SLI 980ti + 1070? (Solved)

ZKuro

I have a 1070, and I cannot do GPU Iray renders. Eventhough the SDK has been released about a week ago, still could take months to have it here. So, the question is, If I buy a 980ti now, could I add my 1070 after, to do a 980ti + 1070SLI to render  without anything happening, besides being limited to the 6gb of the 980ti??  Or does Iray hates having two different cards??

I need to know if Iray will work ok with two different cards, or if it will need another 980ti. They're starting to appear as discontinued on some stores, and on another, they're on sale, so by when pascals work with Iray, if they don't work together will be a real pain, and if they can't work as a SLI with Iray, I would need to buy the second one now, plus another PSU already, and a new board (mine's just support Crossfire, x4 second PCIx).

I would like to know, cause if I can wait, I will wait with just one 980ti, and then use also the 1070, but If I have to buy two 980ti plus PSU, and motherboard now.... I would have to think it a little. Thanks!

kaotkbliss

For SLI, you cannot use 2 different types of cards. They can both be the same model from different manufacturers, but they can't be 2 different models.

That said, Iray doesn't really like SLI anyway, but will use as many cards (model of cards can differ for Iray) as you can fit in your machine, as long as the scene can fit in the card's ram. If the scene doesn't fit in the card's ram, Iray will not use that card..

ZKuro

Thanks, I've just found also about the SLI and Iray.

So If get just one 980ti now, when pascals get support, both different cards will be used in Iray, but, I will not be able to enable SLI for games or anything else that supports SLI, is that correct??

nicstt

Correct.

Well, you could enable it for games, but it is likely to cause at least a few issues. At best it won't improve gameing performance over one card. You can disable SLI in software.

For rendering; a card for display purposes, and one or more for rendering is a good solution.

ZKuro

Thanks nicstt.

If I add a second one, must be to speed up the Iray renders,(as a PA, I need to do quality promos, and as fast as possible, within my budget of course :P )

I've readed something about what you say, one for display, and one for render, but I think that a new PSU, and a new motherboard is too much just to use it as a display card.

Turning off SLI on software.... that sounds good, could get the two 980ti, and just turn on SLI to play games that need so much horsepower. Anyway... I almost don't have time to play so maybe I could buy just one 980ti, and then add the 1070 to the mis when supported, and use the 1070 for gaming, and both for Iray.

Ahhhh, it's a difficult decission!, the 980ti are getting discontinued as we speak (writte :P ), have to think of something as quick as... now?, oh, my.

alexhcowley

nicstt said:

Correct.

Well, you could enable it for games, but it is likely to cause at least a few issues. At best it won't improve gameing performance over one card. You can disable SLI in software.

For rendering; a card for display purposes, and one or more for rendering is a good solution.

I use a 970 for rendering and a 730 to drive the screen.  It works very well.

Cheers,

Alex.

ZKuro

What advantage give you that setup? You can freely use your pc while rendering as one card is free? it's not bad, but again, as a PA need to get the promos done ASAP.  I can't spend days doing the promos (literally, with the project I'm working on right one, I've already spend way more than three days), but if you do renders for fun as I used to, indeed would be nice to do a lot of things on you PC, while you're doing your renders.

Much appreciated for taking the time to help.

nicstt

Well in Studio you can select what cards you want to use for rendering.

So if you're not using the computer, adding the display card will help; just bear in mind, that it will still provide output to the monitor(s), so it will not be as good as the same card only for rendering.

And the larger the monitor resolution, or the greater the nubmer of monitors the more resources it will allocate to them instead of rendering.

I use a 970 for display, I use two 2560x1440.

I use a 980ti for rendering; am considering adding a Titan, but the cost means I'm currently only considering it; I have the purchase page open though. :) I use the 970 sometimes but rarely, due to to the system becoming so laggy when I do that.

ZKuro

Ah, ok. So using one for display, leaves the other(s) full potential to render, I could use two 980ti and a 960 for display, but three cars and one just for display... I think that two 980tis should render fast enough, and If I have to do anything else on the computer, can do it before, and set it to render while I do something at home ^^. Thanks for your help again nicstt!

nicstt

zkuro said:

Ah, ok. So using one for display, leaves the other(s) full potential to render, I could use two 980ti and a 960 for display, but three cars and one just for display... I think that two 980tis should render fast enough, and If I have to do anything else on the computer, can do it before, and set it to render while I do something at home ^^. Thanks for your help again nicstt!

You're welcome.

Depending on your CPU, you could get two 980ti; if your CPU supports it (generally intel ones do unless they are the extreme versions) you could set the graphics capability of the CPU to drive your monitor. I may be sufficient for your needs; if not you could then add another card; it might save your some cash; I always prefer my cash in my own bank account. :)

Are you sure you don't want to wait until results from the 10 series cards are available; probably September.

Or get one 980ti, use the CPU to drive the monitores; when you find out how the 10 series performs, then turn the 980ti into the monitor card and add 10 series cards for rendering.

This presumes that 10 series cards will be better; it is expected, but I do like to see official independent figures.

ZKuro

If the Pascal supports comes as soon, as even September, sure I'll wait, in fact, I do own a 1070 already, and would like to add another for a dual 1070 rendering.

The only problem is, that it seems that It could be delayed as far as even November, and CPU rendering just cut it more than half, my capabilities of doing the promos for my products, and that could mean potential loses.

Well, I'm thinking that having had to do the promos on CPU for a few months, I guess that I could wait a few more and do a 2x1070, or depending on the motherboard I get, I could add a third one....

So... thanks again! I've made up my mind, I'll wait rendering with my CPU, while the 1070 gets bored until we get Pascal support on DS.