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lupescu_grigore
Journeyman III

Nvidia GPU & AMD GPU

Hello,

I am trying to build a platform (prototype best call it) that woul encompass all CPU/GPU OpenCL SDKs (NVIDIA, INTEL, AMD and even FOXC) to test several aspects.

I am using regular comodity hardware (mid & low end). I have a crossfire board (790) and the following compute units : Amd x2 4000+, GF210, GF8600GT, HD4650. 

Ideally i would want to achieve something like Amd X2 4000+, GF210 + HD4650 (or place 8600GT). This way i could use all platforms to test and compare, for instance several algorithms. I though wasn't able to achieve this due to drivers, both drivers (NVIDIA or AMD) could not be activated (checked both on Windows 7 and on Ubuntu 10.04).

I had though luck in running multiple GPUs from NVIDIA, but in that case the driver was managing both GPUs.Operating systems in question are : Windows 7, Ubuntu 10.04 (both 64 bits)

1) Does anybody know or have tried mixing GPUs from AMD & NVIDIA ? Is not possible due to drivers ?

2) Is AMD's upcoming Liano APU drivers going to issue this problem? If i have Liano and for say an Nvidia GPU i should choose between them because of drivers ? 

Thanks in advance

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6 Replies
perhaad
Adept I

You could possibly try the IBM OpenCL Common runtime. It does mention something similar, in the sense  that it allows combinig different vendors devices within a single context.

I dont know how it handles the different device driver situation for multiple GPU scenarios

http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/ocr/faq

I have been meaning to try it out since some time.......

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laobrasuca
Journeyman III

I have Phenom II X4 965, ATI HD5870, NV GTX460 under win7 pro x64 and all drivers are installed together, no problem. But, I have each card attached to a different monitor, in case you don't, win7 wont activate the card. You must either use one monitor per card or create a dummy monitor using a DVI to VGA adapter like this: http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?t=200444

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My experience is that this sort of thing works in Windows, but not really in Linux. If you know what you're doing, you can change the xorg.conf file to use the right drivers for the right display and hope it doesn't screw up OpenCL, but the box that I tried this on still doesn't quite work correctly after putting a HD5870 and GTX480 in it.

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Thanks for the answers & directions. Will try VGA dummy coupled and/or IBM OpenCL common runtime.

*) Will Liano suffer from the exact restrictions (the GPU part 6xxx) ? Would it need a driver  like the discrete GPU counterparts and an output to a monitor ? 

*) Is there a chance Liano would deactivate on presence of a GPU ? ( like regular IGPs do )

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IBM common runtime just put all devices from different platform into one big platform so you can create context with all devices in system from different vendors.

most likely yes you will need driver and monitor attached.

i think there will be a option to disable it in BIOS or something like that.

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AFAIK llano is not still available in public. So I can't tell anything about its features. Maybe someone else can help.

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