Question [HELP] is it possible/worth for me to add my second 1080 Ti GPU ? (NO SLI)

[Zazou38]

Hi,

I hope i'm in the good channel, if not i will delete my post

I create this topic because i have a second unused 1080 Ti GPU and i want to know if it's possible and worth for me to add it to my system ? (NO SLI, mainly video editing usage)
I apologize for my low english level and thank everyone in advance for your support !

My system at the moment:
Motherboard : MSI Z370 Gaming M5 (https://us.msi.com/Motherboard/Z370-GAMING-M5/Specification)
CPU : Intel i7-8700K (https://www.intel.com/content/www/u...o-4-70-ghz/specifications.html?wapkw=i7-8700k)
GPU : x1 MSI 1080 Ti Gaming X (connected in my top PCI_E1: PCIe 3.0 x16)(https://us.msi.com/Graphics-Card/GeForce-GTX-1080-Ti-GAMING-X-11G/Specification)
RAM : 2 x 8 Go DDR4 3200MHz CL16 Corsair Vengeance (https://www.corsair.com/eu/en/Categories/Products/Memory/VENGEANCE-LPX/p/CMK16GX4M2B3200C16)
PowerSupply : 850 Watt Corsair HX850i (https://www.corsair.com/eu/en/Categ...-series-config/p/CP-9020073-UK#tab-tech-specs)
Cooling : Corsair H115i (https://www.corsair.com/eu/en/Categ...uid-CPU-Cooler/p/CW-9060027-WW#tab-tech-specs)
Storage : - SSD Samsung 960 EVO M.2 250Go (connected on my M2_2 slot Pcie ) (https://www.samsung.com/us/computin...ives/ssd-960-evo-m-2-250gb-mz-v6e250bw/#specs)
- HDD 2T0 on SATA
Monitor : 2k 144hz ROG SWIFT PG278Q (https://rog.asus.com/monitors/27-to-31-5-inches/rog-swift-pg278q-model/)


COMPATIBILITY ?

If i add my second 1080 Ti on my second PCIe slot, will it be compatible with my system ?
MotherBoard slots : 3 x PCIe 3.0 x16 slots (support x16/x0/x4, x8/x8/x4 modes)
Question 1 : So apparently its ok but i will be in x8/x8 mode, is it better than only one GPU in x16 mode ?

PCIE Lanes :
Question 2 : My CPU as a max of 16 pcie lanes, if i'm in x8/x8, my cpu will be able to use my 2 GPU and my SSD correctly ?

Power supply :
According to Cooler master power supply calculator my 850 watts will be enought for my dual 1080ti (it recommand 700watt)


WORTH ?
My usage of computer : I used to have a gaming usage of my PC, but nowadays i mainly use it for Première pro video editing (80%) and sometimes gaming (20%)
I know that without SLI, i wont be able to have better performance in gaming situation, but my goal is to mainly increase my video editing performances.
Question 3 : If we consider my system compatible with this dual GPU setup, will it be worth for me in term of video editing performance ?


Windows & Premiere pro configuration
Question 4 : After connecting my second GPU to my system, what settings on windows and première pro should i do to totally benefit from my dual GPU setup ?


Thanks for all your help and advices !



(Bonus question : if i give you 500$ to upgrade my configuration, what would you change ? )

 

[Skillz]

A 1080Ti will not saturate a 16x lane. So running two cards in 8x will be faster than a single card in 16x.

Adobe Premier will utilize both cards for some tasks, but not all. I'd suggest you look up on how to enable this if it doesn't do it automatically.

Gaming will be fine in a non-SLI format. Games will still utilize the primary card only unless you setup the second card to run PhysX, but only some games support this and it might not always be better.

Yes your system can handle two 1080Ti cards.

For $500 more? I'd look at benchmarks because its possible you could probably buy a single card for ~$500 that's faster than dual 1080Tis for your use case. In addition, you could probably sell the two 1080Ti cards for a few hundred dollars increasing your $500 budget to get a single card solution that will not only be faster at Premier, but give you a better gaming experience as well.

 

[Zazou38]

Thank u a lot for your answer ! I will try to setup my second card and configure correctly Windows/Nvidia/Premiere to maximise the use of my second card. And will try to make some test to compare.

For $500 more? I'd look at benchmarks because its possible you could probably buy a single card for ~$500 that's faster than dual 1080Tis for your use case. In addition, you could probably sell the two 1080Ti cards for a few hundred dollars increasing your $500 budget to get a single card solution that will not only be faster at Premier, but give you a better gaming experience as well.

For editing video performance, dont you think i should upgrade my CPU and RAM rather than invest more on GPU ?

 

[Skillz]

I was just talking from a GPU standpoint. The 8700K is a pretty stout GPU and more RAM should help with things depending on the size of the videos you're editing. For a substantial upgrade though $500 is a little on the low end. You'd want to upgrade to a new CPU, which means a new motherboard and you'll want a platform that uses DDR5, so you'll need a new RAM also. $500 would get you in the budget range of that, but it probably would be a side grade or even a down grade considering the 8700k is a 6 core, 12 thread CPU.

If the tasks you do on premiere make use of the GPU a lot then just a GPU upgrade would suffice.