does dual graphic card (SLI/CrossFire) works with 3ds max? n vray?

[newguy]

Hello guys...

 

lately I'm planning to make a new rig for my new pc. planning to get GTX460-480 or GTX460-480... (depends on budget)

 

but my worry is that im afraid 3DS Max doesnt support both graphic card. means it wont fully utilize both GPU power... will it?

 

there are 2 reasons I wanna use dual graphic card...

1st is for the purpose of 3Dsmax viewport (increase fps rate dramatically), which hopefully can speed up my work flow when comes to very high polygons like 2-5mil or more?

2nd purpose is for Vray-RT. which as we all know currently vray-RT are running at GPU power. im not sure if vray-RT will fully utilize both GPU power or not...

 

i been hearing some people said cannot, but some said can. but as far as i can remember, chaosgroup used 3 graphic card together in 1 rig to do vray-RT demo in siggraph.

 

so i assume it can be done? or do i need to install any 3rd party software/plugin to make 3dsmax/vray fully utilize them?

[BrianKitts]

I did some testing about three years back with a SLI bridge on my 2 quadro 4600s. I don't have the benchmarks anymore, but what I do remember was that the benefit was the greatest when I only had one monitor hooked up. When I was using it to drive a dual monitor setup the performance dropped to not much better than running a standard setup without the SLI bridge. I also ran in to issues with a couple video players in SLI mode.

 

My final decision at the time was that it would be great if I only ran one large monitor, but I don't.... I run three monitors so SLI was out. But to answer your question I was able to get a performance boost in max in the SLI, but again it was most noticable in a single monitor setup. I should also mention that this was 3 years ago before GPU based rendering was coming on to the scene so that didn't play any part at the time in my testing. Perhaps it's time to give it another run, my SLI bridge has been sitting on the shelf..... still got it sitting on the shelf somewhere in case one day I decided to give it another go.

[newguy]

i see. thanks for the reply Brian.

dual quadro!!! that must be a very expensive rig. lol...

 

at least now we know that having SLI will boost the 3DS max performance. but im kinda surprise to know that there aren't much significant performance boost when comes to dual monitor. why does both graphic card work separately on both monitor? that's weird. and if it requires more GPU power to run 2 monitor, isnt it single graphic card on dual monitor performance should drop dramatically compare to single graphic card on single monitor? (which doesnt seems so).

 

or probably there is any 3rd party software/programme that we can utilize to force the GPU power to concentrate on 1 monitor or 1 software (maya/max/zbrush/autocad/etc)???

 

 

anyone else experience in SLI/CrossFire dual (or more) Graphic card power???

im still seeking for more opinion and suggestion before i really go get 1...

 

thanks in advance.

[BVI]

We have a few machines in SLI, currently the only benefit is the increased quality and speed of the viewport - its noticeable on larger files for comparison sake.

I don’t think MAX utilizes the GPU at all (yet) for rendering - but obviously Windows does so you will see a benefit.

[newguy]

We have a few machines in SLI, currently the only benefit is the increased quality and speed of the viewport - its noticeable on larger files for comparison sake.

I don’t think MAX utilizes the GPU at all (yet) for rendering - but obviously Windows does so you will see a benefit.

this sounds like a good news. this is exactly what im asking. thanks~!!!

but just another question... do i need to install anything or do any tweaking within 3ds max for this?? or as long as there is multiple graphic card SLI together, the 3Ds max will utilize it for the viewport without any extra setup/tweaking???

 

but as for regarding rendering issue, i think it is understandable that multi graphic card nvr boost the rendering speed of 3ds max, as 3ds max rendering speed are mainly base on CPU power, not GPU. the rendering im talking about is real-time (GPU) rendering, such as Vray-RT, Cuda, etc... which i believe multiple graphic card definitely helps in this, since chaosgroup using 3 graphic card (GPU power) to do Vray-RT demo in siggraph. but im just not sure is it just SLI the graphic card will do or should i do any setup etc thing...