Question How to make AMD GPU and NVidia GPU work within one PC?

[janos]

After my initial problem wasn't solved, I decided to move on on my own and initialize both graphics cards in my PC instead.

So atm I'm having a GeForce RTX 2080 Super and a AMD Radeon R9 mounted on my Mainboard.

• I want the AMD one to perform tasks with desktop focus, like Photoshop, Video cut, Browsing.
• The Nvidia card would be in charge when it comes to game performance "only", because this is the task it can handle best, while color gradings are its fatal weakness.

Status Quo: Both have their own drivers installed and are responsive, as far as I can tell, yet I have the "feeling" that the Nvidia Card is doing all the work. Why do I think that? Because I still have ugly color gradient that wasn't a thing when using AMD GPU, so I'm convinced that my NV is in charge right now and the AMD is idle-hosting one side monitor, while the AMD hosting service sometimes is crashing according to windows error-popup. Yet it doesn't have any impact on my visuals.

So to keep it short, my two questions are:

• Are any of them compatible with (a) crosslink function the other supports as well? Like maybe the AMD is able to mount SLI or Nvidia can accept Firewire? I don't think so, bc it would be too easy, but hey... have to ask nontheless.
• Given the circumstance we don't have the crosslink option for the both of them. How to make them really work in one PC in order to seperate/orchestrate and dedicate specific tasks to a specific GPU like I mentioned above?

The Specs:

• CPU: i7-5820K CPU @ 3.30GHz
• MB: Gigabyte X99 Gaming 5
• OS: Win7 64Bit
• GPU(s):
  • MSI GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER 8gb RAM &
  • AMD Radeon R9 290, 4gb RAM
• RAM: 32Gb
• Monitor:
  • AOC AGON AG322QC4 80 cm (31,5") Curved Monitor (HDMI, DisplayPort, USB Hub, Free-Sync 2, HDR 400, 4ms, 2560x1440, 144Hz) - Linked to the Nvidia GPU
  • And some secondary Monitor, barely worth mentioning, just for reference (Samsung Synch Master type) - Linked to the AMD GPU

I'd really appreciate some advice, if somebody has the experience to do so...

 

[siaan312]

This would be possible using virtual machines.
Having one allocated half the cpu and the nvidia gpu
and having the other allocated half the cpu and the amd gpu

I ran through your last thread, i dont know much about that stuff, but the nvidia gpu should be able to do that gradient thingy.
not sure how, but it should.
you also talked about another toms hardware forum.
this is the only one, the UI was changed.

 

[janos]

Sounds interesting, although I'd have to get into the virtual machine thing first, but I sorta know what it's roughtly about. So please grant me some questions about this, if you don't mind?

• You're sure that splitting the CPU power permanently between the two virtual machines wouldn't be too much of a loss for both ends? I mean, wouldn't be any problem with the RAM for sure, but I'm aware that my CPU isn't the brightest light in the sky anymore...
• A colleague of mine recently suggested to plug a card into an external switch... Could that be a reliable solution as well or would you consider this more of a risk because of the additional 'link in the chain'?

About the gradiant...
"not sure how, but it should" - Like that has been my thoughts the time I witnessed the problem.
I badly wished there was a way it would handle it, because it would magically solve my problem in total. Yet. I've squeezed google out with several Meta terms or cases familiar to mine. Mostly it ends with bittered ppl, quoting "Nvidia doesn't care enough" within the forums.

Nothing worked and worse then that: even if I unplug the power support for the Nvidia card and uninstall (DDU) the driver entirely, I'm not able to get back the old gradient look my (again plugged) AMD was able to deliver, so either I have to seperate it physically from the MB and thus completely to get the look back or I'm confronted with a problem source beyond GeForce's influence, even if triggered by.

I've never had a Nvidia card before, but I didn't imagine that literal stairstep of a quality change when it comes to non-game related color displays. To make sure that you see, what I see, I've added a photo, made with my mobile that highlights what I do see on my end. Because if it's a GPU-Monitor communication issue, any pic I deliver directly from screenshots on my end would be useless for anybody else. So here it is:

@"Other" Tom's Hardware.
I know what you mean, sry for not being more precise, but I've been a bit frustrated when posting this, so I wasn't caring for the need to be clearer on that specific part. Let me clarify this statement some more. There's been a Tom's Hardware forum in my native since the founding, which eventually needed to shutdown around 2018 for "financial reasons", depending on who you ask. The backgrounds, if desired:

Spoiler: The German branch of TomsHardware ceases operations. Page and forum affected.

"An icon of the German hardware scene says goodbye to the market. The German website of the hardware magazine TomsHardware is about to be shut down after more than 20 years. TomsHardware was founded in 1996 by Tom Pabst, who comes from Germany. In September 1997 - almost two years before TweakPC was founded - the changeover to the domain TomsHardware.com followed, under which the German site can still be found today.

