Using one card in a two card setup

Questions and Answers : GPU applications : Using one card in a two card setup
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malignantpoodle

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Message 861682 - Posted: 3 Feb 2009, 23:36:43 UTC

Here's what I'm trying to do;

I have an ASRock A780GXE board
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157139&Tpk=a780GXE

I want to add an additional card, NOT identical and NOT running SLI mode for the purpose of full time crunching.

So I will have GTX 280 as my main graphics card that will not use CUDA at all or do any distributed computing processing, and I want to put a 9800GT 512MB in the secondary slot (again, not in SLI mode) to do nothing but SETI@home full time. Can someone tell me if this is possible and if so, what I need to do to get this arrangement up and running?

Thanks in advance!
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Message 861684 - Posted: 3 Feb 2009, 23:39:47 UTC - in response to Message 861682.  

That type of setup is not supported as of yet.
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malignantpoodle

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Message 861695 - Posted: 3 Feb 2009, 23:57:33 UTC

Ah ok, thanks for that. Well, it won't put me out of business on it, just less flops going to the project :(
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Message 861703 - Posted: 4 Feb 2009, 0:16:38 UTC - in response to Message 861695.  

You wouldn't be able to run them in SLI mode anyway, as you'd need two identical cards for that.

It's only possible to do at this moment if the secondary card is an ATI (or other non CUDA capable brand) card, while you set the nVidia card as primary card. Then BOINC will only detect that card and you can do everything you want from the secondary, ATI card.

BOINC doesn't know about ATI cards, yet.
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malignantpoodle

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Message 861740 - Posted: 4 Feb 2009, 2:35:53 UTC

Yep, I'm with ya on that, no SLI which is fine by me.

Ahhhh, you pose the obvious (yet overlooked on my part)... using an ATI and allowing the nvidia to crunch.

I'm wondering though, if the nvidia can be the secondary card. The reason being, my board is 16x on the primary channel, but only 8x on the secondary channel. For CUDA, this wouldn't make a difference, but for gaming it would.

You mentioned the ATI being secondary. Anything wrong with it being primary?
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Profile Byron S Goodgame
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Message 861744 - Posted: 4 Feb 2009, 2:41:34 UTC - in response to Message 861740.  

Yep, I'm with ya on that, no SLI which is fine by me.

Ahhhh, you pose the obvious (yet overlooked on my part)... using an ATI and allowing the nvidia to crunch.

I'm wondering though, if the nvidia can be the secondary card. The reason being, my board is 16x on the primary channel, but only 8x on the secondary channel. For CUDA, this wouldn't make a difference, but for gaming it would.

You mentioned the ATI being secondary. Anything wrong with it being primary?

From what I remember reading the problem would be, if Boinc doesn't find a CUDA device in the primary it stops looking.
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Message 861778 - Posted: 4 Feb 2009, 5:59:56 UTC - in response to Message 861744.  

From what I remember reading the problem would be, if Boinc doesn't find a CUDA device in the primary it stops looking.

Yes, that's the reason. This should be fixed in the present 6.6.x range, but I don't dare to point you to any of those beta's as they have severe problems with the work-fetch and client-side CPU scheduler modules. Steer clear of them.
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Message 861786 - Posted: 4 Feb 2009, 6:24:34 UTC

Thanks for all of the input. I'll stay clear of the beta for now. I'm sure it'll get worked out and in time I'll have it setup like I like.

For now, I have 2 machines running this. I took a few weeks before deciding on which distributing computing project to work on. Many have great causes, but SETI fascinated me the most.
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Questions and Answers : GPU applications : Using one card in a two card setup


 
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