I currently have a Ryzen 5900x paired with an RX 3080 10GB graphics card. My motherboard has two PCI x16 lanes, and I also have an older R9 270 2GB GPU. I'm curious if there are any useful applications for the second GPU. I already have Lossless Scaling set up, but I'm wondering if there are other benefits. Can I use it to support more monitors or somehow enhance the performance of my RX 3080, especially since its 10GB VRAM is starting to feel a bit outdated?
4 Answers
Honestly, you can’t really utilize the second GPU effectively for performance upgrades. You also won't benefit from the 2GB VRAM of the R9 270; it won't work like that with your RX 3080. It might just end up being more trouble than it's worth!
You might find that even if you have the physical slots, they won't grant you enough data lanes when both cards are installed. The primary card (the 3080) might drop from 16 lanes to only 8, which could affect performance.
Using the second GPU can allow for more monitor connections, but honestly, how many monitors do you really need? If you’re just gaming or using it for casual tasks, four monitors max is probably more than enough. Too many can complicate things.
You could potentially pass the second GPU to a virtual machine if you're into that kind of setup. It's a neat trick if you're looking to run multiple OS environments.
That's a fair point! I was thinking about a second monitor, but maybe I won't need more than that.