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Question About Driving Display With Secondary GPU

X

XacTactX

Supreme [H]ardness
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Dec 13, 2010
Messages
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Hey guys. If I haven't already repeated enough times in the past I have a HIS 6850. I'm thinking about possibly getting a GT240 for PhysX. It's really cheap, like $40 after MIR, would go very well with my 1680 x 1050 screen size, and I have a few games that support PhysX, namely Borderlands, Mirror's Edge, but my real question is this: What happens to a graphic card when is not being used in desktop to drive a display? Could I use the GT240 to drive the display in desktop to also save power?
 
Are you talking about using the 240 to run additional displays? Or to run your main monitor when you arent gaming?
 
I use a single display with a 1680 x 1050 resolution, and would like the GT 240 to power it in desktop if possible, which would (I hope) allow the 6850 to turn off while not gaming.
 
Why would you do that? The GT240 uses more power at the desktop than the HD6850 does...
 
LOL are you serious? I honestly thought the 240 would be better since it has a 70w TDP and is made on 40nm with 96 stream processors. I should have checked the numbers. Well thanks guys, I'll scrap that idea. I don't want to use anything 55nm for PhysX because then it'll suck as much power as my main and anything 40nm will be more expensive, even the new GT440 which is a glorified 240 with less texture and ROPs sells for more. Bleh.

/thread.
 
The load consumption of the GT240 is lower but it's an older card, and the idle power consumption of the Radeon HD6 series is the best in the business. The GT240 won't use much more at idle, it'll be a handful of watts at most, but you certainly won't be gaining anything by using it as a low power card.
 
The GT240 is a terrible card, even for Physx. It is no better than a 9600GSO. A cheap used 9800GT would be a good choice.
 
Guys. Those who say idle power of HD6850 is lower are not entirely correct. Please look around how dual displays on one card affect the power usage. In short - the power usage skyrockets usually, unless both of your displays are at same resolution and are the same model of display from same manufacturer. If they don't fit these requirements, graphics card either run memory at full speed and core clock is elevated (the case of ATI) or run at full 3D clocks (the case of NVIDIA). The difference between one and two displays connected to my GTX570 is 51W !

So as a secondary card, any NVIDIA with low idle power is a good idea. I'm not sure about GT240, but it's up to you to do your research for best idle power/performance combo.
 
Then it's is of course a impossible thing, what the OP is asking for is something which was present at 9xxx line of the graphics card where the NVIDIA chipset turned the NVIDIA card off and used only the integrated graphics. This doesn't exist anymore.

Of course for single display the idle power of HD6850 is really low, so there is no reason to switch it for another card.
 
faugusztin said:
Then it's is of course a impossible thing, what the OP is asking for is something which was present at 9xxx line of the graphics card where the NVIDIA chipset turned the NVIDIA card off and used only the integrated graphics. This doesn't exist anymore.

Of course for single display the idle power of HD6850 is really low, so there is no reason to switch it for another card.
Click to expand...

This is what I had originally intended to know. Thank you for your response, being frugal and having PhysX do not go hand-in-hand.

I would rather not use a 9800GT or anything built on 55nm for PhysX. 55nm G92 cards consume around the same or more power than my 6850 at load and consume twice as much in idle. It would be comical for me to put the same amount of heat and power into my system as my main GPU for the sake of particle effects.

Thanks everyone, /thread.
 
XacTactX said:
It would be comical for me to put the same amount of heat and power into my system as my main GPU for the sake of particle effects.
Click to expand...
Glad you came to the right decision. I wish more people would see this, then PhysX could be abandoned, and we could get development in open-platform physics and start seeing nice physics in games!
A man can dream... :rolleyes:
 
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