Topic: 1 Card for displaying and another for rendering

[Deathclone]

Hi,

Not sure if this question was asked, cuz i can't find it.
But is it possible to have your display on 1 card and another card do all the heavy lifting (eg. rendering & calculations). I have 2 X ATI R9 280x's and would like to use it fully.

I'm not talking about crossfire or sli.

Thanks

[Morten]

Yes, that's possible.

Here are some quotes from users who are running that sort of set up:

I have two cards, a Titan and a GTX 660ti 3gb. I also have two monitors (both Samsung 32")
I have connected my monitors to the GTX 660 and this serves as my default video card. In the Nvidia settings I have set it so that Lumion only works with the Titan (I tried selecting both cards and when I did a speed test it auto selected the 660ti, so now it only uses the Titan) This setup is great also for GPU rendering in other apps like Thea render where it's set to use both cards, however the share is 100% of Titan and 50% 660ti)

I have not had a single issue, in fact it runs Lumion fast on one monitor while I can surf net or even work in Sketchup in the other monitor without any slow down, render issues.

In my experience, if you are running dual cards and both cards are displaying your desktop, then you will get lag on both screens regardless of which monitor you are using because the GPU is still needed to calculate the desktop. Of course, if you are using a top of the line Titan card, you might not be seeing this. However, I saw this while running dual midrange GeForces, and see it while running two midrange AMDs.

Like Pete mentioned, I think if you are running two cards, probably the most ideal setup for simultaneous rendering and modeling would be to have your monitors on one card and Lumion rendering on a dedicated card with no monitors. I've run stress tests and found I can have 100% activity on the non-display card and have absolutely no effect on the desktop responsiveness. Alternatively, I tested one monitor per card and ran 100% activity on one and still have performance issues on both monitors.

[EzraLee]

Morten,

Any possible links for accessing/tutorial setup like this?

When we first purchased Lumion and a PC, we purchased two Titans hoping to run SLI. Obviously we didn't do our research and have an additional Video Card just there.

[Morten]

Hi EzraLee, I'm not aware of any tutorials on the Lumion forum, but there must be some, e.g on YouTube.

Francan actually has a PC with 2 Titans, so that 1 Titan can render a movie in Lumion while he's editing videos with the other Titan, so it should be possible to replicate that on your PC. You can read more about it in this post (only accessible for commercial license-holders). Please note that it's not possible to run two instances of Lumion on your PC unless you have 2 licenses.

Francan: If you're reading this, I'm sure EzraLee would be grateful for some tips

[Francan]

hi Morten and Ezralee

As has already been said, the Titan SLI does not work with Lumion.

By cons, if you have 2 screens, it is quite possible to use Lumion for the rendering on a screen with a Titan and use the 2nd Titan on the 2nd screen with another CAD or Video without disturbing the render of Lumion.

I can switch from one soft to another without any slowdown

In my case, this is how I work and everything going wonderfully.

I have a pretty muscular configuration, it certainly contribut a bit, but I think it should work with simpler configurations.

You just disable the SLI in the Nvidia panel

With HWiNFO64, you can see which Titan card is used and how much ram used Lumion on the moment

R4BE - i7 4960X 32GB RAM 2xTitans (not black) SSD 512 Windows 64 2xDell pro 30 "(2560x1600)

I also opted for water cooling, but that's just for silence, because with Lumion, the GPU goes up to 45 °-48°

[peterm]

Thanks for the details Francan.  What a beast of a machine. 

EzraLee, I think there's two key things needed, set SLI as Francan mentions, and only assign Lumion to one of the cards.

The other option is of course, to use the other Titan in another PC  .

[Francan]

Hi Peterm. When you love it does not matter   

When you say assign Lumion to one of the  card, it is a way of speaking, because you just run Lumion on the screen right or left and it will be the GPU that is connected to the screen used by Lumion, which is selected automatically.

There is no adjustment to do apart disconnect the SLI

 

[peterm]

Easy as  .  Thanks.

[Francan]

By cons if someone has a Sli with 2 normally Titans fan cooled, I would like to know the working temperature in Lumion and eventually if it increases the overall sound of the pc

[EzraLee]

Francan, Morten, Peterm

Your all fantastic!

I have the same exact setup as Francan, except for the SSD. Just a 256 SSD here.

I'm going to set this up today. Just need another monitor!

Really appreciate this. We were trying to figure out if we should just purchase another computer for workflow reasons. Seeing that you can't sit and Render a video and work at the same time, your bound to come to a bottleneck in the work schedule at some point.

Thanks again!

[stucki]

i am not sure if you are understanding each other in the right way ...

i think it is not possible rendering lumion on one screen and working with lumion on the other.
you can only work with other software and windows itself while lumion is rendering.
but maybe you already got each other right.
just to be sure

[Francan]

Comment by morten
"Please Note That It's not feasible to run two instances of Lumion is your PC unless you have 2 licenses."

You're right Stucki to redefine it, and I think we will repeat again. 

But ultimately it helps not to block a PC during the rendering phase which is sometimes quite long.

Just keep in mind that it helps to have more power in Photoshop, Premiere or vegas and CAD, especially if it's used at the same time and not just with Lumion

"Stucki, I'll call you later with my cell phone" 

[Francan]

So Ezralee, what does this ultimately gives.
You could test ?
It works as you want ?

[EzraLee]

Hey Francan,

Soon here I'm going to purchase another Monitor. Gotta wait on the company to purchase it thou.

It's already going to do a lot. Seeing that the computer is shut down when I render, I can't have that happen due to deadlines and workflow in the company. Our only solution was to render at night or weekends.

Once I get an additional monitor and adjust the settings, I will report.

Thanks again, Francan!

[peterm]

.. Seeing that the computer is shut down when I render, ..

??

It works for some users to run Windows media player to keep the PC active.