Secondary GPU to assist main GPU? (i.e. like Physx)

[SoppingClam]

So, I have a decent system but was thinking what a waste to have a top-of-the-line RTX 2080 Ti living in a box with a i7-4770k in the dark doing nothing. Now that I have a MSI Suprim X 3080 12gb. -> Great card and about 10% better than the 10gb versions. However:

I game at 4K with a 144hz monitor, HDR and other snazzy features. I rely on my RTX 3080 12gb with its 70 RT cores while I have disabled onboard graphics and a decent card doing nothing. So, I was thinking, hey why can't the 2080 Ti with its 68 RT cores provide some assistance here. Like back in the day, you could put a secondary GPU in your system and through Nvidia control panel allow it to dedicate itself for Physx work. Half life 2 ran just that much better.. Than not to rely only on the primary GPU or even the CPU to do such things.

Since this Asus RTX 2080 Ti has 68 ray tracing cores, has 384-bit memory bus and more.. , why can't it link up with my i7-12700k z690 board and its Intel onboard graphics UHD 770 (not display anything) but work for the primary card and do side tasks. Heck, Cyberpunk 2077 with 70+68 RT cores sure would help at 4K and maybe some particle effects are being done by the onboard graphics.

So, what is the program or 'app' called that provides the ability for other cards and onboard video to automatically assist the primary GPU as required to improve overall performance?

 

[Colddecked]

You could probably use it for some other compute task while you are gaming with your 3080, but not for graphics.

 

[agent_x007]

There is no way to "PhysX" share RT cores between cards, and there probably never will be.

 

[Vya Domus]

So, what is the program or 'app' called that provides the ability for other cards and onboard video to automatically assist the primary GPU as required to improve overall performance?

There is no such thing, technically a game could support multi GPU but almost none do and if they did an iGPU would be so much slower it will actually make things worse.

 

[Count von Schwalbe]

Well... Laptops have a feature called "hybrid graphics" that combines both dGPU and iGPU but I don't know if it can be used on a desktop.

Maybe you could use the 2080 ti to run other software (streaming etc) but a dedicated PC would work even better.

 

[Colddecked]

Well... Laptops have a feature called "hybrid graphics" that combines both dGPU and iGPU but I don't know if it can be used on a desktop.

Maybe you could use the 2080 ti to run other software (streaming etc) but a dedicated PC would work even better.

That is just the system switching to iGPU when on battery to save power. They never work together.

 

[Count von Schwalbe]

That is just the system switching to iGPU when on battery to save power. They never work together.

I did some testing on one laptop - disabling either GPU caused the performance to drop by around 60%.

 

[dgianstefani]

If you have two monitors you can run the one not used for games off integrated or a second gpu to save on the main gpu resources.

Hybrid works on laptops because the chips are very close to each other for latency. Wouldn't work on desktop.

 

[Solaris17]

There is no way to "PhysX" share RT cores between cards, and there probably never will be.

This thanks for pointing it out

 

[Colddecked]

I did some testing on one laptop - disabling either GPU caused the performance to drop by around 60%.

Maybe there was some older amd stuff that was supposed to work together, but a 60% performance boost... i'm going to need to see receipts.

But for sure modern stuff (anything after 2020), that's not how hybrid graphics work. You either use the iGPU (when running on battery) or the dGPU.

 

[erocker]

Have you tried installing the card and seeing if it appears in the Nvidia CP?

 

[Count von Schwalbe]

Maybe there was some older amd stuff that was supposed to work together, but a 60% performance boost... i'm going to need to see receipts.

But for sure modern stuff (anything after 2020), that's not how hybrid graphics work. You either use the iGPU (when running on battery) or the dGPU.

I got around 26FPS with both and 6-8FPS with either disabled.

 

[Colddecked]

I got around 26FPS with both and 6-8FPS with either disabled.

Specs? cpu/gpuz shots?

 

[Toothless]

It used to be where you could have a second card dedicated to physX, which actually did work well in some games. However that's with like, 600 and 700 series. There is no point for you to do any of that since anything you have now is strong enough to handle everything plus more.

Tl;dr Yes, in 2015. Now? No point.

 

[AusWolf]

There is no such thing, technically a game could support multi GPU but almost none do and if they did an iGPU would be so much slower it actually make things worse.

If I remember right, AMD tried something like that in the Fusion era. They called it Hybrid Crossfire or something. It didn't work well even when Crossfire was still a thing.

 

[StefanM]

I'm only aware of 2 samples that support what you want:

DirectX-Graphics-Samples/Samples/Desktop/D3D12HeterogeneousMultiadapter at master · microsoft/DirectX-Graphics-Samples

This repo contains the DirectX Graphics samples that demonstrate how to build graphics intensive applications on Windows. - microsoft/DirectX-Graphics-Samples

github.com

GitHub - GameTechDev/Multi-Adapter-Particles: Demonstration of Integrated + Discrete Multi-Adapter modified from Microsoft's D3D12nBodyGravity

Demonstration of Integrated + Discrete Multi-Adapter modified from Microsoft's D3D12nBodyGravity - GameTechDev/Multi-Adapter-Particles

github.com

 

[N/A]

just sell them and get a 4080 Ti when it decides to show up. phys x is a thing of the past, and so is raytracing in the sense that it's 10 years too early waste of die area.

 

[Zyll Goliat]

I am currently using 2 GPU's my main GPU is RX 5700 and my second card is Matrox M9120 basically just 2D card that is powering 2 of my side panels.....well as I have 4 Monitors + VR I need some secondary GPU and Matrox cards just fits perfectly because it's fanless,small and use around 5W only......also as I love to watch youtube while I am playing games it does helps a bit.....'tho If you just using 1 monitor you really do not have any valid reason for secondary GPU.........

 

[80251]

Are there any modern games that even use GPU accelerated PhysX anymore?

 

[Selaya]

you're missing the OP's point. they're not asking to run physx on their 2080ti; rather they're asking whether there'd be a point to put it into his main rig at all, to run something akin to the physx thingy of ye olden days.

and the answer is basically: no.
the most i could think of would be running it as an encoding card or something for streaming, but im not even sure whether there'd be a point to that either since nvenc may not eat any perf at all, and it also just may not work.

 

[AusWolf]

Are there any modern games that even use GPU accelerated PhysX anymore?

The Metro series - I'm not sure about Exodus, but 2033 and Last Light definitely have an option for "Advanced Physics" that runs way better on Nvidia cards than AMD. I don't know about any other game, though.

 

[Veseleil]

you're missing the OP's point. they're not asking to run physx on their 2080ti; rather they're asking whether there'd be a point to put it into his main rig at all, to run something akin to the physx thingy of ye olden days.

and the answer is basically: no.
the most i could think of would be running it as an encoding card or something for streaming, but im not even sure whether there'd be a point to that either since nvenc may not eat any perf at all, and it also just may not work.

People nowadays choose either to just think, or just read. Rarely both.