Building new PC - possible to use 2 different cards with SC, 1660 and 2070?

[vahadar]

I am reaching to all the experts here.

I am finally deciding to move away from my gaming laptop to a new gaming desktop i'm slowly building.
I have not used a gaming desktop for years, since i got various Asus ROG Strix gaming laptops for the last 8 years because traveling. So i'm not up to date.

I have bought a Gigabyte 1660 OC 6G early this year but i have not used it at all yet, due to lack of time for building PC, and is still sitting in its package.
I recently got a Gigabyte 2070 Super OC 8G.

I would like to use both cards with Star Citizen, is it possible?

It has been a long time since i have built my own PC, so i was wondering what kind of power supply i should get if i want to use 2 cards, and an average-high setup, not something hardcore gaming here.
I bought with the 1660 a Gigabyte PW400 for supply but i guess it will not be enough.

Some ideas of setup :
32gb Corsairs lpx 3200 c16 ddr4, not sure i need 64? tips?
Ryzen 5 3600 or 7 3800 (its been like 20 years i haven't bought AMD, last was K7), what do you suggest? need something that can do fine with the Gigabyte cards and not hamper them.
MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX for the motherboard

Rest of stuff does not matter, i'd like mostly advice on video cards i have, and the CPUs and Motherboard that will do best with them :)

Thank you !

edit : oh and the PC needs to be very silent and discreet. I bought a Cooler Master - N300 case, since it looked small and well made for cooling. But i need to check if it can contain 2 cards. I don't need something big or fancy with leds. Besides the card there wont be much other stuff plugged on the MB.

 

[vahadar]

Mmmm i probably posted in the wrong section i see. Could a mod move it to Tech support please? :)

 

[BUTUZ]

No there's no point. If you use multiple cards that are wildly differing in performance it does not work well. Also many modern games don't play well with multiple cards even if they were multiple good cards!.

Sell the 1660 right now and just use the 2070.

 

[vahadar]

Ok thanks for the advice Butuz. I'll make a small PC for the wife with the 1660 then. Was expecting that answer, but you confirmed that !

 

[Ayeteeone]

No there's no point. If you use multiple cards that are wildly differing in performance it does not work well. Also many modern games don't play well with multiple cards even if they were multiple good cards!.

Sell the 1660 right now and just use the 2070.

As an FYI, my daily driver is a Ryzen 3700X + 2070 Super. 32GB of 3600 ram and several SSD's, the system drive being an Intel 900P.

Monitor is LG 34" 2560x1080. It's a 2017 G-sync model past due for upgrade...

New Babbage I typically see 55-ish fps, and in space it is normally near 80. Neither CPU or GPU are anywhere near maxxed out.

This should help set some expectations for your build.

 

[vahadar]

New Babbage I typically see 55-ish fps, and in space it is normally near 80. Neither CPU or GPU are anywhere near maxxed out.

Sold ! hehe thank you for that info Ayeteeone. New Babbage is the benchmark for me here, my laptop is dying because of that planet.
I guess i will have quite similar framerate here.

 

[Lorddarthvik]

Yep, use the 1660 for something else, it's a great card and would run SC just fine at 1080p, but if you have a 2070 there is no point in it sucking power for nothing! Wife's machine sounds good!
Just plop in the 2070 and you should be set! It should handle anything within reason.

As for power, 400 won't cut it for a 2070 me thinks. NVidia recommends a 550W minimum, so go with a gold or platinum+ 550 or a bronze+ 600-650 at least! Just to be on the safe side go bigger as your budget allows, but aim for better certification rather then simply a bigger number on the box! Also, unlike anything else in a PC, PSU-s are kinda future proof, if you get a big enough one. :D
If you want silent, you could look for a PSU with a speed controlled fan, new ones have that capability, some can even stop entirely when not pushed. But this requires that you get a higher powered one so it's not sweating as much.

sidenote: My experience is that NVidia over rates the psu requirement quiet a bit so you could probably get away with a mediocre 500w even, but it might blow up down the line from the stress, or not even start at all. I'm currently running an old PSU that barely hits minimum spec for my 2060S and had no issues, and done the same before with other setups, mostly because upgrading gpu first without realizing I might need a better psu... It's dumb but cheap, until it catches fire... :D

For CPU and MB I can't help you, intel fanboy fo lyfe! hehehe
Also I have no idea which Ryzen is best Ryzen. Bigger number is better I guess? Aim for the one with higher clocks, not more cores. This is a game, not some perfectly multithread optimized professional work software. You will be better off with 8cores at 4.8ghz than 16 cores at 3ghz! Especially if you play something else, most games have stuff in em that is core-limited, and higher clocks matter more.

