wanting to add a 2nd GPU

Ongoing Moment

Putting together a new Ryzen 1600 computer. Been using an old XPS 435mt with an i7-920 cpu. This computer has been great for 8 years. Probably could have gotten a few more years out of it by adding RAM, larger GPU. My new Ryzen 1600 has 2 PCIe slots (albeit with only 6 lanes 16x/4x) and I have been using a GTX 1060 6gb with the XPS. Thinking of buying a GTX 960 or 970 to add more CUDA Cores and use as my monitor card on the new computer. Does anyone have this GPU setup? Or do you think there would be any compatability issues with those 2 cards? Will this work as I think it will? The data goes on the 6gb 1060 and the 960/970 just adds processing cuda power during rebdering.

Ongoing Moment

during rendering

fixmypcmike

The two cards don't share RAM, so the 960/970 will be used for rendering only if the scene fits on it, otherwise only the 1060 is used.

CO3DR

For a while, I had a Quadro K4200 and a GeForce GTX 980Ti in the same machine, thinking one for render and one for video. It was unsatisfying.

I bought a used GeForce GTX 980Ti and SLI'd it with the other. I removed the K4200 and sold it.

That is the route I recommend, although I'm totally an amateur at this GPU thing. NVidia warns you 16 ways from Sunday that SLI'd cards have to be exactly the same, so figure out an exact match at a price you can manage, and sell the excess card.

My renders are "really fast" now. I'm happy.

Takeo.Kensei

You'd better buy a second gtx 1060. It is always better to have same generation cards with same amount of VRAM

@AllThatxAz you should disable SLI when rendering

 

JamesJAB

I agree on most points. There is no benefit to running SLI for Iray rendering. If you get two cards they will both process the render the same as 2 CPUs would. A second 1060 6gb would be your best bet. Unless you want to splurge on a GTX 1070 or better.