Question Can I use my RTX 2080 and 3070 together? (gaming, streaming, recording)

[BrownStar]

I have a Zotac RTX 3070 AMP Holo(non-LHR) and an EVGA RTX 2080 XC Hybrid, both 8GB cards, both liquid cooled. System specs with 3070 alone are listed below. I have 3 main questions, but all getting to the same idea:

1. Obviously its possible to run both cards "together", but the idea is to use one to render the game(Warzone, Fortnite, Apex), and the other to record, encode, etc. Can they be used or "assigned" in such a way.
2. Setting it up won't be a problem, but as far as performance, is it viable? I understand that I will be limited by my CPU at that point (Ryzen 7 5800x), but for example in Fortnite, with the RTX 3070, I max at around 60-65% CPU usage with things like Discord, Elgato Wavelink, SteelSeries Sonar and VoiceMod running in the background, and don't get me started on the ridiculous amount of CPU and memory that Chrome and iCue take up.....
3. Both cards recommend a 650W Power Supply, I have also run both cards Undervolted along with my 5800x, but I have an EVGA 850W PSU. Would this be adequate?

System Specs:
Ryzen 7 5800x
Zotac RTX 3070 Amp Holo (non-LHR)
G. Skill 16gb Trident Z Neo 3600 14-15-15-35 (F4-3600C14D-16GTZNB)
SK Hynix 512GB and WD Black SN850 1TB m.2 drives
Asus Prime X570-P motherboard
EVGA SuperNOVA 850W Platinum PSU
Corsair H150i 360mm AIO on CPU
Corsair 4000D Airflow Case
Custom loop for GPU (EK waterblocks etc.)

 

[jasonf2]

No. The lower 3000 series cards do not support SLI which would have been the interconnect. If they were two 3090s then yes, but even then hardware resources have to be very carefully picked due to PCI lane limitations. Your 5800x only supports 24 lanes and the x16 on each of those cards would require 32 base to run at full function. If using as a mining rig there are ways to split out individual channels (if your motherboard supports it) however it would work very poorly for a gaming setup. This is always a little confusing because many motherboards have two x16 slots in them, but they cannot run concurrently on the chipsets they support. Even if the interconnects were available I would highly recommend against mixing the two cards as driver support would be a nightmare and the performance differences would lead to pretty significant frame drop and screen microtear.

 

[Wolfshadw]

Obviously its possible to run both cards "together", but the idea is to use one to render the game(Warzone, Fortnite, Apex), and the other to record, encode, etc. Can they be used or "assigned" in such a way.

You should be able to. On Windows 10, go to Settings, System, Display. Scroll down to Graphics Settings and then Choose an app to set a preference. Select your games for one card and the recording software for the other.

Both cards recommend a 650W Power Supply, I have also run both cards Undervolted along with my 5800x, but I have an EVGA 850W PSU. Would this be adequate?

That's a big MAYBE. I'd probably consider swapping that out for something along the lines of a 1000watt PSU, just to be on the safe side.

-Wolf sends

 

[BrownStar]

Sorry for the late response, I did read both responses and I appreciate them. After reading them and doing a bit more research on power draw and PSU output I went ahead and installed both, undervolted, and have not had any issues or even a sign of an issue.

However, I do have one question, I do not have the "Preferred Graphics Processor" option in the Nvidia Control Panel, I'm on Windows 11 and selected the 2080 for some programs and the 3070 for others like gaming and such, but all but 2 programs are still using the 3070. When I google this, all that comes up is how to specify whether to use a Dedicated GPU or the external GPU(I'm assuming this is why I dont have that Preferred Graphics Processor options since this is not a laptop or iGPU