In 2007 TomsHardware was taken over by the French BestofMedia Group. Tom Pabst subsequently withdrew from the company. In 2013 the BestofMedia Group sold the magazine to Purch, then known as TechMedia Network. Purch's portfolio also includes the website AnandTech.

The reason given for the closure is the "special advertising market in Germany". The closure affects both the German magazine and the German forum."

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
Source: https://www.tweakpc.de/news/41690/tomshardware-de-schliesst-die-pforten/
- Normally I don't use translators, but in that case it simply made sense. ~

The *.com version of Tom's Hardware forum seem to have migrated several accounts from there, which is the reason, why I'm apparently listed as long term user. Never signed up on this version of Tom's H, as they already got my credentials apparently.

Btw: Thanks already for taking your time. It's a kind move of yours.

 

[kanewolf]

A graphics card will only output to the monitor connected to it. If the monitor with the dithering is connected to the NVIDIA then that is what is "in charge".

 

[janos]

Thanks for the input. In that case I either have a very rare occurance in which somthing is fatally wrong, or replacing something went badly wrong in the process of plugging in the Nvidia GPU that now affects the whole system, no matter what GPU is active.

Not sure what's my favourite outcome, as I have those rare occasions in my life a bit too often to "obviously exclude" the rare case beforehand, but let's stick with the 2nd version.

Eventually excluding is a method to progress, so I'd probably need to share what I did, so you judge, if there's anything fishy that could cause the things to go down the river.

So to reimagine the process of implementing the Nvidia GPU, I...

• switched into safe mode and used DDU to uninstall anything related to AMD and its drivers (having no AMD MB, so seemed legit at that point)
  
  
• shut down the PC + earthed myself + turned off the power trigger on the back
  
  
• unplugged the power access from the AMD card + dismounted it form Mainboard
  
  
• dusted off some now reachable parts on the MB
  
  
• plugged in the Nvidia device to another PCI port than my AMD was to arrange the new setup more "aerodynamically", while the card was shorter and thus not interfering with any cables in when plugged a bit lower on the MB + added the power plugs.
  
  
• switched the PC back on and rebooted after first recognition of the changed hardware
  
  
• downloaded the depending driver from the Nvidia site (strangely I couldn't hit the grayed out button on the page from this machine, so I needed to download it with a second PC and transfer the file manually) + installed it
  
  
• found out, that in GeForce Experience the driver is acknowledged, but strangely it doesn't display any specific data. (uploaded pictures* to show the difference; don't know what to make out of this circumstabce actually...) // also found out later, that if I download the auto-recognition application from Nvidia (which simply is the GeForce Experience exe, that gets installed to get the driver through it) was unable to download the driver via this program. I can't think of a reason why this wouldn't work, but as AMD did have such issues as well, I didn't take this as a major issue, just strange occurance, as the manually driver at the same position in GeForce Experience isn't presented in full, as it is supposed to be.
  
  
• tested the card's functionality with a game, demanding high performance in Ultra settings at WQHD resolution and it totally worked as intended, so I called it a successful switch.
  
  
• then worked on a PS project the next day, when things eventually became weird to me, as I got aware of the gradient and pixelating glitch I meanwhile got and researched for the other sources experiencing this.
  
  
• I wandered through driver reinstallments + experimented with color depth formats in the NV control panel and brightness/contrast adjustments via the physical monitor panel...
  
  
• got nothing and out of desperation decided that my only way to get any solution would be to state my very individual case on my own on Tom's Hardware.
  
  
• waited on a reply, while I continued with "registry hacks": adding a binary dither-codeline within the registrie's Nvidia-to-monitor-entry, but neither 8, nor 10bit constellations, nor turning dithering off completely did change anything visibly for me in front of the screen + I even added a monitor driver for the AGON screen I've been using before + Switched to a YCbCr444 color format, as it's said to be as good as RGB.
  
  
• had yet still nothing to get to the core after that...
  
  
• got out of options to try after meanwhile two to three full days of doing nothing else but trying to fix the screen problem (and yet no answer within the forum, no offence), as then began to relocate the Nvidia card to a lower PCI interface (let's call it) PCI#3 (out of 4) to have space for the AMD to be plugged again at its initial position on PCI#1 + added a second adapter to the modular internal power supply unit to host a second GPU talked about that thought to execute this step in the progress of my updates in the other topic.
  
  
• used the opportunity inbetween when no GPU was plugged again to temporary remove the CPU cooler bars and fan to clean + add cooling paste to the outer CPU contact surface. (didn't use any liquidity for it)
  
  
• switched the 2nd monitor to be hosted by the AMD again and left the primary one plugged to the NV card. Tests showed the gradient problem on both monitors still, so I began to doubt, that Nvidia GPU ever was fully released from rendering desktop environments.
  
