Adding another graphic card for my folding rig

[Bolo_Yeung_PL]

Hello.

Currently I have this rig:

MB: Gigabyte GA-Z77X-D3H
CPU: Intel i5-3570K @ 3.8 GHz (stable @ 1.05V checked with Linpack for 1 hour, driven @ 1.15V to be sure)
RAM:32 GB RAM (KHX16C9K4/32X)@ XMP1 (1600)
SDD: Plextor M6 Pro 128 GB
PSU: Corsair 750W Modular 80+ GOLD CP-9020078-EU
OS: Windows 7 Pro
GPU: Asus ROG Strix GeForce GTX 1080 Ti OC

now the questions
#1: I want to place other GPU (Asus ROG Strix GeForce GTX 1080) into a second slot. However, PCI-E will work @ X8 instead of one X16 . Would it slow folding?
#2: Would the PSU be enough?

#3 would I be able to play games later when I switch to i7-8700K? Assuming the Ti is still folding and 1080 used for gaming

Thanks in advance for the reply

[foldy]

#1 pcie 3.0 x8 is fast enough on Windows. All GPUs will fold or game at full speed.

#2 gtx 1080 ti takes 250 watts and gtx 1080 takes 200 watts and CPU may take 150 watts = 600 watts. To be sure you could buy a cheap wattmeter.

#3 Yes you can fold on one GPU and game on the other. You can even fold on both GPUs and only pause folding on one GPU for gaming.

Looks good.

2 GPUs produce some heat. So you need some case fans to get it out of the case and maybe attach a fan next to the GPUs inside for air distribution.
Using MSI Afterburner you can also limit power usage and GPU fan speed if it gets too hot or loud.

The gtx 1080 ti is thicker than the gtx 1080. So to get the biggest space between them the gtx 1080 goes to the upper pcie slot and the gtx 1080 ti to the lower. Then you attach your display monitor to the GPU on which you want to game.

[bruce]

You didn't say if you planned to run 2 slots (GPUs) or 3 slots (GPUs+CPUs). If you fold with 1 or 2 of your CPUs, That will generate some additional and and will increase your production slightly.
I wouldn't depend on LinPack to establish stability. FAH is quite efficient at using the floating point segments of your CPUs, whether with SSE2 or AVX and those segments aren't fully exercised by LInPack.

As foldy suggests, running FAH on the same GPU that you're gaming on WILL slow down both the game and FAH. Running FAH on the other GPU and/or on the CPUs shouldn't produce a noticeable change in game performance.

[Bolo_Yeung_PL]

Hello again.

I am not using CPU slots - simply not power effective. Of course if there are some CPU-only work units, I can get CPU slot as well.
The case has 5 fans active. Pretty noisy but I got used to it. GPU temperature rarely exceed 60 degrees Celsius, mostly its like 55.
For now, I am not using the computer for gaming; though in the near future I plan to buy new machine if I can afford it (I have mentioned swithing to i7-8700K later). Though in that case I suppose I should give FAH gpu slots high priority...
Folding & gaming on the same GPU slot is simply not effective (sometimes even desktop use cause 'stuttering' while computing some power-hungry WU. At least on 1080, Ti looks like working with half the power)

Regarding CPU stability - I have experienced some crashes lately, though it looks rather like drivers problem (rollback to older drivers eliminated the crashes). However, what test can be used to check the stability in FAH?... Just to be sure.

[bruce]

All projects are distributed to either CPU slots or GPU slots.

[Bolo_Yeung_PL]

OK... Guess I will gave to get a new PC case, second GPU does not fit in old one.
Thank you for the answers.