Question Cant decide on dual GPU setup. Need advice.

[dmavro]

I need help figuring out how to get support for 8 monitors in my new build. The array is for all my work applications for trading. I would like to have the ability to game if i wanted too. I would only be playing some Oculus games via Oculus Link on Steam and some MSFS. Multi monitor gaming would be nice but i dont think you can do multi monitor in new Flight Sim anyway. Also, if having a rig thats capable of multi monitor gaming increases my costs a considerable amount then gaming on single monitor is fine.

My build...
cpu- i9-12900k
mobo- ROG STRIX Z690-E GAMING WIFI
PSU- Corsair HX1200
AIO- H150i Elite Capellix
Case- beQuiet! Silent Base 802
Ram- 64GB Crucial 4800mhz DDR5

At the moment, i plan on using the two Visiontek AMD Radeon 7750 SFF 2GB GDDR5 PCIe 3.0 GPU’s that i have in the build im upgrading from. I originally wanted to switch back to Nvidia cards for this build but if i could utilize one of those in this build for half the monitor array and then get something else for the other 4 that would give me gaming capability then that would be great! I know i could still get a Nvidia card and have one AMD gpu and one Nvidia gpu in same rig but I'd rather not mix and match like that. Just feel like its asking for trouble. If I'm wrong then please correct me.

Was originally planning on spending around $900 on 2 two RTX3060's. So if i could use one of those HD7750's like i mentioned i guess id be willing to go up to $600-$700 on another card, I'd rather spend less, like in the $350-$450 price range but if thats not doable then i so be it. Also, if i cant use one of those HD7750's then I still dont want to spend more then the $900 i originally planned on. The PC is really meant to be for work so i dont see any reason to spend any more then I originally planned on.

One other thing, my motherboard has a DP and a HDMI port, so i could utilize those for 2 of the monitors if possible.


FYI- I forgot to mention that im using 6 AOC 4k monitors that are set at 3840x2160 @60hz with Windows scaling set to 150%. My other 2 are now Asus 24" set at 1920x1080.

Thanks in advance!

 

[RodroX]

Thanks for taking time again and sorry for confusion over which cards i already have. Im going to start researching 3070Ti's and 3080's. Also going to try and figure out the AMD equivalents and research them just in case i decide not to mix chipset manufacturers. Im hoping Karadjne comes back with more input too.

Thank again!

You should have no issues mixing different GPUs.

The issue with AMD gpus is that at 4K they don't perform as good as RTX cards in MSFS 2020. For example the RX 6800XT will deliver less FPS than the RTX 3080 for MSFS at 4K.

 

[Karadjgne]

That's a toss up. Using the Visiontech card, that'll be AMD drivers, but being a workstation card I don't believe it uses the same Radeon drivers as modern cards. Historically mixing AMD drivers with nvidia drivers has almost universally never worked out well. So it may just be beneficial to use a card like the 6800xt as there's no conflicts between AMD generations vs hoping the 3070ti/3080 actually plays nice with the 7750.

Stability and ease of drivers upgrades/bug fixes would be my primary concern over a few fps.

Win10+ is mgpu based, not sli/crossfire based, so supposedly it's able to accommodate a mix of any multiple gpus, regardless of AMD or nvidia, without driver conflicts. However, I've not seen anyone actually try that particular mix since gaming oriented pc's only use 1 gpu now and most workstation pc's are just that, no worries about gaming too.

 

[dmavro]

You should have no issues mixing different GPUs.

The issue with AMD gpus is that at 4K they don't perform as good as RTX cards in MSFS 2020. For example the RX 6800XT will deliver less FPS than the RTX 3080 for MSFS at 4K.

Understood. Thank You

 

[dmavro]

That's a toss up. Using the Visiontech card, that'll be AMD drivers, but being a workstation card I don't believe it uses the same Radeon drivers as modern cards. Historically mixing AMD drivers with nvidia drivers has almost universally never worked out well. So it may just be beneficial to use a card like the 6800xt as there's no conflicts between AMD generations vs hoping the 3070ti/3080 actually plays nice with the 7750.

Stability and ease of drivers upgrades/bug fixes would be my primary concern over a few fps.

Win10+ is mgpu based, not sli/crossfire based, so supposedly it's able to accommodate a mix of any multiple gpus, regardless of AMD or nvidia, without driver conflicts. However, I've not seen anyone actually try that particular mix since gaming oriented pc's only use 1 gpu now and most workstation pc's are just that, no worries about gaming too.

