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Use onboard video while GPU is folding?

L

leagle

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 3, 2006
Messages
435
I'm planning on adding a new video card to my gaming machine (see sig). I'm not doing much gaming anymore, so the card is really just for folding. Is it possible/recommended to just plug my monitor into my onboard video and leave the new gpu to folding? Or do I need to plug the monitor into the new gpu for some reason? The reason I am asking is that I figured it would save a lot of gpu power if it didn't have to redraw the screen. Plus, the onboard video is just fine for my current needs.

Thanks.
 
There are some here who will tell you that you can use the onboard graphics. This is NOT true of all motherboards. I have seen less then a handful in my 15 years of PC building that have allowed this option. One of which was a P3 HP computer. It doesn't hurt to try, but you may need to try a few different options in your BIOS to get it to work. I wouldn't hold my breath though. I would recommend just getting an old PCI card and putting it into an open slot and using it while your high end card crunches. Post your motherboard specs/model here and I'm sure those who claim to make them work can give some insight.
 
Check your Motherboard guide for certain BIOS settings, and test this to find out. You might be able to do this, but as Gilithanis stated, only some motherboards will support this.
 
Ok, thanks for the replies. I'll test it once I get the new card and then post back here if there are problems and I still want to pursue it. If all else fails, I have an old pci card that I can throw in there.

Thanks again.
 
I don't think the power options will, or rather savings, will be anything measured at all. I mean, most of that isn't done on all but the lowest level of the GPU, and onboard video is just the same thing

at the end of the day, something has to draw the screen, and that something might as well just e the GPU you fold on, keeps everything simple
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I totally disagree with Vaulter98c. Adding a second video display whether PCI or Onboard (if your motherboard will allow it) makes a difference when using the system while folding. I can watch movies and have had no problems with frame rates with my second adapter while my CUDA device crunches for BOINC projects. This obviously prevents your regular PC usage from interrupting the GPU on the crunching card not to mention improves your pleasure while using the machine.
 
Well, totally is kinda strong, I watch'd plenty of movies and browsed the web while running 4 GPU clients on the same rig

I think the fact you have such a low power card could be the reason your system seems to stutter during video while you CUDA it up, especially if you are using HW acceleration. For an 8600 series which is in theory twice/4 times as strong as your 8400, I would be inclined to think that would leave enough for stable operation, and I'm pretty sure it would outdo any GPU thats old enough to be on a PCI bus.

Of course, youre the one who has to make the call, but you wanted to save power, and that appears to be your only concern youve mentioned, and your probly gonna use more power powering a second card than just 1, and youd probly be REALLY close to the same draw running onboard

As for video, I can almost gaurntee any PCI card you have will be to old to use hardware accel, and that leaves most video soley on the CPU, which it could do just as fine with the folding card only in

Again, youve asked how to save power, and that would be not using as many of the extras as you need, and folding is gonna be running your card at 100% anyways, might as well jump on that, you can't go above 100%, and adding anything else will only draw more power
 
Unfortunately, I was unclear when I said power. What I meant was gpu cycles, not wattage. My idea was to use on board video so as to not rob gpu cycles from the card that will be crunching. Sorry about the confusion.

I actually have an old 8400 that I can use if the on board video doesn't work out. Hopefully, it will play nicely with the 9600gso that I am getting from FrEaKy. And if neither one works, I will just use the 9600gso for video.

Of course, all I can think about are the points I will lose while the system is down for installation of the card(s). :)
 
I'll tell you right now that PPD isnt affected by drawing a screen, I've run way to many rigs and havnt seen anything,Ive had up to 13 clients running and mix between running screens and not, there was no measuable diff

Now HW accel, and maybe HW flash could leave a dent, but thats expected. Daily use wont tap into the CUDA speeds
 
having your display on the card thats folding will have almost no effect on the folding nor what you do.. if your overclocking the card then it can cause some stability issues in the programs you use on a select few WU's.. but id say 99% of the time you wouldn't be able to tell the difference if it was folding or not folding while on your desktop because while your on your desktop all you pretty much use is frame buffer(video memory) even with Aero while in windows 7 ive never seen it use my gpu.. now if you watch a lot of flash video's or blurays you may lose 100ppd but thats about it but if you have a cpu that can handle playing blurays you can just disable DXVA in your player and you can disable hardware accel in flash by right clicking the window and going to settings..
 
leagle: I understood what you meant by power. It is an easy misunderstanding in these forums because there is a lot of talk on maximizing point production and cost of electricity to run each rig.

Vaulter98c: That is the only rig in my sig because I don't bother keeping up with such things. I have over 30 systems. And the GPU's in other systems using various versions of Windows, default settings, no overclocking, and updated recent drivers all tend to run into this problem. No, you are right that it seems to effect low end cards, but leagle did not give us any insight on what was gonna be used other then what was already there and I didn't know the difference from 8400 and 8600 cards. The DC project/software also wasn't mentioned until a few posts up. Another assumption made in a heavily dominated F@H climate. I hope this clears things up.


Edit: I also only run BOINC, so your experience will definitely differ from mine if you are comparing with F@H. I also think the misunderstanding of the "power" issue is where Vaulter98c and I began disagreeing. Two different perceptions on what was being discussed.
 
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