GTX 980 w/ PCI Express 2.0 16X Okay?

[Peter Moretti]

I need to upgrade my Quadro 2000 video card b/c it's just not cutting it, so speak, with Resolve.

I was thinking about getting a GTX 980, but I want to double check that this card won't be significantly hampered by a PCI Express 2.0 16X connection.

Checking on the web, it seems like it should be fine, but I thought I'd ask here just to be sure.

THANKS SO MUCH!!!


P.S. I'm also wondering if there is really that much difference between the 980 and the 970 (which is considerably cheaper). Thanks again!!

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

What are the specs of your system? The card will run fine in a 2.0 X16 slot. Sure, the slot is a bottleneck to some degree, but there's a good bet that you'll be more limited by CPU, memory and storage when it comes to a GPU like this. The 970 is cheaper and not quite as powerful. That said, the 970 may be an OK choice depending on your budget and longer term plans for this system. 970 will give you decent acceleration. 980 will give you a noticeable increase to what you get with the 970. Quadro 2000 is the same as having none, although it's probably not all that is holding you back.
In other words, don't look to the GPU to solve all the problems, they only accelerate parts of the workflow and only to a certain extent.

 

[Peter Moretti]

Thanks so much Jeff. Yes I think the whole system needs to be upgraded, but I'd like to get maybe another year out of it. So it seems like a 970 would be a good bang for the buck option. Thanks again!!

 

[Peter Moretti]

Hi Jeff,

I have one more question. I run a four 1920 X 1200 monitor setup.

The 970 can run 4 monitors all by itself. I was thinking of running two off of the 970 and two off of the Quadro 2000. The idea being that using the Quadro card would take some load off of the 970 and the Quadro GPUS could be used a little bit (if the app is multi card/GPU aware).

Do you think it makes sense to run both cards, or just stick to the 970 and kiss the Quadro 2000 good bye? Thanks!!

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

A lot still depends on what system you're putting this new GPU into. You won't want to enable the Quadro 2000 for CUDA acceleration in the few apps that support multi-GPU. Reason being is that it will cripple your GTX970 or 980 card. CUDA still normalizes memory capacities between GPUs when distributing tasks. That and it offers no real acceleration anyway. The Quadro 2000 can make for an OK GUI card, but you won't really being taking any load off the other GPU. Not computationally and even though you're running 4 monitors, their combined resolution is 3840x2400 or something that's right in line with a single current 4K or retina display. My suggestion would be to remove the Quadro 2000 from the mix altogether.

 

[Peter Moretti]

Thanks much again Jeff!!