Workstation and Gaming in ONE machine ?

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edwoo11

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Jan 22, 2013
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Hi, The problem is simple,

What is the best GPU if you need to do move some serious 3ds max scenes, and if you happen to like quality gaming ?

and that you can't afford 2 PCs...

For exemple, I had a Quadro 2000 in the past, sweet for 3D and CAD but a complete nightmare for gaming, and the card was literally roasting(and fan noise was extremely loud), so I had to change it for a gaming one(gtx 670 oc) , but now max is so slow in viewports.

I guess it's not possible to have two GPUs in a single PC with a kind of switch ?

so what the options? i think many of us are dealing with this struggle since Nvidia crippled their gaming cards, and the CAD applications are more and more demanding(3dsmax at least) and if I understood right, the GPU performance for Cad apps of GTX cards is fairly the same since 2XX series...
 
Solution
Eggz
Switcher, yes: Just have to make the single-plug side for the monitor, others for each GPU.

SLI, no, kinda. You can do SLI between the same GeForce cards, or the same Quadro cards, but you can't mix GeForce with Quadro for SLI. What I described above should work, though.
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Yeah it's a pain. I think if you are gaming at all you need to go for desktop gfx really, the quadros are just so bad at games
 
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You most certainly CAN have several graphics cards in a single computer, without any SLI/Crossfire stuff. For example, one quadro and one Nvidia GTX970, each connected to its own monitor. Or both to a single one, but with different inputs (i.e. one over DVI, ther vida DP/HDMI). Then you would have to switch input source on monitor to game/render. To avoid mess, the best solution is to use two monitors.
 
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herrwizo has a good point doing a duel card setup without SLI is an option. Although i have heard the GTX 780 Titan or 780 ti is pretty good at running CAD, 3dsMax and also we all know its a beast at gaming. The downfall is they are pretty pricey and power hungry.

*Edit: Not sure you can have 2 different drivers on the same pc... one for quadro one for GTX. Tell me if im wrong....
 
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Okay so then you could run 2 different cards. You'll just have to have either the multi-monitor setup or just a single and switch inputs like herrwizo said. But if you don't want to do that i would suggest a titan or 780 ti to run everything. Which may be cheaper in the long run as workstation cards are pretty expensive because they are built to top quality and made for specific things.
 
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Correct but also because they can charge that much for a small market, and also they use the highest quality components for building them.
 
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First you need to decide whether your specific workflow requires a Quadro. Quadros do 10-bit color and are necessary only when simple little text hacks won't enable a GeForce card to work. So that depends on the specific software your use. If a GeForce card will (or can) work, but you still need more precision, I'd suggest one of the Titan cards. They rock games and do well in compatible workstation programs. A Titan Black is an extremely powerful card that would handle just about anything at 1080 or 1440.

Using two cards can also work. You just have one as a primary, and the other renders without hooking a display. In 10-bit video editing, you can run the display on the Quadro and have one or more GeForce cards in SLI render things on the fly. Just specify which does what in the program settings. Edzel from Linus Media Group does this with a Quadro and two Titan Blacks. If you'd want to game on such a setup, you'd just plug the monitor into the GeForce and put it back in the Quadro when you're done playing. Alternatively, you can use a switch, like you mentioned in the OP.
 
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Thanks, that is great answers, I was really skeptical about the possibility of a Quadro and a GForce to run in the same box. Glad to see it is no issue to have different drivers as well.
The screen switcher, or dual screen makes perfectly sense.

What is unclear, is how the applications will manage to use card 1 or card 2, in CAD apps, I think you can choose on which driver it will run, but what about games, how do you tell games and other programs to run
on the GTX instead ?

Other thing is power consumption and noise, the two cards will run all the time? also when Idle?

Buying a 780 ti is tempting if I can find one, but I don't think it can compete with a Quadro with his proprietary Performance drivers, who make a big difference in 3ds Max display. What would be the benefit over my GTX 670 ? looks like no one is doing benchmark on Max anymore for GForces.🙁
 
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Games will run on whichever card your display is plugged in to.

If I were you, I'd just pop them in the same box and test. Since you have a GeForce, buy a Quadro on Amazon. There's a free return policy if Amazon is the seller. See if you can configure it for your use. Or if you want to try the 780 ti or Titan Black for Max, order one of those to see if you can get it working - or order both and test. If you can't get it to work, return 🙂

You should be able to get it going, though.
 
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you mean there that you can SLI a quadro and a GTX, really ? Ok it needs to have the same architecture, I guess.

The tryout is good advice thanks, but i will never buy anything on amazon (for ethics reasons), but I think I can have my hands on a quadro, at least to do the test

Do you think this kind of switcher is enough for the trick ?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cable-Mountain-Automatic-Manual-Switcher-Black/dp/B001LMLR9Y
 
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Switcher, yes: Just have to make the single-plug side for the monitor, others for each GPU.

SLI, no, kinda. You can do SLI between the same GeForce cards, or the same Quadro cards, but you can't mix GeForce with Quadro for SLI. What I described above should work, though.
 
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