Would having a second GPU (Not in SLI) have any benefits?

[hermantset]

Hi!

I'm planning on doing my first build and I'm looking at my old computer that has a GTX 650. Also, I would like to point out that my understanding for hardware isn't all that great, but I understand the basic stuff. So in my mind, I'm trying to decide whether I should sell it the GTX 650, keep my old computer intact for a backup, or plug the GTX 650 in my new build as a dedicated PhysX card (saw this somewhere).

My new build has the following specs:

CPU
- Intel Core i7 4790K

Motherboard
- Asus Z97-A

GPU
- Asus GTX 770 DirectCU II OC 2GB

Memory
- Kingston HyperX Fury Black Series 8GB DDR3 1600 MHz

Storage
- Kingston HyperX 3K 120GB
- Samsung 840 EVO 250GB SSD
- Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200 RPM HDD (x2)
*Not thinking of putting them in RAID because I will manage to ruin something because I'm an idiot 🙁

PSU
- Corsair CX 750W 80+ Bronze Semi-Modular

Case
-Fractal Design R4 Black Pearl
*4 140mm fans.

This upgrade has been on my to do list for quite some time and I finally got around to it. So going back, my old computer is a Dell XPS 8500, which was perfect for me in the sense of light gaming (not hardcore gamer) and work (mostly Microsoft Office related). The only part I consider salvageable is the GTX 650, which goes back to the title of my post. Are there any benefits for having both a GTX 770 and GTX 650 in the same system? I know the drawbacks would be higher power consumption and excess heat.

Also on an unrelated side note, where should I plug my chassis fans in? The motherboard or PSU? I know that the case has a fan controller, but I don't even know where to start with that.

Thanks for taking your time to read this and any advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[IInuyasha74]

No, only negatives. Those GPUs cannot work together in any way, and so it will only suck up power and do nothing else. Could even cause major issues with trying to get drives to work.

 

[hermantset]

Thank you

 

[13thmonkey]

not strictly the whole story.

I'm running a GT220 and a GTX580 the 580 on my main screen the 220 on a secondary monitor. This allows the 580 to idle properly, which it won't do on dual screens. The nvidia driver docs state that this is still an issue. Overall power at idle is lower. No driver issues to report, there will be when 2XX stops being supported.

However I wouldn't do it unless one of the cards was very very low powered like the X10's or X20's.

 

[hermantset]

Hmmm that actually does sound like a good idea. I'll have to and look up the power consumption of the GTX 650 because having dual monitors would help with multitasking especially with large Excel worksheets. I don't really need dual monitors for gaming. Thanks!

 

[IInuyasha74]

For the record, its still not a good idea. Your integrated graphics in your CPU isn't as fast, but it uses a lot less power and idles a lot lower. So if you ever needed dual-monitors you would be better to use the integrated instead of the second graphics card.

 

[13thmonkey]

use afterburner or precision x to determine if it is idling, the clock speeds should be down at 50 Mhz at idle, the issue I had was it running at full 3d clock speeds when at idle, and nvidia claim this is 'normal'.

 

[zaysk]

No, only negatives. Those GPUs cannot work together in any way, and so it will only suck up power and do nothing else. Could even cause major issues with trying to get drives to work.

What are you talking about? I'm running a GTX 770 with a 750ti as a dedicated Physx card, there are no driver issues and heat isn't an issue either. It helps with any game that uses Physx, it especially makes the Metro games much smoother with advanced physx on.

Yes, both GPU's are utilized in Physx games, I monitor my system resources all the time and the 2nd card can go up to 15+% usage, that may not seem like much but when my 770 is already running at max load in Metro, it makes me glad I have a dedicated Physx card. The stuttering also went away with the 750ti added in.

If your PSU can support it, and you play games that utilize Physx, then it just might be worth it to throw in the old 650 as a Physx card.

 

[hermantset]

No, only negatives. Those GPUs cannot work together in any way, and so it will only suck up power and do nothing else. Could even cause major issues with trying to get drives to work.

What are you talking about? I'm running a GTX 770 with a 750ti as a dedicated Physx card, there are no driver issues and heat isn't an issue either. It helps with any game that uses Physx, it especially makes the Metro games much smoother with advanced physx on.

Yes, both GPU's are utilized in Physx games, I monitor my system resources all the time and the 2nd card can go up to 15+% usage, that may not seem like much but when my 770 is already running at max load in Metro, it makes me glad I have a dedicated Physx card. The stuttering also went away with the 750ti added in.

If your PSU can support it, and you play games that utilize Physx, then it just might be worth it to throw in the old 650 as a Physx card.

Do you think a 750W PSU will be able to handle both a GTX 770 and GTX 650? And if you don't mind me asking, what PSU are you using? I can't see your signature because I'm on my phone and the formatting is off.

And I might give everyone's suggestions a try and post up the results when I get the chance to.