Question High Desktop Window Manager Usage after installing second GPU ?

[EderP]

Hi there,

Today I got a secondhand GT 1030 that I needed just to expand the amount of display outputs I could have/extra convenience. My main GPU is a 3070 Ti. I'm noticing that anytime I try playing a video on any of the monitors connected to the 1030, or simply doing something as simple as scrolling through a window, it is horrendously laggy and in task manager I'm seeing desktop window manager take up 100% GPU usage. I don't believe the issue is exclusive to the GT 1030 either, because I used to do this same dual-GPU usage with an old AMD 6000 series card. Pairing that card with my 3070 Ti never gave me any issues, but after some hardware changes I started seeing issues with the AMD GPU and figured my new configuration didn't like me using an Nvidia GPU with an AMD GPU, so I opted to get a cheap 1030.

However, clearly, I'm still having major issues with laggy windows and videos on any display connected to the second GPU of my system. I've tried everything I could find on Google (updating Windows, updating drivers, installing older drivers, disabling hardware acceleration, setting desktop window manager to only use the 3070Ti within Windows, disabling scaling fix in Windows) I would appreciate any help looking into this issue, whether it's getting Desktop Window Manager to chill or to have my 3070Ti be used to process absolutely everything and leaving the 1030 to only display things. I will post my specs below if it helps at all:

Motherboard: ASUS ROG Strix B550-A
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600x
GPUs: Nvidia 3070 Ti Founders Edition & Gigabyte GT 1030 OC 2GB GDDR5
RAM: 32GB G.SKILL Ripjaws, DDR4-3200MHz
PSU: EVGA Supernova 750W
OS: Windows 10 Education

 

[helpstar]

run userbenchmark.com and post the hyperlink of the result

Did you reinstall/reset windows ?

Uninstall all gpu drivers from AMD and nvdia and clean install the latest nvidia driver.

Update your BIOS of the motherboard

Check temperatures of your components

Reset the BIOS of your motherboard

 

[EderP]

run userbenchmark.com and post the hyperlink of the result

Did you reinstall/reset windows ?

Uninstall all gpu drivers from AMD and nvdia and clean install the latest nvidia driver.

Update your BIOS of the motherboard

Check temperatures of your components

Reset the BIOS of your motherboard

Updating this to say that I've discovered the issue but it's brought me to a brand new one. So my board has one PCIe 4.0 x16 slot (where the 3070 Ti is installed), one PCIe 3.0 x16 slot (where the GT 1030 is installed), and 3 PCIe 3.0 x1 slots (where I have a WiFi/Bluetooth card installed into one of them). Looking at the manual, it says that the PCIe3.0 x16 slot shares bandwidth with the x1 slots, so my GT 1030 was forced into an x1 mode as a result, making the card underperformed. Through further testing, I can get the card to go into x4 mode without any expansion cards installed in the x1 slots. The performance has improved for sure but it is still not ideal (videos don't play well). I'm not sure if there's a way to get into x16 mode while the other x16 slot is in use, or even an x8 mode, but ultimately I've decided that trying to mess around with the PCIe lanes is more trouble than I care to put into this issue/probably for naught anyway, so I've opted to just buy a displayport splitter to install on my 3070 Ti and remain with it as my only GPU. I appreciate the help!

 

[helpstar]

to be sure, could you run the userbenchmark.com test?

 

[EderP]

to be sure, could you run the userbenchmark.com test?

Sure, here you go: https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/60881418

 

[helpstar]

the benchmark seems fine, the 1030 should be ok, but a dp splitter is the better way nontheless.
how did you connect the monitors to the 1030? Are you using an adapter to dp or similar?

 

[EderP]

the benchmark seems fine, the 1030 should be ok, but a dp splitter is the better way nontheless.
how did you connect the monitors to the 1030? Are you using an adapter to dp or similar?

Nah they were connected directly to the GPU. One monitor has DVI Out, and the other has HDMI out so those just plugged right in. I'm pretty certain it's my motherboard's inability to send as much PCI Express bandwidth to the GPU as a it needs. I've got the splitter set up now and it gets the job done. I think I definitely preferred having 2 GPUs as it can be quite finicky, but this solution is better than spending money on a whole new motherboard and reinstalling my whole system onto it.