Video card advice/opinions

[Muhammed_Hamed]

I think the first power supply I plugged in was somehow bad (luckily I didn't have the 4090 installed yet) I think it took out my liquid cooler pump.

This would only happen if you use cables from a different power supply, the pump most likely gave up. It is common to happen with and without reasons
I'm glad it all went well otherwise!

I originally had a DLSS quality slider on the top toolbar, and since I put this other card in it is no longer there

npg Is it related to running multiple GPUs with Vantage?
Thanks for the help!

[npg]

The DLSS slider is only there while this denoiser is the primary denoiser choice in Edit->Preferences->Render Defaults. It may also be unavailable if the driver is older than 537.

Like all Chaos products we have documentation here: https://docs.chaos.com/display/LAV/Chaos+Vantage+Home

Make sure to explicitly select the 4090 from Edit->Render devices (then restart the app and check the device shown in the bottom right of the status bar). This is not related to the DLSS question, but it is the optimal choice because the 2080 is over 4 times slower than 4090 and even if it wasn't slower, in Vantage multi-gpu mode you're limited by the smaller card's memory because both have to fit the scene in their memory. The 2080 will take the hit from Max and the OS (browsers and whatnot) leaving the 4090 free for Vantage or V-Ray GPU.

The 4090 doesn't produce a lot of heat during rendering

I dunno about that, I use a 4090 with Vantage and it radiates quite a bit of heat. The important thing for the setup discussed here is to keep the 4090 cooled well, meaning with good access to fresh air. Let the 2080 overheat a bit if necessary, it will just throttle down.

When using a single GPU Vantage is not really affected the PCI-e speed (lane count). V-Ray GPU uses the bus much more, though I'm not sure if it could be a bottleneck. It's possible with the 4090 because it's quite a beast.

[terry_reeves]

Ok, now I see where the denoiser setting are. That makes sense now. I am still in the learning process as far as Vantage goes. I do like what I see so far. I seem to have taken a major performance hit with Revit now. So much that its a problem now orbiting in 3d which is kinda important for my job and especially when in meetings doing live presentations. It never acted this way before. As far as I can tell, Revit is just listing the 2080 as the graphic card. So I am going to have to find a solution to this problem. What I sort of feared from the beginning is that my 2080 super becomes the bottleneck of my system. And if my solution is dropping in another 4090, then Im not against that but was hoping I didnt have to go that route just because of the obvious...those cards are spendy. But if that is what I need to do then I am willing to do that.

[Muhammed_Hamed]

I seem to have taken a major performance hit with Revit now. So much that its a problem now orbiting in 3d which is kinda important for my job and especially when in meetings doing live presentations. It never acted this way before. As far as I can tell, Revit is just listing the 2080 as the graphic card

This is not expected to happen, you should get the same performance you had before. Having 2 GPUs will not decrease the performance of the 2080
Maybe try a clean install of drivers

Best,
Muhammed

[terry_reeves]

This is not expected to happen, you should get the same performance you had before. Having 2 GPUs will not decrease the performance of the 2080
Maybe try a clean install of drivers

Best,
Muhammed

I did a little bit of a "test". I pulled out my 2080 and just my 4090 in the top slot and decided to temporarily just run with the one card. Revit is doing the exact same thing (not allowing me to orbit around in 3d). But I can orbit around in fairly large scenes in Max just fine, so its just a Revit thing. As far as I can tell the computer runs just fine with that one exception. I will probably put the 2080 back in unless you think I would be better running with a pair of 4090's. Not sure another 4090 would physically go into second slot without them literally being against each other. I can pull out the nvidia software and reinstall it and see what it does. I noticed that the driver listed on the banner at top of V-ray GPU page is older than the one I'm running. I was running version 560.94 and the page says 551.86. As far as I can tell Nvidia doesn't even offer that driver anymore.

UPDATE: So I put my 2080 card back in since I only removed it for a test and removing didn't solve anything. I now have the 2080 super back in top slot and 4090 is in 2nd slot. I uninstalled ALL nvidia software including drivers and re-installed driver package which also re-installed control panel and ge-force experience. I still have the problem with Revit, but everything else seems to be working just fine. The only way that I can describe the problem in Revit is if I am in a 3D view and go to orbit it seems to have a "delay". It will orbit but is very "choppy" and very slow. I have NEVER had Revit do this before. According to The options that are in revit, it says it is using the 2080 as the graphics card, so I'm a little confused as to why its acting this way. But being able to orbit in 3D in Revit is a big deal to me, so I hope I can find a solution. I also followed your guide for setting the control panel up for multiple GPU's. Thanks for your time by the way. I think I have narrowed the "Revit problem" down. I think its something screwy with this particular file. Other Revit files work just fine. I dont know why this file is suddenly doing this. It is a powerhouse building that I have been involved with in developing and it used to work fine and now has a bug but oh well, thats life I guess.

[terry_reeves]

The DLSS slider is only there while this denoiser is the primary denoiser choice in Edit->Preferences->Render Defaults. It may also be unavailable if the driver is older than 537.