Im worried about possible conflicts so thats why i was thinking of sticking with another AMD based GPU. So from what im taking from all this is that i should either be looking at 3070Ti or 3080 for Nvidia cards but i might be taking a chance because i could run into an issue. If i decided to go AMD then it looks like you mentioned 6800XT. Ive been looking at Microcenters site and Neweggs site this afternoon and have quite a few options for Nvidia cards. Im going to have to do some more research to figure out which cards are good options for me. But if i decided to go for an AMD then i have a few options from Microcenter, ASRock, MSI, PowerColor and Sapphire. Any of those companies better then the other or worth avoiding?

Also saw some 6750XT's. Would they be possible candidates or would they not work for me? I guess a better question might be... Whats the lowest 6000 series i should be considering? Im hoping there might be something in the $500-$600 range but if thats not doable then i guess ill have to go for a 6800Xt or a 3070Ti,

Thank you for taking the time with this!

 

[Karadjgne]

It's hierarchy. The RDNA2 cards do very well at 1080p, beating their nvidia competition, but at 4k that flips.

If you figure at 4k a 6750xt gets @ 40fps, a 3080 gets 80fps. And its 6750xt, 3060ti, 6800/3070, 3070ti, 6800xt, 3080 generally. So about a 8fps gain per card. Doesn't seem like much, but the 3070ti, 6800xt, 3080 will all be very close to if not above monitor refresh with any game, whereas with the other cards its only getting worse, and some games like Cyberpunk or anything else uber graphical, even heavily modded skyrim, are going to be closer to 30fps possibly, which is starting to lose fluidity on a large scale.

With 4k, anything extra you put into the gpu isn't to break fps records or have high benchmark scores or even bragging rights, it's all about personal physical enjoyment of the game.

Value is a big aspect too. You paid premium cash for 4k monitors over a simple 1080p or 1440p. If you start chopping detail levels to bring up the fps because the gpu is weak, you may as well be playing on 1080p/1440p at Ultra.

My way of thinking is if you buy a Lamborghini, you best make sure it's always fed with 93 octane or better, none of that cheaper 87 stuff, or you may as well have saved a ton of cash and bought a Mustang.

 

[dmavro]

It's hierarchy. The RDNA2 cards do very well at 1080p, beating their nvidia competition, but at 4k that flips.

If you figure at 4k a 6750xt gets @ 40fps, a 3080 gets 80fps. And its 6750xt, 3060ti, 6800/3070, 3070ti, 6800xt, 3080 generally. So about a 8fps gain per card. Doesn't seem like much, but the 3070ti, 6800xt, 3080 will all be very close to if not above monitor refresh with any game, whereas with the other cards its only getting worse, and some games like Cyberpunk or anything else uber graphical, even heavily modded skyrim, are going to be closer to 30fps possibly, which is starting to lose fluidity on a large scale.

With 4k, anything extra you put into the gpu isn't to break fps records or have high benchmark scores or even bragging rights, it's all about personal physical enjoyment of the game.

Value is a big aspect too. You paid premium cash for 4k monitors over a simple 1080p or 1440p. If you start chopping detail levels to bring up the fps because the gpu is weak, you may as well be playing on 1080p/1440p at Ultra.

My way of thinking is if you buy a Lamborghini, you best make sure it's always fed with 93 octane or better, none of that cheaper 87 stuff, or you may as well have saved a ton of cash and bought a Mustang.

Man you guys really know your stuff. Im having a hard time justifying spending $800+ on a single GPU. I think its because i originally was looking at 3060 and 3060Ti's and was planning on spending around $900 on 2 Gpu's. But from what you are saying it looks like i really should.

I never intend on playing any games like CyberPunk but it would be nice to play MSFS with good graphics settings. Im going to have to look around a bit more and see if i can find any deals on 6800XT's i guess.

Computer really is meant to be for trading so im basically spending $$$ i dont need to spend but your Lamborghini analogy might convince me. Really wish it would be possible to pull off at least a 6800 but not sure it would be worth the risk of everything you mentioned.

Any manufacturers to avoid?

Thanks again.

 

[Karadjgne]

Out of the amd cards, I'd avoid XFX and Power Color. Xfx generally have cooling issues, their cards tend run hot because of the OC applied. Same with Power Color, they have some of the highest performance out of the box, but the cost is heat and noise.