  
• at this point, opened up this topic and stated the up-to-date facts as of shortly.
  
  
• turned PC off, unplugged the power pins from the NV GPU and relocated the main screen's display port in the AMD device just to find the problem being persistent. + Searched the web for programs to manage the double GPU setting software wise, which was ofc in vein apparently, bc the two types behaved like an ex-couple that seperated with anger in the past to be forced into one room again: Sitting next to each other, barely accepting the other's existence, but unable to get them to work with each other in any reason way.
  
  
• took things one step further and DDU'd the NVidia driver components. This caused a interference with the AMD driver, which was partly broken after that reboot. I reinstalled it and crossed my fingers. Guess what... Yep. Nada, so I called it a day.
  
  
• grew some more gray hair and planned to remove the Nvidia in the next step, bc a friend mentioned that a plugged GPU could still affect the system as long as it's plugged into the MB... Found that hard to belief, but actually I cannot refer to reliable causality anymore when looking at this color issue and "the road so far".
  So this is status quo and still on my schedule, because I delayed a lot of things on the way through that that need attention as well by now, so... here we are. Not as young as before the trip and yet... alive.

I'm kinda.. suprised I still remember every single step that clear... guess it's because you'd be stuck in eternity-loops if not precisely monitoring what you've already tried.. and I'm sure I forgot at least one thing I tried that didn't work, but hey..

*) The promised screenshots about the Geforce Experience driver tab, how it...

• should probably look like in general (other PC):
  
  
  
  
  
• actually looks like on my machine:
  
  

 

[kanewolf]

NVIDIA and AMD in a single system are usually nothing but frustrating (as you are experiencing).

 

[janos]

Uhm, sure thing, I was aware before buying the Nvidia; the plan never was to plug them together initially... Just doing so because I hoped that the AMD card would give me back the smooth (proper) gradient after all.

Any thoughts on my last posting? Anything suspicious for expert eyes where one could dig deeper..?

 

[hang-the-9]

The setup is a lot messier than it needs to be. You need to start with a clean setup of drivers and test the setup with different monitors and connection type. Remove all drivers, run DDU, install the nVidia drivers, check the monitor details make sure it's set to 32 bit color and the correct refresh rate. If that is done and you still see banding in images, try with another video connector type. Does this image issue happen on all the monitors? I have three different nVidia cards and don't see this issue on any of them. Is the image compressed?

 

[janos]

The setup is a lot messier than it needs to be.

Yeah... my thought every time I run into a software problem that needs hours of fixing without the actually 'fixed' checkmark in the end.

Clean the drivers:
I've had two situations in the process where I used DDU in safe mode to delete all the drivers for a clean state. My Soundblaster driver even suffered some damage inbetween from this and is now slow as hell from installing/uninstalling drivers all along over one day. Despite this, I can of course repeat this process, the question is, are there specific checkmarks on DDU to set for a change? Or asked differently: What would you like to see checked in DDU settings for Nvidia, if it was you to deal with the solving procedure?

Monitor color depth & co:
After installing the Nvidia Driver I always checked the settings, which are normally set to
Resolution: [1080p, 1920 x 1080] | Refresh rate: [60 Hz] (maximum rate for 1080p)
Desktop color depth: [Highest (32 Bit)] | Output-Color depth: [8 bpc]
Output color format: [RGB] | Dynamic output ratio [Full]

(Everything's translated freely, so please don't worry about different wording)
My current settings are:
Resolution: [2560 x 1440 (nativ)] | Refresh rate: [144 Hz] (maximum rate for monitor)
Desktop color depth: [Highest (32 Bit)] | Output-Color depth: [10 bpc]
Output color format: [RGB] | Dynamic output ratio [Full]

Doesn't make any difference when it comes to the pixelize effect or the gradient problem. As you pointed out something's weird about that. Things should be easily revertable in this case, yet the AMD in charge didn't bring back the origin gradient quality, so something must've been lost in the process. Has it been an "innocent" checkmark in DDU? I'm still hunting, while it's haunting me...

Does it happen to all monitors?
Yes. That's why I excluded adapter problems from the beginning, because if so, it's much unlikely that two different input plugs are affected the same time and way. Yet I tried with a HDMI cable, replacing the display port from the main monitor. No difference.

Is the image compressed?
It's a live-generated picture, straightly made in photoshop before saving it as an image file. As well I made the photo while it's been in PS and I can verify that the format I saved it for upload is PNG.

I don't work with compressed formats, only if there's a very good reason in special cases. And this case here demands a "as lossless as possible" attitude, else it would be pointless. But it's absolutely legit to ask about this, you never know what's in different ppl's minds.

The only thing I can add to seperate details is, that you can of course see the monitor's electric distortions that come up if you take a picture from a screen, but I think all of you are totally capable of seperating these from the actual problem we witness on this photo.