Games like Spider-Man Remastered, God of War, Far Cry 6, etc., are super GPU-hungry games, and these will suck the entire video card’s processing power. So, it would be great to have two graphics cards instead one to feed more VRAMs to those GPU-thirsty games.
But how to use two graphics cards at once?
I bet this question is poking your mind! And this article will show you how to mount two GPUs on one PC. So, keep reading until the end line.
Is it Possible to Install Two GPUs in One PC?
AMD offers CrossFireX & Nvidia offers SLI & NVLink to mount two cards in a single computer. And two cards will work simultaneously to give you better graphics rendering power. But compatibility issues will be a problem, and only some apps & games do well in this dual card setup.
Before getting into the main part, you must know who should run dual graphics cards.
Heavy gamers who stream and play games benefit from the two cards. Because online game streamer requires two monitors: one is for gaming, and the other is for monitoring the streaming.
Unless you’re that person, you won’t notice any performance improvement after installing two GPUs. Plus, the cost of an extra GPU and monitor will dry up the wallet.
3D modelers and animation makers need additional monitors to work with several apps. Cause dual cards will buy them some time by rendering those massive calculations faster. To add more, cryptocurrency miners need a bank of GPUs.
These mining MOBOs support mounting 6, 8, or even 12 video cards.
Technically speaking, you can’t set up multiple graphics cards on every PC. There are some requirements to install two GPUs. Let’s take a look at those prerequisites.
Below are the prerequisites to mount dual graphics card :
- The motherboard should support installing multiple GPUs.
- Multiple PCIe slots are required in the motherboard.
- Two or three-way SLI bridge, NVLink, or CrossFire bridge interconnector cable is a must.
- You must enable SLI or CrossFire from the GPU’s control panel or the BIOS.
- Require a PC case with enough space for multiple GPUs.
- A Powerful PSU.
So, these are the main requirements for dual GPU cards in your single computer. After installing multiple cards, you should run apps like 3DMark, PassMark, or Cinebench to benchmark graphics cards.
What are the Ways to Mount Multiple GPUs in a Single PC?
Using Nvidia’s SLI & AMD’s CrossFire technology, you can install dual video cards. You can install more than two graphics cards using these technologies. These cards work as a master-slave formation. However, PCI Express bifurcation is another way to install multiple GPUs.
However, NVLink is the updated version of SLI, and with this, the graphics card doesn’t need work in the master-slave formation.
So, let me give you a quick overview of these multi-graphics card installing technologies.
Nvidia’s SLI Technology
Scalable Link Interface, or in-short SLI, is Nvidia’s patented technology to install multiple GPUs using a specific parallel processing algorithm. With this tech, anyone can mount up to 4 GPUs to distribute massive workloads within these video cards.
There are four different SLI modes which are:
- SLI anit-aliasing.
- Split Frame Rendering or SFR.
- Alternate Frame Rendering or AFR.
- Hybrid SLI.
The SLI anit-aliasing ensures better graphics quality. On the other hand, SFR & AFR concentrate on how the GPU aligns frames and renders them.
Among these, the last one, the Hybrid SLI, combines two technologies: GeForce Boost & HyrbidPower. The GeForce Boost combined both iGPU and dGPU to increase performance. The HybridPower focuses on laptop battery consumption when using the discrete graphics card.
Later, Nvidia renamed the HybridPower to Nvidia Optimus.
Hybrid SLI is mainly for laptops, but you might find this on some desktop motherboards & PCIe graphics cards. However, you must need an SLI bridge cable to link GPUs. The most crucial factor is that you need to install two same-model Nvidia GPUs for SLI.
Additionally, you can use an NVLink bridge to establish an SLI connection, and there is a vast difference between the SLI bridge & NVLink bridge interconnector. With an SLI bridge, you will get up to 2GB/s speed, whereas an NVLink interconnector will provide speed up to 200GB/s.
After interlinking both cards with the bridge connector, you must enable SLI from the BIOS.
For example, if you have a GTX 1080 Ti, you just need another GTX 1080 Ti to make an SLI connection. You can’t SLI a GTX 1080Ti with a GTX 1060 or other cards. The latest few cards from Nvidia offer limited SLI support.
If SLI is your primary goal, go for older graphics cards like RTX 2080, GTX 1080 Ti, GTX 400, 600, 700 & 900 series cards.
AMD’s CrossFire Technology
AMD’s CrossFire is the same as Nvidia’s SLI, connecting up to 4 GPUs in a single PC to deliver high graphics rendering power. This technology also works in the master-slave formation, and like SLI, you’ll find SFR & AFR modes in it. AMD’s CrossFire is also known as CrossFireX.
ATI Technologies developed this mGPU (Multiple GPU) working technologies for AMD (Advanced Micro Devices), a renowned computer CPU & GPU manufacturer.
In this mGPU setup, one card gets the ‘Master,’ and others get the ‘Slave’ label. The master card receives the output from the slave cards, merges all, and outputs all unified. You must use a CrossFireX bridge interconnector like the SLI bridge connector to use the multiple AMD graphics card.
