[SOLVED] Running two different GPUs

[StGeorge991]

Hi, it's not like I'm new to PC building, however, I've never had a build with two GPUs, and have very little experience with it. Anyway, currently my main GPU is AS Rock RX5700XT Challenger 8GB OC. It's not a bad card, but not great either. It does tend to overheat, so it can be a drag when gaming. Anyway, recently I've been considering buying one of the AMD RX6800XT or RX6900XT (probably Gigabyte Aorus, since I have Gigabyte MoBo, and I like to pair things ) , and my question is not whether they can run crossfire, I don't really care about that, and I don't have money at the moment to buy two 6800xt or 6900xt.
My question is can I safely run these two cards in my PC, and have for example my new card be primary and use it for most things like gaming, but use my 5700xt for something else, like say I run on my primary Adobe After Effects, and on another Adobe Preimere, or Photoshop, or Maya etc.
Is that something that is possible, and is it generally a good idea to do something like that?

 

[Lutfij]

What is the make and model of your PSU and it's age? You're advised to have two of the same cards when doing crossfire, as opposed to using two mismatched cards. As for your question, personally I'd opt for the single most powerful GPU that your system and wallet can handle. Multi GPU setups look cool but they are just mini substations at this point, considering that the benefits are less than what you're investing in.

 

[NameChanged38]

Crossfire/SLI is long dead. Neither AMD/ATI nor Nvidia could ever make it worth while. And it was Always caused more problems. While running x2 RTX 3090s in SLI does slightly benefit certain production work, it no longer has any place in gaming.

 

[StGeorge991]

Crossfire/SLI is long dead. Neither AMD/ATI nor Nvidia could ever make it worth while. And it was Always caused more problems.

Again, I don't care about Crossfire or SLI. I wrote that, and that wasn't the question

What is the make and model of your PSU and it's age? You're advised to have two of the same cards when doing crossfire, as opposed to using two mismatched cards. As for your question, personally I'd opt for the single most powerful GPU that your system and wallet can handle. Multi GPU setups look cool but they are just mini substations at this point, considering that the benefits are less than what you're investing in.

PSU (can't remmember make and model, I'll have to get back to you with that), is about three years old, 750W. The question wasn't about SLI or Crossfire, but whether there are benefits to using multiple GPUs. And I said let's say my primary is running After Effects, and the other one is running Photoshop, or Premiere, or Maya. Or let's say I'm gaming on my primary, but I'm using my secondary for recording the gameplay etc.

 

[dotas1]

Again, I don't care about Crossfire or SLI. I wrote that, and that wasn't the question

PSU (can't remmember make and model, I'll have to get back to you with that), is about three years old, 750W. The question wasn't about SLI or Crossfire, but whether there are benefits to using multiple GPUs. And I said let's say my primary is running After Effects, and the other one is running Photoshop, or Premiere, or Maya. Or let's say I'm gaming on my primary, but I'm using my secondary for recording the gameplay etc.

Even if you have the BEST 750W PSU that exists out there, you can't handle any combination of the cards mentioned.

I agree with @Lutfij , you are better with the more powerful single card for many reasons. Power draw, temps, issues with drivers and ofcourse the extra cost in case you do not sell the 5700XT

 

[NameChanged38]

Again, I don't care about Crossfire or SLI. I wrote that, and that wasn't the question

PSU (can't remmember make and model, I'll have to get back to you with that), is about three years old, 750W. The question wasn't about SLI or Crossfire, but whether there are benefits to using multiple GPUs. And I said let's say my primary is running After Effects, and the other one is running Photoshop, or Premiere, or Maya. Or let's say I'm gaming on my primary, but I'm using my secondary for recording the gameplay etc.

While you should be able to dedicate a single GPU to process production work, in practicality you wouldn't be editing whilst also gaming. Nvidia cards have had built in encoders/decoders since roughly the GTX 700 series. Along with the introduction of Shadowplay - which has also matured. AMD has a similar feature now as well, however I remember my friend being quite displeased with it on his 6800 XT.

End result is still the same. There's no meaningful benefit to having two GPUs whether it be practicality, workflow, usefulness, performance, etc unless the machine is dedicated for production.

 

[StGeorge991]

Ok. Thanks. I just wanted to if there are any benefits to having two cards.
I definitely wasn't going to game while editing , but this was mostly like, say I ran After Effect project rendering on my primary, and while that is rendering, I'm running Photoshop on my secondary GPU, or something like that. But if there are no benefits like that, then I'll just sell the 5700xt. Might even make a profit on it, given how prices are ridiculous nowadays.