Using a Quadro for display and a GeForce for RT?

[cgrant3d]

I've got a reasonably new (but too old to be useful for RT) Quadro 3700. What are my options for affordably testing RT in our workflow? I want to add a card just for GPU acceleration - can I get something like a GeForce 460 2GB or do I have to stick with adding a Quadro?

Thanks,

[Gander0]

You beat me to it Christopher,

Exactly the same question from me. I want to use my Quadro for display and ideally add multiple GeForce cards in the future for RT... Possible?

Thanks

[vlado]

The Quadro 3700 is somewhat slow for GPU rendering, but it is not a problem to add other cards for this purpose. You can tell V-Ray RT which GPUs to use for rendering.

Best regards,
Vlado

[cgrant3d]

The reason I'm asking this is I had heard that mixing GeForce & Quadro's in the same system could lead to instability. Can anyone confirm / deny that? To clarify - I would only use the GeForce for GPU acceleration, it wouldn't be used for display at all, those duties will remain assigned to the Quadro...

[Donald2B]

The problem you are going to run into is that windows will turn off the GeForce card unless you hook a monitor or cheater plug into to it. Without that, it will turn the video card off. Vlado may have a better explanation. Just a heads up.

[saudade]

i tested RT GPU with a Quadro CX (1.5GB) + Quadro 4600 (768Mb) + GeForce 260 (1GB) in a network...everything worked except for the problems related to the different gpu ram configurations.
The ideal configuration is to have a motherboard with two pci express 16x2 slots and purchase a cheap Quadro for the graphic (using Maxtreme driver) and a Tesla 2050 for the realtime rendering. Is better to have few gfx boards in the same case because the Nvidia fans generate a lot of noise. Inside the networked machines (that stay in another cooled room) you can install a bunch of Teslas or cheap 2Gb 460 for render final images.
Next year probably we will see Geforces with 3/4Gb, I think that 2Gb are basic to produce detailed interiors, for large exteriors with proxies we will need gpus with 8GB.

[kein_plan]

i read in the autodesk forum, that mixing quadro and geforce in one case can cause trouble with the maxtreme driver. they say you can install the maxtreme driver only, when you have only quadro(s) installed. mixing with geforce will force you to work with the standard driver....

[add101]

Take a look at this benchmark: http://www.jigsaw3d.com/articles/v-r...benchmark-test
The Tesla 4Gb C1060 looks good for a dedicated GPU processor. Price is good compared to Quadro FX series.
The 6Gb Quadro 6000 with 480 CUDA cores looks good, but for the price I'd rather extend CPU renderfarm network.
QuadroPlex 7000 12 Gb Ram (on a graphics card!) 896 cores!

[leotchest]

You can tell V-Ray RT which GPUs to use for rendering.

I am trying to find out how to tell Vray RT which GPU to use and which GPU NOT to use. I cant find this option ? Can someone tell me how to do this ??
thx
Oops - I found it. I though it would be in the Render Settings, but its not - you have to go to the Windows/Start/Programs/ChaosGroup menu and access it there.

[andkav]

The problem you are going to run into is that windows will turn off the GeForce card unless you hook a monitor or cheater plug into to it. Without that, it will turn the video card off. Vlado may have a better explanation. Just a heads up.

Hi everyone, first post here

@Donald2B I wonder what you ment by "cheater plug" - I have been serching and reading this forum for couple of hours but can't find anything.

I would like to know if it's possible to use a K4000 as main display and a GTX Titan as a render card (in one computer). Some people claim it's possible to install both drivers, found this in another forum:

"Install Quadro Driver full installation via Wizard. Decompress Geforce Driver latest version but do not run Wizard install. Manually update Geforce Card driver via Device manager by pointing to Nvidia/Geforce folder Launch Nvidia Control Panel and set the GPU Acceleration to Geforce card only."

But I also read that it only works until the machine is rebooted - so I'm guessing that the "cheater plug" might solve this issue?

Help deeply appreciated! Thanks!

[tashko.zashev]

I would like to know if it's possible to use a K4000 as main display and a GTX Titan as a render card (in one computer).

If you install your graphic cards according to the instructions provided by Nvidia, V-ray RT should be able to use them for computations.