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Alternate cryptocurrencies => Mining (Altcoins) => Topic started by: Redrose on July 19, 2016, 01:20:46 PM



Title: Can I mix different graphic cards ?
Post by: Redrose on July 19, 2016, 01:20:46 PM
Can I mix different graphic cards ? I think that some RX 480 from different brands may not be a problem, but what about R9 380 and RX 480 ? They don't use the same driver version. May it be a problem ?

About an NVidia/AMD mix : I don't think it's possible, but who knows ? May you enlight me about this ?


Title: Re: Can I mix different graphic cards ?
Post by: restless on July 19, 2016, 01:38:47 PM
Yes and yes but with problems & switches
For Amd-only cards you better install latest catalyst which should be support all of them
For AMd-NV mix you need Win10 (or Linux...maybe) and swicthes to make sure you try right version on the right card


Title: Re: Can I mix different graphic cards ?
Post by: Redrose on July 19, 2016, 01:51:45 PM
Yes and yes but with problems & switches
For Amd-only cards you better install latest catalyst which should be support all of them
For AMd-NV mix you need Win10 (or Linux...maybe) and swicthes to make sure you try right version on the right card

For the R9 380s I use, some guy recommended me Catalyst 15.12, and that's what I use since then without any problem. Won't Catalyst 16.7, that I will use if I buy an RX 480 wil be a problem ? I'm also tempted about the R7 370, so I shouldn't have any problem with these ones.


Title: Re: Can I mix different graphic cards ?
Post by: QuintLeo on July 19, 2016, 07:46:32 PM
You can mix cards, but as a general rule you have a lot fewer issues if you stay within the same generation of card (for this purpose, AMD R9 2xx and 3xx cards count as the same generation, as they were mostly just relabeled varients of the same cards with a bit of BIOS mods, ditto the HD77xx/79xx cards to the R9 2xx).

 Mixing AMD and NVidia on the same machine can be done, but it's NOT particularty easy and can be a real nightmare to troubleshoot.
 NOT RECOMMENDED.


 Do NOT try to mix pre-GCN AMD cards (or IGUs) with GCN cards (or IGUs) - they do NOT mix and match at all as the archetectures are totally different and the drivers get totally messed up if you try to do so.
 At BEST, you end up not seeing some of the cards (or IGU) 'cause the drivers are working in the "other mode" with the rest.
 Not only NOT RECOMMENDED, but specifically JUST DON'T WASTE TIME TRYING TO DO IT.





Title: Re: Can I mix different graphic cards ?
Post by: Redrose on July 19, 2016, 10:35:19 PM
You can mix cards, but as a general rule you have a lot fewer issues if you stay within the same generation of card (for this purpose, AMD R9 2xx and 3xx cards count as the same generation, as they were mostly just relabeled varients of the same cards with a bit of BIOS mods, ditto the HD77xx/79xx cards to the R9 2xx).

 Mixing AMD and NVidia on the same machine can be done, but it's NOT particularty easy and can be a real nightmare to troubleshoot.
 NOT RECOMMENDED.


 Do NOT try to mix pre-GCN AMD cards (or IGUs) with GCN cards (or IGUs) - they do NOT mix and match at all as the archetectures are totally different and the drivers get totally messed up if you try to do so.
 At BEST, you end up not seeing some of the cards (or IGU) 'cause the drivers are working in the "other mode" with the rest.
 Not only NOT RECOMMENDED, but specifically JUST DON'T WASTE TIME TRYING TO DO IT.

Thank you very much for this very clear explanation. I guess that putting RX 480 in my R9 380 setup is a bad idea and that R7 370 will work fine. Right ?


Title: Re: Can I mix different graphic cards ?
Post by: molitar on July 19, 2016, 11:08:43 PM

Thank you very much for this very clear explanation. I guess that putting RX 480 in my R9 380 setup is a bad idea and that R7 370 will work fine. Right ?

Hello let me answer that question for you.  It may not be as bad as you think I have an R380x and an R280x in my personal system that I am using to mine.

EthDcrMiner64.exe -epool coinotron.com:3344 -ewal <name>.miner1 -esm 2 -epsw <password> -dpool "http://sia-eu1.nanopool.org:9980/miner/header?address=<address>&worker=miner1&email=email@here.com" -dcoin sia -dcri 30 -allpools 1 -ethi 16,2

16,2 are my intensity for my 2 different cards.. default is 16 but if you are using one card for your personal pc use than 2 is a good number.  So basically just change the intensity if using the Claymore's Dual Ethereum+Decred/Siacoin GPU Miner v5.1 (Windows/Linux) dual miner as I did above.  You can set different intensity based on the type of card and be hashing just fine!  BTW I am not using the drivers installed for the mining I have dropped the 15.12 drivers into the folder which the EthDcrMiner64.exe will use instead of installed drivers when it locates them in the same folder.

You can download this miner with the 15.12 Catalyst drivers from https://mega.nz/#F!O4YA2JgD!n2b4iSHQDruEsYUvTQP5_w.

So a miner that will use drivers dropped into the folder may work for you.



Title: Re: Can I mix different graphic cards ?
Post by: Tmdz on July 19, 2016, 11:22:15 PM
Ive been wondering about this as well.

The newest drivers SHOULD support the older cards and new rx 480 just fine.  But the proof of the pudding is in the eating.