Like all Chaos products we have documentation here: https://docs.chaos.com/display/LAV/Chaos+Vantage+Home

Make sure to explicitly select the 4090 from Edit->Render devices (then restart the app and check the device shown in the bottom right of the status bar). This is not related to the DLSS question, but it is the optimal choice because the 2080 is over 4 times slower than 4090 and even if it wasn't slower, in Vantage multi-gpu mode you're limited by the smaller card's memory because both have to fit the scene in their memory. The 2080 will take the hit from Max and the OS (browsers and whatnot) leaving the 4090 free for Vantage or V-Ray GPU.


I dunno about that, I use a 4090 with Vantage and it radiates quite a bit of heat. The important thing for the setup discussed here is to keep the 4090 cooled well, meaning with good access to fresh air. Let the 2080 overheat a bit if necessary, it will just throttle down.

When using a single GPU Vantage is not really affected the PCI-e speed (lane count). V-Ray GPU uses the bus much more, though I'm not sure if it could be a bottleneck. It's possible with the 4090 because it's quite a beast.

I was doing some rendering yesterday, and it was pumping out renderings beautifully. I also rendered out an animation, it rendered 300 frames. The 4090 (installed directly below my 2080) was at about 66 degrees, BUT my 2080 got up to 98 degrees. Pretty sure that is hotter than I want it to get. What is a good solution to this? These cards are next to each other with maybe 1/2" between them.

[npg]

If the case allows it, you could add a fan (maybe 120mm) to the side of the GPUs, feeding some fresh air into the 2080. Some cases have such fan slots on the side panel. Otherwise you could zip-tie it or something like that.

The other thing is to use an overclocking tool to underclock and/or undervolt the 2080, though if all the heat comes from the 4090 (in your example you were rendering with the 4090 and the 2080 was not very busy, right?) this may not help much.

[terry_reeves]

If the case allows it, you could add a fan (maybe 120mm) to the side of the GPUs, feeding some fresh air into the 2080. Some cases have such fan slots on the side panel. Otherwise you could zip-tie it or something like that.

The other thing is to use an overclocking tool to underclock and/or undervolt the 2080, though if all the heat comes from the 4090 (in your example you were rendering with the 4090 and the 2080 was not very busy, right?) this may not help much.

Yes, I am rendering with the 4090, monitors are plugged into the 2080.

[npg]

Could you post a link to your motherboard model? Which slots are you using? From what you said earlier it sounds like 2080 is in the first 16x slot and the 4090 is in the 8x slot and there is a free 4x slot at the bottom. You could try moving the 4090 to the top slot and the 2080 to the bottom 4x slot, with the monitor still attached to it. This will increase the spacing though the 4090 will get a bit warmer. A side fan could still help.

[terry_reeves]

Could you post a link to your motherboard model? Which slots are you using? From what you said earlier it sounds like 2080 is in the first 16x slot and the 4090 is in the 8x slot and there is a free 4x slot at the bottom. You could try moving the 4090 to the top slot and the 2080 to the bottom 4x slot, with the monitor still attached to it. This will increase the spacing though the 4090 will get a bit warmer. A side fan could still help.

Yes, you are exactly right. 2080 is in top x16 slot and 4090 is in second x8 slot. I do have a x4 slot at the bottom of board. I am pretty sure I have a couple extra 120mm fans in my "computer box" will check.

• Mainboard: X570 Aorus Ultra
• CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 - 16 core
• Memory: 64GB DDR4
• Video Card: Nvidia Ge-Force RTX 2080-Super 8GB (plugged into top slot PCIEX16)
• Video Card: Nvidia Ge-Force RTX 4090 24GB (plugged into second slot PCIEX
• Windows 11
• 3ds Max 2025
• V-Ray 6 update 2.1

[npg]

Hm, looking at this bottom slot, it's very close to the end of the board. If you're using the cable headers there it may not be possible to fit a GPU over them. Or if the case is not tall enough. Anyway, it was just an idea.

[npg]

If you try swapping the cards, you may have to change the "Initial Display Output" option in BIOS. I found it on page 32 of the manual.

[terry_reeves]

If you try swapping the cards, you may have to change the "Initial Display Output" option in BIOS. I found it on page 32 of the manual.

So, is this the better option vs putting 4090 on top and 2080 to bottom? My 4090 currently does cover up those lower cable headers on board but it clears most of them. One it was pulling on badly enough that I disconnected it because I was afraid it might break off. It runs my USB 3 plugs on top of my case. But I have a couple of usb 3 compatible hubs I can plug into back of case to make up for the loss of those.

How much warmer would the 4090 run? It was only at 66 under full load, so I think I have some room for temp increase as long as it isnt crazy high like my 2080 was.

[npg]

Ideally both cards should have some space below them to "breathe" cooler air (even better with a side fan). For the bottom slot this means you need sufficient space below the lower edge of the motherboard before you hit the bottom of the case or the power supply. The priority for better cooled position should be for the 4090, though you probably also want to avoid putting it in the slower 4x slot (I'm speculating - maybe 4x is fine for rendering). You'll have to experiment.

[Muhammed_Hamed]

BUT my 2080 got up to 98 degrees. Pretty sure that is hotter than I want it to get. What is a good solution to this? These cards are next to each other with maybe 1/2" between them.

Are you using your 2080 for rendering with your 4090?
I see no other reason the 2080 would get this hot

I wouldn't worry about the 4090 temperature in your setup, even in the topmost slot. The 4090 has a bigger cooler and doesn't get hot in rendering