Running two different gpus

[pipson]

I have a Asus M5A99X EVO AMD 990X Chipset and will be using it with a vtx3d 7870 tahiti version and i got a 2 month old MSI 7770 not being used atm and i also use 2 monitors

now i know crossfire you need to run two of the same gpus or in the same series but if i dont plan to crossfire or anything like that so questions..

1- can i use those 2 gpus at the same time with a 600w ?
2- what are the benefits of it? will i gain any performance or graphical benefit? or if i plug 1 monitor on each gpu it will take the load off my main gpu is that it?

 

[Orcvader]

1) As long as it's a decent branded PSU, then yes, both the 7870 XT and 7770 will run fine together in non-crossfire mode.

2) If you connect the 2nd monitor to the 7770 then it will allow the 7870 XT to drop at single screen idle speeds, which gives nicer temps than dual screen idle speeds. Apart from that, there's no other benefits... rather, you'll probably get higher temps overall and more noise due to the extra fan...

Overall I wouldn't bother since it won't give you any benefits performance wise.

 

[Tomsk]

Would it be worthwhile to add a second, different GPU but only use it for video encoding purposes?
I currently have an AMD in my PC, but I have a (passive cooled) nvidia sitting in a box.

 

[Orcvader]

Depends on what AMD and Nvidia GPU you're on about and the software you use to encode... but usually no .

 

[pipson]

1) As long as it's a decent branded PSU, then yes, both the 7870 XT and 7770 will run fine together in non-crossfire mode.

2) If you connect the 2nd monitor to the 7770 then it will allow the 7870 XT to drop at single screen idle speeds, which gives nicer temps than dual screen idle speeds. Apart from that, there's no other benefits... rather, you'll probably get higher temps overall and more noise due to the extra fan...

Overall I wouldn't bother since it won't give you any benefits performance wise.

its a Corsair 600 Watts CX600 Gaming Power Supply, 80+ is that enough?

If i only use the 1 card and the plug two monitors and only use the 2nd for web browsing and etc, will i notice a drop in fps?

 

[Orcvader]

You will notice no difference at all. Just higher temps and more noise.

 

[MeMeMeMe]

There's no real benefit to splitting the two monitors across different cards.

The first card will have a lower idle power, but then, you're powering two graphic cards (and running two sets of fans - which means more noise, too).

For video processing, if it's GPU accelerated, then using the faster card is a must. If it's not, then you get no benefit from your cards. Either way, no point having the second card.