while having more clients of the game open?

 

[Eximo]

Yes, but I didn't know you wanted to run multiple copies of a game. That is a different scenario entirely.

Ideally you would run each copy of the game at minimal settings. But the game engine claims to operate with 8GB of system memory, so two or three copies should be feasible with 32GB. More won't hurt though. 128GB of memory is somewhat difficult to achieve with DDR5 at high speeds, you may want to stick to 5200 or less and aim for loose timings. DDR4 should be relatively easy, but still difficult. You probably want to max out around 3200.

 

[USAFRet]

I plan to multibox diablo 4 and its very demanding game, wouldn't more vram improve the performance while having more clients of the game open?

That comes under the concept of Requirements Gathering.

Multi seat (if that is what you mean) is totally different than trying to merge 2x GPU for a single game instance.

 

[hotaru.hino]

And if you're trying to do the N-gamers 1 PC thing like Linus Tech Tips did, you need separate video cards for each client.

 

[Eximo]

And if you're trying to do the N-gamers 1 PC thing like Linus Tech Tips did, you need separate video cards for each client.

Or virtualization. Which is the preferred route.

 

[hotaru.hino]

Or virtualization. Which is the preferred route.

A lot of those solutions are using fixed passthrough, which requires every client to have a dedicated GPU.

There's sharing, but that's limited to professional cards from what I can tell. So you have to buy either Quadro or FirePro cards.

 

[Eximo]

A lot of those solutions are using fixed passthrough, which requires every client to have a dedicated GPU.

There's sharing, but that's limited to professional cards from what I can tell. So you have to buy either Quadro or FirePro cards.

There are workarounds published to enable the capability on gaming cards.

 

[undeadlord]

A lot of those solutions are using fixed passthrough, which requires every client to have a dedicated GPU.

There's sharing, but that's limited to professional cards from what I can tell. So you have to buy either Quadro or FirePro cards.

If one instance of the game eats 6gb vram, if I have 4 of them open on the same pc using one monitor, will they eat 24gb? does vram work this way? (no system memory) I talk about the gpu memory.

During diablo 4 beta my current pc with a rx 580 series and 32gb ram caused problem with 2 instances of the game open, will a better gpu with more vram help in this case? if not what is that I lack the most and experienced stuttering?

Btw, I don't use multiseat (like aster), I use isboxer to multibox.

 

[hotaru.hino]

If one instance of the game eats 6gb vram, if I have 4 of them open on the same pc using one monitor, will they eat 24gb? does vram work this way? (no system memory) I talk about the gpu memory.

During diablo 4 beta my current pc with a rx 580 series and 32gb ram caused problem with 2 instances of the game open, will a better gpu with more vram help in this case? if not what is that I lack the most and experienced stuttering?

Btw, I don't use multiseat (like aster), I use isboxer to multibox.

It's going to eat up whatever one instance of the application takes up multiplied by however many instances of said application are open. Games aren't designed to know if they have multiple instances of itself running and thus, share resources. Not that sharing would really matter since it's possible each instance isn't even in the same area.