Multiple GPUs - AMD and Nvidia

gstjames3

I've just recently started exploring Daz3d, but this was unfortunately after I bought an AMD Radeon RX 580 GPU. This means that all of my iray renders are processed through my Ryzen 5 2600 processor.

Until recently this wasn't so bad because I would batch renders overnight and each one would take 1-2 hours. But now that I've been getting better at animations and rendering 40 frames at 1 hour apeice is not ideal, I'm considering getting a second Nvidia GPU as a workhorse for the renders and leaving the AMD GPU in for gaming/whatever.

Is this a common setup, or am I better off rendering with my CPU? I'd be willing to spend ~$300 for a second GPU, but I'm not sure that the speed improvement would really warrant the money. 

Also yes I know I could use 3Delight but I am getting better results with iray. Also also yes I know this is similar to questions that have already been asked on the forums and I apologize - I did search for an answer before posting this.

 

nonesuch00

It took my 3000 iteration renders from about 3 - 15 hours (depending on scene's complexity in iRay) with a AMD Ryzen 7 2700 8 Core CPU rendering to 0.25 - 4 hours with an nVidia GeForce GTX 1650 Super with 4GB if that helps you decide.

Now there are very complex outlier scenes that take more time on both types of rendering and many very big scenes I make are too big for my nVidia GeForce GTX 1650 Super.

Robinson

gstjames3 said:

But now that I've been getting better at animations and rendering 40 frames at 1 hour apeice is not ideal, I'm considering getting a second Nvidia GPU as a workhorse for the renders and leaving the AMD GPU in for gaming/whatever.

It should be OK.  iRay won't see the AMD card, it'll only see the NVIDIA.  Perhaps check your power supply is enough to feed them both though.  It'll be pretty obvious if it isn't.  It'll either fail to post or your PC will shut down from time to time (if it's at some limit).