Bitcoin Forum

Hello, sorry if this is a noobish question, I looked around and didn't find much of a definitive answer for this:

Here is the lowdown... Back in Nov. 2011, I decided to build a gaming computer. Soon after, I got into bitcoin mining, and have mined a bit with my 560 Ti that I bought. Here are my complete system specs:

Intel i5-2500k
Asus P8-Z68 v-Pro MOBO
8 GB RAM
Asus 21" monitor
NVidia GTX 560 Ti

I, just a few minutes ago, bought an ATI Radeon 5970 HD on ebay (for around $375, seemed like a good price).

I have a few questions revolving around this:
1.) Can I have both a NVidia card and an ATI card installed with NVidia drivers and ATI drivers running at the same time?
2.) Can I use both cards for mining at the same time? (if 1 is yes, I'd image yes for 2?)
3.) Can I run my 5970 mining and game on my 560 Ti (1) is it possible (2) would it be laggy?
4.) Anything else I need to be aware of for this kind of setup?

Thank you guys so much :)

Hey.  I can speculate based on my knowledge of windows, but I haven't tried first hand.  I boycott nvidia because of a stunt they pulled years ago when Vista came out, and I haven't gotten over it yet.

1 - Should able to use both without a problem.
2 - Probably.  You won't want to bother with the 560 though once you see what the 5970 does for you. :)
3 - I would think this would be the ideal use of your nvidia card.
4 - Make sure you have the power supply for it.  The 5970 is a beast of a card and is power hungry.

M

Thank you! About the power supply: I never even thought about that... I have an 850W, do you think that will cover it? If not, do you think taking out the 560 Ti will cover it? If the 2nd option does I would just sell my 560 Ti, no biggie.

About #2: Yeah, figured the 5970's going to be amazing at mining, but ehh, Got my 560 TI to run at 105 MH/s, suppose every bit (no pun intended) counts.

I'm not at all familiar with gforce cards and their power requirements.  850 sounds like it'll work to me though, depending on the quality of your power supply.  You'll find out when you crank both up. :)

I tried running a 6870 and a 5870 on a 600w and got an instant power off.  I was told 600w is plenty for those two cards, if you have a good power supply, which I know I didn't.

M

Thanks! Mine is a Seasonic, well I suppose I'll find out in a week lol.

1) Yes, I tried it on WinXP/Win7 32/64.
2) Yes, you have to use optimized miner for each card (ie. ufasoft for nvidia, cgminer for ati). But better to let the nividia card idle when you're not gaming if you don't have free electricity.
3) Yes, I tried this on a motherboard with an nvidia 8200 IGP. Played online games on the IGP and mined on the 6870 at the same time.
4) If you use CGMiner with intensity above 8, mouse movement might be laggy and game loading time might increase. (Its possible that you might not encounter these problem because you are using a card, not IGP.)

That 850watt PSU should be ok for a little while,I ran 2 6970's in xfire on an 800watt Kingwin modular.When gaming my rig (3 HDD's,6 fans & 965 quad core AMD) used 460 watts,BUT when mineing it used 720 watts!!!

It didn't last but 3 months & popped,but it was 2 years & 5 months old too  :(

I warrantied it with Kingwin (3 year warranty) & they gave me a 1000watt upgrade for free  8) I highly recommend Kingwin,even though I had one die,I've got 9 others (gamer rigs for others) & 1 more thats my other gaming rig that are still running after 3+ years ;D

Funny thing though,as the 800watt used 720 watts,the 1000watt used only 640 watts while mineing.So my efficency went up with the larger PSU. ??? They are of the same model,or "family",just increased to 1000watts.

Seeing as you'll have a 560ti & 5970,if you only mine with the 5970 (its a hungry bugger :D),you should be ok.I have a battery backup I use & it tells me my wattage consumption.

If you wish to mine with both I'd up your PSU to 1000watt,just to be safe & use less wattage 8)

Well, sorry to bother, but I have an Asus M4N78-VM with an embed gForce 8200 and an ATI HD5550.
I'm running Ubuntu and I'd love to use the gForce as my main graphics card, letting the mining to the ATI.
My problem is that I can't have a nice configuration for this.
Can anyone give me some cue?

Thanks in advance.

Thanks for the input guys :) Yeah, might upgrade to a ~1200W and throw in another 5970, depends on how my mining goes.

1200W would be complete overkill. 5 GPU's on full load using stock volts might ask for about 700-850 depending on heat and clocks.

I answer only for Linux (maybe someone is interested). Yes, if and only if:

a) your first video card (the card in the first slot) is the ATI one;
b) all the monitors you have are attached to the ATI card;
c) you use the Nvidia card only for computing.

Which is completely pointless, if you use the Nvidia card only for mining, because Nvidia cards suck at mining.
If you use it for something else (like some BOINC projects), it should be fine.


See above.


