Is SLI required for dedicated PhysX GPU?

[JokeT]

So, I've just purchased a GTX 970 and was looking up alternative uses for my 660ti because I still wish to make use of it. I found out that you can use it to be dedicated to PhysX, but now I am wondering if that has anything to do with SLI.

I looked into SLI and found out that my motherboard, the ASRock Z77 Pro4, does not support it. So now I am wondering if I can still use my old 660ti as a dedicated PhysX GPU while using my new 970 exclusively for rendering. I am also wondering if I can have the 660ti used for rendering of videos while I run the 970 and not take a hit in performance.

 

[Suzuki@1473780084@1473780163]

No, SLI is not required in order to use a dedicated PhysX card. No, it doesn't add performance the same way SLI does. It does the PhysX stuff on it's own, meaning no performance drop if you were to use only 1 card. So many questions ahh. You should be able to tell the editing program what GPU to use. But rendering isn't done on the GPU, there are a few exceptions, such as the program I use, HitFilm. It does all it's rendering on the GPU, but physics simulation, etc, is done on the CPU.

 

[JokeT]

I use Sony Vegas. I noticed it has an option to render to CPU or GPU and that popped up in my head when asking about dedicating the GPU. Sorry for so many questions at once.

 

[Suzuki@1473780084@1473780163]

Everything that can't be "GPU-accelerated", will still be rendered on the CPU. I mentioned HitFilm because the entire Timeline is rendered on the GPU, which is not the case with other programs. Point being, if you don't use any effects (or color grading), then a GPU is pretty pointless while using an editing program as long as it's above minimum requirements to run the program.