A Hybrid mode in CrossFireX combines APU’s iGPU to achieve better graphics power. This is the most advanced CrossFire tech from AMD, and selected GPUs like 7 and 8 series graphics cards support this Hybrid CorssFireX technology.
However, merging both A-series APUs with the dedicated video cards technique is renamed AMD Radeon Dual Graphics. To achieve AMD’s CrossFire, you must need two same-model AMD cards. For example, you must need two RX 590 cards to make the CrossFire successful.
PCI Express Bifurcation
It’s also a multiple graphics card mounting technology that lets you split the single PCIe bus into smaller branches. For example, you can bifurcate a PCIe x16 into four branches, such as x4x4x4x4, or two, like x8x8. To use this, the motherboard and the BIOS should be compatible.
Using a single PCIe x16 slot, you can connect four devices, like graphics cards, in a single PC. However, splitting one PCI Express slot into multiple won’t diminish the performance. You’ll find a PCI Express Riser card to split a single PCIe lane into many.
So, these are the perfect ways to put two graphics cards in one PC. Go for SLI if you own two same models of Nvidia cards. Otherwise, CrossFire is the only option left for installing two same models of AMD GPUs.
Can I Install Two Different Graphics Cards on One PC?
If you have two different models or vendors’ GPU cards, one from Nvidia and the other from AMD, you can install and run both cards on one PC. However, one GPU will drive the display while another will do all the GPGPU tasks. You must install different drivers for cards like AMD & Nvidia.
Therefore, you might ask what to do with the old graphics card.
Well, don’t throw away any old cards because you can install and run that besides the new card. Do this if you have two or more displays.
You don’t need to run any SLI or CrossFire to run two different video cards on a single PC because that tech requires two identical cards to work together. Furthermore, installing two different GPUs will boost the rendering power by splitting the workloads into two separate model cards.
So, when one graphics card handles the gaming workloads, the second will handle other GPU-intensive tasks. That’s why having two graphics cards is better than one.
Suppose you install two graphics cards: one is RX 590 & the other is GTX 1650. The primary card will handle all the high-GPU-intensive workloads like gaming, video rendering, etc. You can use the GTX for CUDA acceleration when you’re not doing SLI.
Pros & Cons of Using Two GPUs in One Setup
Speaking of the positive sides, you can run multiple monitors with two GPUs, and graphics performance will improve by a significant margin. Plus, more VRAM will help the streamers a lot. On the negative side, you must face too much hassle, and multiple cards will produce more heat.
Furthermore, you must know the GPU power cable guide to power up those multiple video cards. Now, take a look at the ups & downs of using multiple GPUs.
Here are the pros & cons of using multiple graphics cards:
- »Graphics performance will improve when you use two or more graphics cards in one PC. More VRAMs will render graphics faster, provide higher FPS while gaming, and improve multitasking.
- »You can save much money without going for the new expensive cards. Two cards will give a better performance.
- »More GPUs will let you use multiple monitors. You’ll get enough HDMI or DisplayPort to connect several monitors.
- »Two GPUs will give the streamers enough room to work with several GPU-intensive apps. Streamers play games and stream that gameplay simultaneously. So, more VRAM will boost their streaming.
- »Settings up two or more graphics cards is a hassle because you need a compatible motherboard. For SLI or CrossFire, both cards must be the same model, and compatibility is mandatory.
- »GPU cards are more expensive than other PC parts.
- »A powerful PSU is a must to supply massive power to those GPUs.
- »Require a PC case that has enough space to support multiple video cards.
- »Not all games are compatible with two graphics cards. As a result, you might face stutter or low FPS when you play games with dual GPUs.
- »More GPU will produce more heat in the case. Without proper airflow, the PC will heat up and decrease performance.
Note: As per Nvdia’s announcement, the RTX 30 series cards won’t get any support for SLI. Plus, they also stopped the SLI profiles for RTX 20 series cards. For SLI, go for the GTX 10 series cards.
So, if you’re up for mounting two graphics cards in your single PC, consider these advantages & disadvantages first.
FAQs
Can I put two graphics cards on a motherboard?
You can put two graphics cards on a motherboard with multiple PCI Express slots. Plus, you need a powerful PSU to power up those graphics cards.
Can I run two GPUs without SLI?
Without SLI, you can run two GPUs in a single PC because Windows OS supports running multiple graphics cards independently. But, a limited number of applications and games can use two GPUs.
How many graphics cards can I run at once?
Most motherboards support running a maximum of four GPUs. But make sure there is enough space between those PCIe slots because most graphics cards are wide.
Wrapping Up
So, it’s possible to fit two graphics cards in your PC, and the motherboard should support multiple GPUs. Modern cards are so powerful that one is enough for any AAA-titled games. Plus, Nvidia and AMD stop supporting SLI & CrossFire for newer cards.
Yet, if you own an older GPU, you can go for it. It’s always better to have two graphics processing units than one. I believe you got all your seeking things in this article. Please leave a comment if you want to know more.
Adios!