I'd recommend building the wife's PC in the CM300N case, if it's an option.
For well built silent cases, I'd go with a big ass black box from Fractal Design (or a smaller one if you wanna, I'm told they have those now too even for mATX and such). It's as discreet as it gets.

Define 7 Compact

The new Define 7 Compact takes the strongest features of the contemporary 7 Series design and places them in a conveniently compact frame.

www.fractal-design.com

It has sound dampening built in for the side panel fittings, mine even came with rubber grommets for all the mounts so HDDs and such wouldn't resonate the case. Filters all around, everything is thick and well designed, it won't rattle like the exhaust of a tuned honda, loads of cooling options (fan space usually 2 front, 1 rear, 2-3 top/water cooler) on some models you can switch out the top grate for a closed section if you don't need the holes for cooling, and they are available with metal or glass sides. We use em in the studios I work at and I had one at home for god knows how long, 7-8 years maybe?, they are great quality for the money!
Only negative I can say about my old one is the cable management is kinda lacking. Not enough space or holes to hide em, but they weren't designing for that back 10 years ago so...

64 gigs RAM is not necessary, SC can run fine on 32, but more is better! Think of all the Chrome tabs you could have open while flying!
If you don't want to spend on that, I'd recommend you don't and spend that money on a nice PSU and/or case. There is no real benefit to 64gigs at the moment, unless you have another use for it. (running simulations, rendering, and such)
Maybe buy a 2 stick set so you can add in another 2 sticks later if needed? Or just buy a mobo with 8 slots! Bam! :D
BTW running 4 vs 2 sticks makes no discernable difference in real life performance as long as your CPU and MB can handle that amount of RAM, so don't worry about that bit.

Just my 50 pesos, good luck with your build!

 

[Richard Bong]

I am reaching to all the experts here.

I am finally deciding to move away from my gaming laptop to a new gaming desktop i'm slowly building.
I have not used a gaming desktop for years, since i got various Asus ROG Strix gaming laptops for the last 8 years because traveling. So i'm not up to date.

I have bought a Gigabyte 1660 OC 6G early this year but i have not used it at all yet, due to lack of time for building PC, and is still sitting in its package.
I recently got a Gigabyte 2070 Super OC 8G.

I would like to use both cards with Star Citizen, is it possible?

It has been a long time since i have built my own PC, so i was wondering what kind of power supply i should get if i want to use 2 cards, and an average-high setup, not something hardcore gaming here.
I bought with the 1660 a Gigabyte PW400 for supply but i guess it will not be enough.

Some ideas of setup :
32gb Corsairs lpx 3200 c16 ddr4, not sure i need 64? tips?
Ryzen 5 3600 or 7 3800 (its been like 20 years i haven't bought AMD, last was K7), what do you suggest? need something that can do fine with the Gigabyte cards and not hamper them.
MSI B450 TOMAHAWK MAX for the motherboard

Rest of stuff does not matter, i'd like mostly advice on video cards i have, and the CPUs and Motherboard that will do best with them :)

Thank you !

edit : oh and the PC needs to be very silent and discreet. I bought a Cooler Master - N300 case, since it looked small and well made for cooling. But i need to check if it can contain 2 cards. I don't need something big or fancy with leds. Besides the card there wont be much other stuff plugged on the MB.

Star Citizen does not understand two cards. If it did they would likely need to be the same card.

 

[vahadar]

Yep, use the 1660 for something else, it's a great card and would run SC just fine at 1080p, but if you have a 2070 there is no point in it sucking power for nothing! Wife's machine sounds good!
Just plop in the 2070 and you should be set! It should handle anything within reason.

