Adding a GPU to slot 3 to drive my monitor

[maw501]

Hello all,

I would like to have a set-up with one GPU dedicated to deep learning and one GPU for driving my monitor (not gaming, so it can be an inexpensive card).

At the moment I have a single GPU driving my monitor and also doing deep learning and when this is happening at the same time the monitor is basically not responsive and so I can't use my PC whilst the GPU is crunching something in the background, which is pretty annoying.

The 1080 Ti is in slot 1 on my motherboard but the fan blocks my motherboard's slot 2. Slot 3 won't support the 1080 Ti at the capacity I need and so it has to stay in slot 1. I would like (if it will work) to add a second, cheaper, GPU into slot 3 and drive my monitor from that.

I also run Ubuntu (but Windows is installed on a separate SSD), not sure if that affects anything.

Questions

1. • 1. Is it possible with my motherboard to drive one's monitor from slot 3 with another GPU in slot 1 and leaving slot 2 empty? I heard that some motherboards might not like that slot 2 is empty.
   • 2. If so, what's a reasonably priced GPU for just general PC use (but able to drive a decent modern monitor)?
   • 3. Is this something that is straightforward enough to be done by myself or is it more advisable to go to a store? I don't have any experience doing this sort of thing.

Here is a link to the motherboard manual.

Hope this makes sense, let me know if I've not described things correctly.

Thanks,

Mark

P.S. Perhaps it's possible to move the 1080 Ti to slot 2 and put a GPU to drive the monitor into slot 1 (will have to not have a fan)?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Case CORSAIR CARBIDE SERIES™ 200R COMPACT GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU) Intel Core™ i7 Eight Core Processor i7-7820X (3.6GHz) 11MB Cache
Motherboard ASUS WS X299 PRO: ATX, USB 3.1, SATA 6 GB/s
Memory (RAM) 64GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3000MHz (4 x 16GB)
Graphics Card 11GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 1080 Ti
Power Supply CORSAIR 1000W RMx SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET

 

[acolwill]

HI Mark,
If you check page 1-8 on the manual - Your CPU has 28 lanes. The only supported configuration that Asus shows is 1x 16x in slot 1 and 1x 8x in slot 2.
Additionally, the foot-note on the same page:

I'd just get a card and try it in slot 3... if it works, win, if it fails then send it back.

As for an additional card, have a look at one of the new 1650 or 1660's. If you're running Windows 10 as your O/S then you can use both Windows and the nVidia drivers to dedicate applications to a specific GPU.

 

[Oussebon]

If it's just to run a desktop then a cheap card like a GT710 or 730 would be fine.