No, you can't.

This is because ATI computing goes through video driver. So Xorg must be loaded and running upon the ATI video driver. On the contrary, Nvidia computing doesn't need <edit> its video driver, so it doesn't need to own </edit> Xorg.

Damn it !!! So this means that you cannot use Nvidia for monitor / games / desktop usage while ATI is mining only ?

What about Intel integrated GPU in the CPU like Sandy Bridge ? What about ATI integrated graphics ( providing you stay in 8 GPU limit ) ?

Or maybe there is no way to have a crap GPU for desktop usage and all the rest powerful ATI cards mining ??? 

Damn it !!! So this means that you cannot use Nvidia for monitor / games / desktop usage while ATI is mining only ?

What about Intel integrated GPU in the CPU like Sandy Bridge ? What about ATI integrated graphics ( providing you stay in 8 GPU limit ) ?

Or maybe there is no way to have a crap GPU for desktop usage and all the rest powerful ATI cards mining ???  

Sorry for double post but Internet is lagging.

I can't delete double post so maybe moderator can do it ?

Thank you !

Which can work :

-Intel desktop usage ( crap GPU in CPU or mobo ) + excellent non-affected maximum ATI mining
-Nvidia desktop usage + excellent non-affected maximum ATI mining
-ATI crap integrated mobo GPU / GPU in CPU ( APU ) + excellent non-affected maximum ATI mining

Basically I want to have full ATI performance and no laggy desktop without affecting mining performance at all.

I want independent mining and desktop usage. One does not affect the other. Which Linux drivers is this possible with ???

Thanks for the input again guys, so Lem do you think it would work best if I just sold the 560 Ti? Maybe I could run GPUGrid or something on it lol

Thanks Lem, this was exactly what I was looking for.
It is exactly the behavior in my machine - nVidia is still working for the sata, usb and other drivers, but the graphics hardware disappears from lspic, which is now quite understandable with your explanation.
It is a pitty and it sucks... oh well! Moving along, nothing to see! :D

Switch to Windows and you can do all these.  :)

OK but I am forced to use Linux right now.

Which option do you think will be workable with Linux ???

Thanks !

this thread has just cost me 200 bucks... bought an ati 6870 to run in conjunction with my nvidia 560 se. hopefully my 750 watt psu can handle it. if so, i'll finally be profitably mining!

maybe i'll even be able to save enough for a Lancelot fpga before the Great Reward Halving...

I have 3x5870 mining and GeForce 6600gt to run my winxp desktop so it's not laggy and also I play Quakelive on it while mining 1.2 Gh/s on OCZ 750W PSU. So yes u can run all that at the same time.

you people and your rigs make me jealous. :D

What is a workable solution for the above in Linux ?

Somebody must know !

I think integrated ATI GPU on the mobo or the APU will work in Linux without problems !
 
Too bad Sempron 140 does not have integrated GPU ! Any good mobo with integrated AMD GPU ?

ok, so i've got me my radeon 6870 installed. but clearly i've got an issue somewhere as it doesn't show up in dxdiag or as an available device in guiminer (openCL backend). thoughts?

ignore the above. sorted.

Wait what? Really? I started mining yesterday in a virtual terminal. I prefer to use a virtual terminal without x loaded because I feel (but am unable to substantiate) that running my miner without x loaded will free up resources on my card to be better spent on calculations. Is it really true that you absolutely must have x loaded to mine with an ati card? Does that really make buying an ati worth it?

Yes - easy.

I have run nvidia and ATI mixed cards in various two and three card combos for several years.  Mainly under W7, but also XP.

fyi, a 6870 is a nice card.. but a poor miner.  Some people seem to get 380m/h out of it severely overclocked with two gpu threads.  mine won't clock that high, and two threads give me the same as one.. about 280-290.

that $200 would have been better spent on a 5870.  lots on ebay for less than $200.

M

I'm sorry. I miswrote it.
This is what I meant:

on Linux, Nvidia video driver and AMD video driver conflict. So you cannot load both. Mining on AMD cards requires the AMD video driver to be loaded: at this point, if you need Xorg (for gaming, for a desktop environment...), you cannot load the Nvidia driver, and you are forced to use the loaded video driver instead, which is the AMD one.

I haven't done it, but I've read that, on the contrary, you can use an Nvidia card for computation without loading its video driver. Nvidia computation doesn't need a video driver: so Nvidia doesn't need to "own" Xorg, if Xorg is there.

I hope I've been a little clearer, now.
Sorry, again.

running about 280 - so, yea, i hear ya. my mistake. i was reading a thread here about best cards to get and hadn't noticed the 6870 was overclocked. i've pushed mine up from 900 to 970 core mhz... oh well, eh? live and learn. still - it's a zillion times better then my nvidia 560 at mining, and is making more then the electricity costs. so, in the end it will aide my march to an FPGA.