GeForce 470/480 GTX used for CUDA only advice

Accelerated Computing CUDA CUDA Programming and Performance
1

I am new to both CUDA and the forum so forgive me if my post is in the wrong area or if this has already been covered.

I am going to be exploring the options that CUDA can provide us with at the company I work for. My machine currently has a GeForce 9600 GT card in it. What I was planning on doing was getting a GeForce 470/480 GTX card and putting it in but not hooking it up to my monitors and only using it for CUDA. Is there any special hardware considerations I need to be aware of? Also do I need to do anything so that the two video cards don’t conflict with each other? I asked my IT department but all I got was blank stares…

Thanks.

2

Your plan is a good one… the 9600 will drive your monitor, giving you a lot of flexibility with the GTX480 in terms of kernel runtime and debugging.

Driver/software wise, you likely don’t need to change a single thing, there won’t be incompatibility or anything with 2 cards.

Hardware is your real issue to check before starting. Are you sure the GTX 480 will FIT in your case and motherboard? You have the open PCIE slot and room for the double width card?

Is that free PCIE slot a full x16 bandwidth slot? (if it’s not, x8 or even x4 can still be OK if your apps aren’t PCIe limited).

And perhaps most important, is your power supply able to power the GTX480, with sufficient wattage and power cable connectors (a 6 pin and an 8 pin). And is that PSU a name brand that can be trusted? Are you using a UPS on your machine, and can that handle the wattage?

3

Your plan is a good one… the 9600 will drive your monitor, giving you a lot of flexibility with the GTX480 in terms of kernel runtime and debugging.

Driver/software wise, you likely don’t need to change a single thing, there won’t be incompatibility or anything with 2 cards.

Hardware is your real issue to check before starting. Are you sure the GTX 480 will FIT in your case and motherboard? You have the open PCIE slot and room for the double width card?

Is that free PCIE slot a full x16 bandwidth slot? (if it’s not, x8 or even x4 can still be OK if your apps aren’t PCIe limited).

And perhaps most important, is your power supply able to power the GTX480, with sufficient wattage and power cable connectors (a 6 pin and an 8 pin). And is that PSU a name brand that can be trusted? Are you using a UPS on your machine, and can that handle the wattage?

4

Also worth pointing out that the GTX 470 is easier to find power for, as it only requires two 6-pin PCI-Express power connectors.

5

Also worth pointing out that the GTX 470 is easier to find power for, as it only requires two 6-pin PCI-Express power connectors.

6

Thanks for the info. Already found some hardware problems with my current machine but I should be getting a new machine in the next month so I am going to be tweaking the build to support the card.

Cheers.

7

Thanks for the info. Already found some hardware problems with my current machine but I should be getting a new machine in the next month so I am going to be tweaking the build to support the card.

Cheers.