Can I run both AMD and Nvidia GPUs?

[Justcurious1]

I'm sure someone has asked this over the intervening years but could not find anything on this. I have an AMD Sapphire R9 280X and an Nvidia GTX 960. FCPX was not happy with the 960 so I bought a used 280X and mysetup is super stable. But, there is software that runs much faster on the Nvidia card like the Adobe suite and Blender. 1) Can both cards be run at the same time? 2) If yes, then can each respective software recognize the best card for it's calculating purposes? Blender lets you specifically target a GPU for working in. Nice feature.

On a side note, the GTX 960 is a terrible OpenCL card, whereas I have an old GTX 670 which is plug-and-play and OpenCL compatible. Lots of options. Thanks for your help. Perhaps the only solution is to swap cards depending on what environment I'm working on mostly that day.

 

[VioletDragon]

I'm sure someone has asked this over the intervening years but could not find anything on this. I have an AMD Sapphire R9 280X and an Nvidia GTX 960. FCPX was not happy with the 960 so I bought a used 280X and mysetup is super stable. But, there is software that runs much faster on the Nvidia card like the Adobe suite and Blender. 1) Can both cards be run at the same time? 2) If yes, then can each respective software recognize the best card for it's calculating purposes? Blender lets you specifically target a GPU for working in. Nice feature.

On a side note, the GTX 960 is a terrible OpenCL card, whereas I have an old GTX 670 which is plug-and-play and OpenCL compatible. Lots of options. Thanks for your help. Perhaps the only solution is to swap cards depending on what environment I'm working on mostly that day.

Yes. You have a Cross Fire in a hack. But only the first GPU will be seen.

 

[Justcurious1]

Yes. You have a Cross Fire in a hack. But only the first GPU will be seen.

Thanks for the reply. I'm not looking to co-join them only to have them run at the same time. One could power one monitor, the other another. My question is would Adobe automatically recognize the acceleration capabilities of the Nvidia card while FCPX would use the AMD GPU. I did try running them at the same time once the computer did not seem very stable.

 

[VioletDragon]

Thanks for the reply. I'm not looking to co-join them only to have them run at the same time. One could power one monitor, the other another. My question is would Adobe automatically recognize the acceleration capabilities of the Nvidia card while FCPX would use the AMD GPU. I did try running them at the same time once the computer did not seem very stable.

Yeah that would work. Just getting the R9 280x seen by OS X. If the machine is unstable when having 2 GPUs installed then that could mean that your Power Supply may not be enough. What PSU do you have?

 

[Justcurious1]

Yeah that would work. Just getting the R9 280x seen by OS X. If the machine is unstable when having 2 GPUs installed then that could mean that your Power Supply may not be enough. What PSU do you have?

My PSU is a CX750M. Lots of juice. The 280X has been plug and play. Updated the definition so the name shows up correctly in the About this Mac. Purely cosmetic. It's been a great card.

 

[slim.jim]

OS X is fine running both an AMD and a Nvidia card at the same time. OS X should recognize both. As far as software usage you will just have to test it out.