I have a small rig with 3 R9 290s, so ive been wondering if I could add 2 rx 480s to that rig and not be living a nightmare.  Because of this ive been thinking about building a rx 480 rig only with those cards installed on it.  Leaving the r9 290 rig well enough alone and have to deal with sleepless nights.

I would like to know if someone has been successful.


Title: Re: Can I mix different graphic cards ?
Post by: Redrose on July 20, 2016, 10:54:17 AM

Thank you very much for this very clear explanation. I guess that putting RX 480 in my R9 380 setup is a bad idea and that R7 370 will work fine. Right ?

Hello let me answer that question for you.  It may not be as bad as you think I have an R380x and an R280x in my personal system that I am using to mine.

EthDcrMiner64.exe -epool coinotron.com:3344 -ewal <name>.miner1 -esm 2 -epsw <password> -dpool "http://sia-eu1.nanopool.org:9980/miner/header?address=<address>&worker=miner1&email=email@here.com" -dcoin sia -dcri 30 -allpools 1 -ethi 16,2

16,2 are my intensity for my 2 different cards.. default is 16 but if you are using one card for your personal pc use than 2 is a good number.  So basically just change the intensity if using the Claymore's Dual Ethereum+Decred/Siacoin GPU Miner v5.1 (Windows/Linux) dual miner as I did above.  You can set different intensity based on the type of card and be hashing just fine!  BTW I am not using the drivers installed for the mining I have dropped the 15.12 drivers into the folder which the EthDcrMiner64.exe will use instead of installed drivers when it locates them in the same folder.

You can download this miner with the 15.12 Catalyst drivers from https://mega.nz/#F!O4YA2JgD!n2b4iSHQDruEsYUvTQP5_w.

So a miner that will use drivers dropped into the folder may work for you.

That's a very good thing that you're pointing out, but how will the mining software will know which card has to use which driver ? I'm used to gethwork, so I'm not sure that the switch a mining software with so complicated command lines will be easy.


Title: Re: Can I mix different graphic cards ?
Post by: restless on July 20, 2016, 05:56:26 PM
You can download this miner with the 15.12 Catalyst drivers from https://mega.nz/#F!O4YA2JgD!n2b4iSHQDruEsYUvTQP5_w.

So a miner that will use drivers dropped into the folder may work for you.

The link is for the miner only, no 15.12 opencl dlls there


Title: Re: Can I mix different graphic cards ?
Post by: QuintLeo on July 20, 2016, 07:45:37 PM
You can mix cards, but as a general rule you have a lot fewer issues if you stay within the same generation of card (for this purpose, AMD R9 2xx and 3xx cards count as the same generation, as they were mostly just relabeled varients of the same cards with a bit of BIOS mods, ditto the HD77xx/79xx cards to the R9 2xx).

 Mixing AMD and NVidia on the same machine can be done, but it's NOT particularty easy and can be a real nightmare to troubleshoot.
 NOT RECOMMENDED.


 Do NOT try to mix pre-GCN AMD cards (or IGUs) with GCN cards (or IGUs) - they do NOT mix and match at all as the archetectures are totally different and the drivers get totally messed up if you try to do so.
 At BEST, you end up not seeing some of the cards (or IGU) 'cause the drivers are working in the "other mode" with the rest.
 Not only NOT RECOMMENDED, but specifically JUST DON'T WASTE TIME TRYING TO DO IT.

Thank you very much for this very clear explanation. I guess that putting RX 480 in my R9 380 setup is a bad idea and that R7 370 will work fine. Right ?

 I'd recommend against mixing RX480 with any previous cards - they're a major change from anything older and such a mix will likely won't be a particularly stable system.

 380 and 370 should play well together.


 Trying to run multiple drivers for the same brand is NOT going to work - at best, the "additional" drivers will be ignored, if they're not they ARE going to cause major instability and crashes if the system even comes up at all.


 I'm pretty sure you have to run something more recent than the 15.12 Catalyst drivers with a RX480 in the system, as those drivers predate the card by a few months.




Title: Re: Can I mix different graphic cards ?
Post by: reb0rn21 on July 21, 2016, 12:18:41 AM
On my main PC I am using
intel HD4600
1x 290x
1x GTC 1070

No problems at all... AMD might need a monitor hooked up to be able to set freq/voltage and then just use MSI afterburner to set all you need... CCminer + sgminer works side by side


Title: Re: Can I mix different graphic cards ?
Post by: Mzie on July 22, 2016, 12:14:45 PM
If the cards in question are ONLY AMD or ONLY Nvidia then there is no problem, it becomes difficult when you mix Nvidia and AMD. If you are mining i would recomend you mine only with AMD Cards.


Title: Re: Can I mix different graphic cards ?
Post by: Bokelka on July 22, 2016, 01:15:29 PM
You can mix different generations of graphics from the same manufacture (AMD). But it is better not to mix AMD with nVidia cards.


Title: Re: Can I mix different graphic cards ?
Post by: philipma1957 on July 22, 2016, 04:14:54 PM
My rx 480 and my r9 390  run great together..


but  and a big but ,

claymore dual miner

amd 16.7.2  

wattman + powertuner?

 to tweak

wattman tweaks the Rx 480

powertuner tweaks the  r9 390

I will photo all info>


link to new thread with a 2 card build
1 r9 390 and 1 rx 480


https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1561775.msg15673804#msg15673804


https://i.imgur.com/0A4lcA9.png