Can I run 2 GPU's with my current setup?

[Dark Soul]

Hey all, so I've been streaming lately and my gtx 970 isn't quite giving me enough juice to do it properly. Before investing in a second gpu, I wanted to make sure I could handle it with my current set up. I'm considering a gtx 1060 as my second gpu and any suggestions on 1060's to get would be appreciated, thanks!
My current set up:
cpu: intel i7 4790k
gpu: msi gtx 970 twin frozr
motherboard: gigabyte ga-z97x-gaming 7
hdd: 1tb western digital caivar blue, 1tb western digital caviar black
sdd: samsung 850 EVO-Series 250gb 2.5”
ram: 16gb Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory
cpu cooler: phantek phdc12
750-watt psu

 

[ArchitSahu]

If you are talking about SLI, you can only SLI cards of the same model (1060 with 1060).

Also what PSU exactly? I have not heard of gigahertz brand before.

 

[Dark Soul]

If you are talking about SLI, you can only SLI cards of the same model (1060 with 1060).

Also what PSU exactly? I have not heard of gigahertz brand before.

Wow I can't believe I said that. I meant watt and my brain went another direction. My bad. And no, not talking sli. Also it's an evga psu

 

[pete_101]

Your system should be good enough to handle both a 970 and a 1060. The i7-4790K is still a great CPU, you have a z97 motherboard so can easily overclock it. And from what I can tell, that was quite a good motherboard for it's time, so it will have no issues with the 2 GPUs.

A 750w PSU is the minimum you would want to be using, so depending on what model EVGA the unit it is, it should be fine.....does it have enough power cables and plugs for 2 cards?

 

[BFG-9000]

Hey all, so I've been streaming lately and my gtx 970 isn't quite giving me enough juice to do it properly.

Are you perchance trying to play H.265 HEVC video at 4k? If this is the case then you should use the GTX1060 as primary or use it to replace the GTX970 entirely.

The GTX970 supports VDPAU feature set E so can only hardware assist H.265 decoding, in the shaders.
GTX1060 has feature set H so can fully hardware accelerate H.265 Main, Main 10, and Main 12 up to 8k. And VP9.

 

[Dark Soul]

Your system should be good enough to handle both a 970 and a 1060. The i7-4790K is still a great CPU, you have a z97 motherboard so can easily overclock it. And from what I can tell, that was quite a good motherboard for it's time, so it will have no issues with the 2 GPUs.

A 750w PSU is the minimum you would want to be using, so depending on what model EVGA the unit it is, it should be fine.....does it have enough power cables and plugs for 2 cards?

Should I consider upgrading it then? My current power supply is the EVGA 750W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply. It seems like it should have enough plugs for two cards. I can post a picture of the internals if you'd like to examine it. Although you could probably look up the power supply to help judge it as well. So what I'm hearing is I should be fine for two gpus? Any suggestions regarding 1060's to get?

 

[Dark Soul]

Hey all, so I've been streaming lately and my gtx 970 isn't quite giving me enough juice to do it properly.

Are you perchance trying to play H.265 HEVC video at 4k? If this is the case then you should use the GTX1060 as primary or use it to replace the GTX970 entirely.

The GTX970 supports VDPAU feature set E so can only hardware assist H.265 decoding, in the shaders.
GTX1060 has feature set H so can fully hardware accelerate H.265 Main, Main 10, and Main 12 up to 8k. And VP9.

I think this is what you're saying, but forgive me if I misunderstood. I am using NVENC H.264 as my primary encoder on OBS right now. Are you saying that I should be using the 1060 for games and 970 for recording or the reverse? My current output is 720 rescaled to 1080p. If you could clarify a bit from what you were saying before, that would be much appreciated.

 

[BFG-9000]

In NVENC encoding, the 1060 has double the performance of the 970.

In games, the 1060 is generally faster than the 970 as well, so there is no reason to keep the 970 in there: