Running Single Graphics Card from Second PCIe

[Tomha]

I asked yesterday about running my graphics card from the second PCIe slot for purely visual reasons after deciding that the speed decrease would be negligible if any. Firstly if you disagree with this, please let me know . I tried to start the computer with the video card in the second PCIe slot (PCIe 3.0, 8x), but I got no video signal to my screen with both the motherboard output and the videocard output.

Is it actually possible to run a single graphics card out of a PCIe slot which isnt the primary one?

Thanks.

 

[solarmystic]

Well it should be possible...

How do you figure running CrossfireX solutions would be like if one PCI-E slot didn't accept a card in it's slot?

Have you tried reseating the card properly and also remembered to replug in the dual 6-pin PCI Express power connectors? I know it sounds rather trivial, but loose connections to the slot can cause those issues some times...

As for your motherboards output, try checking your BIOS whether your integrated card has been enabled or not.. you may have disabled it after installing your dedicated graphics card initially...

 

[Tomha]

I dont think its a matter of the motherboard not recognizing the card, but rather a matter of the motherboard just natively looking for a graphics card card in the primary slot when booting. I would think though it would be capable of using the cpu dedicated graphics or something...

 

[solarmystic]

Good point. Have you got a spare dedicated graphics card to test out this theory?

Two different cards, one in primary and one in secondary, boot to BIOS and check whether the cards appear in the BIOS.

Or you can put that card back in the primary slot, check whether the integrated Intel HD 4000 graphics are enabled in the BIOS and do some further experimentation.

 

[Tomha]

Mightnt it be a bad idea to try boot with 2 completely different graphics cards? I do have a second dedicated card I could use, but its a geforce 210, completely different family, league, everything..

 

[solarmystic]

It's fine, we're not going to boot into Windows or enable SLI, just into the BIOS to ascertain whether the slots are picking up the cards as the should.

Have you tried my suggestion on reseating the card and/or placing it back in the slot that worked and enabling your Intel Integrated HD 4000 graphics in the BIOS?

Your system's PSU is beefy enough to handle those two cards.

 

[Sardonicus]

If you're using the default settings, the card should be recognized from either slot. The Primary Display setting should be Auto.

 

[solarmystic]

Yeah, what Sardonicus says, default settings should square it away nicely.

Thanks for the input mate!

 

[Tomha]

Well I dont know what I did last time but I tried it again and it worked fine . Thanks for the input nonetheless.

For peace of mind, but more to show my friends when they rage at me about all the performance disadvantages of doing it this way, what is a free but good and trustworthy graphics card benchmark program?

Thanks.

 

[solarmystic]

Well I dont know what I did last time but I tried it again and it worked fine . Thanks for the input nonetheless.

For peace of mind, but more to show my friends when they rage at me about all the performance disadvantages of doing it this way, what is a free but good and trustworthy graphics card benchmark program?

Thanks.

Free and good? Thats a bit of a toughie.

There're 3DMark Vantage and 3DMark11 but the free versions of both only allow you run them once or twice I believe and you can only view the results online on their website, by uploading your results and having them verified.

http://www.3dmark.com/3dmark11/download

http://www.3dmark.com/3dmarkvantage/download/

There's also Unigine Heaven which is a great benchmark for DX 11 effects like Tesselation and it's free to keep:-

Heaven DX11 Benchmark | Unigine: real-time 3D engine (game, simulation, visualization and VR)

Hope that helps!

 

[Tomha]

I looked around a bit and 3DMark is popular, I might give the free version a go... alternatively........

 

[solarmystic]

I looked around a bit and 3DMark is popular, I might give the free version a go... alternatively........

Did you check out my previous post? (right before yours) Unigine Heaven is another good one...

 

[Tomha]

I did read that, much appreciated. I would like to go with a somewhat reputable benchmark for peace of mind and I know 3dmark is used a lot. What is the difference between 3dmark 11 and 3dmark vantage?

 

[solarmystic]

I did read that, much appreciated. I would like to go with a somewhat reputable benchmark for peace of mind and I know 3dmark is used a lot. What is the difference between 3dmark 11 and 3dmark vantage?

3DMark Vantage = Tests DirectX 10 Performance + PhysX

3DMark11 = Tests DirectX 11 Performance

To see some insane scores for laughs and giggles, try getting the older versions like 3dmark 06 or 3dmark 05, and watch your FPS meter while running those benchmarks fly to infinity and beyond.

 

[Tomha]

I see...hmm...I spose it really makes no difference which one I use out of 3d mark or that heaven one, I'll just use that

 

[solarmystic]

Tomha, we posted simultaneously, read my previous post for some laughs.

 

[Tomha]

Right, got 3dmark 05 and the heaven thing downloading.

 

[Tomha]

well thats just amazing...Heaven gives me some error when I try to start the benchmark and wont let me

 

[Tomha]

aaaaaaand 3d mark 05 wont work either...aparently im doing something very wrong

I think I'll get my fresh install of windows working then get it all set up before I try benchmark.

 

[solarmystic]

You do that mate, best to get those fundamentals out of the way...