I personally have always had good luck with Asus. Their cards have been solid. I've owned a couple of Sapphire, they are basically the Evga of Amd, excellent service and warranty, but their cards can be hit or miss, excellent cards, probably the better side of seriously good, when they work. Not a fan of Gigabyte, apart from all the warranty issues they have right now from a recent ransom ware attack/hack. Their fans noise pitch is irritating to me. Msi run cool and quiet, best cooling on the market at any level and performance is near the top.

6800 trades blows with a 3070, literally either 1-3fps ahead or 1-3fps behind, depending on the game.

MSFS shouldn't really be a problem for the most part, not unless you spend a lot of time around major airports like London or New York or LA. Those get pretty hammered with details.

 

[RodroX]

I never tried MSFS on a 4K display with such a powerfull GPU, but If you get an AMD GPU, just don't go with ULTRA graphic details right away, start with medium, see how to FPS, keep rendering scale at 100%, and then play with Terrain Level of Detail and Object Level of Detail, I would start with 200, and try different combinations. Then you can work your way up to high, and ultra.

 

[dmavro]

Out of the amd cards, I'd avoid XFX and Power Color. Xfx generally have cooling issues, their cards tend run hot because of the OC applied. Same with Power Color, they have some of the highest performance out of the box, but the cost is heat and noise.

I personally have always had good luck with Asus. Their cards have been solid. I've owned a couple of Sapphire, they are basically the Evga of Amd, excellent service and warranty, but their cards can be hit or miss, excellent cards, probably the better side of seriously good, when they work. Not a fan of Gigabyte, apart from all the warranty issues they have right now from a recent ransom ware attack/hack. Their fans noise pitch is irritating to me. Msi run cool and quiet, best cooling on the market at any level and performance is near the top.

6800 trades blows with a 3070, literally either 1-3fps ahead or 1-3fps behind, depending on the game.

MSFS shouldn't really be a problem for the most part, not unless you spend a lot of time around major airports like London or New York or LA. Those get pretty hammered with details.

Thats great information. Thank you yet again! Since i have no plans on playing anything like cyberpunk i might go with 6800 instead to save some money. I was doing some research and found this article...AMD RX 6800 vs. AMD RX 6800XT: What’s the Difference?

I know i have a different build but im assuming results would be similar. It looks like i wouldnt be getting more then around 30fps at 4k(in MSFS) with either a 6800 or 6800XT. To me the difference between the 2(29fps vs 33 fps) doesnt seem like much, am i correct in assuming that when it comes to what i plan on doing with rig?

I also keep forgetting about my iGPU. Out of curiosity, could i utilize those for 2 monitors if i wanted? That way i would only have to plug 2 into whatever GPU i purchase to put less of a burden on it.


Again, thank you! This thread has really helped educate me. Its guys like you , RodroX and Ralston18 that make this site worth being a member of.

 

[Karadjgne]

Your 7750 can do 6x monitors. Better to use that alone without the igpu, since you'll then be required to portion system ram for the igpu usage, the cpu will run hotter since it'll be using the igpu etc.

 

[dmavro]

Your 7750 can do 6x monitors. Better to use that alone without the igpu, since you'll then be required to portion system ram for the igpu usage, the cpu will run hotter since it'll be using the igpu etc.

No. Remember they are the 4 mini Dp version of the cards. There was confusion over this earlier in thread and i apologized when we realized. Ill just utilize both GPU's and avoid the iGPU.

 

[dmavro]

Actually think im going to go with 6800XT instead. Newegg has these 2 MSI cards cheaper than anyone else....
MSI Gaming Radeon RX 6800 XT 16GB GDDR6 PCI Express 4.0 Video Card RX 6800 XT Gaming Z Trio 16G
and
MSI Gaming Radeon RX 6800 16GB GDDR6 PCI Express 4.0 CrossFireX Support Video Card RX 6800 GAMING X TRIO 16G

I dont see a reason to get the 6800 when id only be saving $50. Just need to check that im ok with my case config. Didnt plan on getting triple slot card. Noticed something odd. Microcenter listed them as dual slot card's but Newegg lists them as triple slot cards. Are they basically 2.5 slot cards and thats why some sites have them categorized differently?

Thanks again guys! Looks like i found my GPU!

 

[Karadjgne]

Sweet.
Technically they are dual slot, as in the rear of the card only uses 2x actual slots. But with the heatsink and fans that stick out further you'll need 3 slot clearance. So depending on how you actually look at the card it is 2 or 3 slot. Some sites measure by the mount, some by actual height of the card.