As for power, 400 won't cut it for a 2070 me thinks. NVidia recommends a 550W minimum, so go with a gold or platinum+ 550 or a bronze+ 600-650 at least! Just to be on the safe side go bigger as your budget allows, but aim for better certification rather then simply a bigger number on the box! Also, unlike anything else in a PC, PSU-s are kinda future proof, if you get a big enough one. :D
If you want silent, you could look for a PSU with a speed controlled fan, new ones have that capability, some can even stop entirely when not pushed. But this requires that you get a higher powered one so it's not sweating as much.

sidenote: My experience is that NVidia over rates the psu requirement quiet a bit so you could probably get away with a mediocre 500w even, but it might blow up down the line from the stress, or not even start at all. I'm currently running an old PSU that barely hits minimum spec for my 2060S and had no issues, and done the same before with other setups, mostly because upgrading gpu first without realizing I might need a better psu... It's dumb but cheap, until it catches fire... :D

For CPU and MB I can't help you, intel fanboy fo lyfe! hehehe
Also I have no idea which Ryzen is best Ryzen. Bigger number is better I guess? Aim for the one with higher clocks, not more cores. This is a game, not some perfectly multithread optimized professional work software. You will be better off with 8cores at 4.8ghz than 16 cores at 3ghz! Especially if you play something else, most games have stuff in em that is core-limited, and higher clocks matter more.

I'd recommend building the wife's PC in the CM300N case, if it's an option.
For well built silent cases, I'd go with a big ass black box from Fractal Design (or a smaller one if you wanna, I'm told they have those now too even for mATX and such). It's as discreet as it gets.

Define 7 Compact

The new Define 7 Compact takes the strongest features of the contemporary 7 Series design and places them in a conveniently compact frame.

www.fractal-design.com

It has sound dampening built in for the side panel fittings, mine even came with rubber grommets for all the mounts so HDDs and such wouldn't resonate the case. Filters all around, everything is thick and well designed, it won't rattle like the exhaust of a tuned honda, loads of cooling options (fan space usually 2 front, 1 rear, 2-3 top/water cooler) on some models you can switch out the top grate for a closed section if you don't need the holes for cooling, and they are available with metal or glass sides. We use em in the studios I work at and I had one at home for god knows how long, 7-8 years maybe?, they are great quality for the money!
Only negative I can say about my old one is the cable management is kinda lacking. Not enough space or holes to hide em, but they weren't designing for that back 10 years ago so...

64 gigs RAM is not necessary, SC can run fine on 32, but more is better! Think of all the Chrome tabs you could have open while flying!
If you don't want to spend on that, I'd recommend you don't and spend that money on a nice PSU and/or case. There is no real benefit to 64gigs at the moment, unless you have another use for it. (running simulations, rendering, and such)
Maybe buy a 2 stick set so you can add in another 2 sticks later if needed? Or just buy a mobo with 8 slots! Bam! :D
BTW running 4 vs 2 sticks makes no discernable difference in real life performance as long as your CPU and MB can handle that amount of RAM, so don't worry about that bit.

Just my 50 pesos, good luck with your build!

Lots of very useful advice here. Thank you very much!

That is a good tip about the CPU clock vs number of cores, I did not know. I'll double check on those CPU I was eyeing with that in mind.

And about the 64gigs RAM, I agree with your advice. I am not going to use many tabs beside running the game. Guilded will still be eating my memory but I guess it won't hamper the game.
At release I might go for more, if we can run 2 game instance at same time, but it is not for tomorrow, so by the time SC is out I will probably have another PC built.

 

[Eliyahu]

The new 5900 and 5950 Ryzen chips are amazing, if I were in the market for a new CPU and mobo, that is what I would get (budget permitting of course).

The best power supply with the highest rating plus modularity will be a future proof item regardless of mobo, card, cpu, etc.

The new generation of graphics cards, the 3000 series and new AMD cards blow the last generation out of the water and are prices better given performance.

 

[Cugino83]

I have bought a Gigabyte 1660 OC 6G early this year but i have not used it at all yet, due to lack of time for building PC, and is still sitting in its package.
I recently got a Gigabyte 2070 Super OC 8G.

I would like to use both cards with Star Citizen, is it possible?

Well, as samoone once sayd: "reaching the 110% of the reactor is possible, but not advisable". SLI is dead (well any multy-GPU configuration to be true), plus most of the game don't work well with muulty GPU configuration, at best they don't care for the 2nd GPU so you'll end up with just sucking more power for nothing.

Use the 2070 Super that is the better one, kepp the 1660 for another build or re-sell it for cheaper price: don't expect to get a lot out of it but is better then nothing.

 

[vahadar]

The new 5900 and 5950 Ryzen chips are amazing, if I were in the market for a new CPU and mobo, that is what I would get (budget permitting of course).

The best power supply with the highest rating plus modularity will be a future proof item regardless of mobo, card, cpu, etc.

The new generation of graphics cards, the 3000 series and new AMD cards blow the last generation out of the water and are prices better given performance.

This build is just a temporary build for the next 2-3 years probably, enough to run SC decently since my laptop is struggling now. My laptop is great for all other games i'm playing so i'll stick with it for that.

I don't have much time to game, so the desktop will be just for Star Citizen.

Once the game is out, i will most certainly spend more on higher end stuff to get a better experience, and consider all those fancy CPU and cards for sure and good tips like yours !
But until then, i don't think it is worth it.

I am going to follow everyone's advice though, and get a great power supply, that can be use for next build also.

 

[Sayora]

As everyone has said, that 2070 Super will do SC just nicely, and sadly SC or almost nothing anymore supports dual cards (although it is a capability built into Vulkan, but I doubt SC is going to leverage it)

As for CPU the AMD 5600X is an amazing CPU that can game lovely and will do well by SC. Of course the 5700X will do a little better but not at the same ratio as the price difference. Normally I would say save the money you would have spent on a better CPU and get a better GPU with it. But you already have that covered so if you can get a 5700X then it will run better

I am putting together a 5600X system now for my husband, he does a lot of 3D rendering (but uses the GPU for that which is a sexy 3090) so it's really good for him.

 

[vahadar]

I finally decided to return the RTX 2070 Super and took a Gigabyte RTX 3070 instead, with a 650 Corsair gold PSU, a MSI motherboard B550 Thomahawk MAG, and some LPX Corsair vengeance ram 32gb@3600. I have everything for my new PC except the processor heh.

I'll also take the new CPU gen from AMD. But the Ryzen 5 5600X and the Ryzen 7 5800X are all out of stock in major online retailers in Europe (at least in France, UK or Germany) and I don't want to buy them overpriced on smaller unknown shops...

So i will wait for new CPU stock, I'll go for the 5800X.

I have taken a Ryzen 5 3500X for my wife on a MSI B450 motherboard, with my previous PSU Gigabyte PW400 with 16gb Corsair vengeance ram@3000mhz and my Gigabyte GTX 1660 OC GPU.

I am still wondering if the PSU is enough for her, should I get a 450W or more? She has a 500gb Samsung 970 Evo SSD and a 2TB Seagate barracuda HDD. Nothing else plugged beside the screen, a 31,5" AOC Q3279VWF.

Those setup will last us a few years, probably untill the release of SC for me and more for my wife.

Thanks all for the tips!

edit : B550 mb typo, it is a MAG, not Max

 

[BUTUZ]

What PSU has she got?

I cant find 3070/3080 or 5600x/5800x in the UK, at least not from any reputable suppliers anyway... :(

 

[vahadar]

What PSU has she got?

I cant find 3070/3080 or 5600x/5800x in the UK, at least not from any reputable suppliers anyway... :(

A Gigabyte PW400, so 400W. I read at the time it was enough for a 1660, but I might be wrong.

 

[BUTUZ]

Should be just about enough for a 1660 if it has an 8 pin power connector? Not much headroom tho.

 

[Sayora]

A Gigabyte PW400, so 400W. I read at the time it was enough for a 1660, but I might be wrong.

GTX 1660 TDP is only 120W, 3500X TDP is only 65W. 400W Power supply is fine for that configuration

 

[vahadar]

GTX 1660 TDP is only 120W, 3500X TDP is only 65W. 400W Power supply is fine for that configuration

Should be just about enough for a 1660 if it has an 8 pin power connector? Not much headroom tho.

Perfect, thank you both for the good info !

Now i need to wait for my CPU, not this year i guess

 

[Ayeteeone]

Perfect, thank you both for the good info !

Now i need to wait for my CPU, not this year i guess

This IS the annoying part ! I've got all the parts to rebuild a mini-itx machine except the processor.