3090 ti SLI for Audio work (HQPlayer)

[mantheunknown]

Hello All,

Now that the prices are close to 1100 (BB) I am looking at SLI configuration. It is not for gaming ( I am a solitaire and Mahjong fellow) I need 48 GB of VRAM. I was looking at RTX A6000 but the 4500 USD price was holding me back My question is if I used two 3090ti boards will the VRAMS be additive and what ever I am planning on will see the two cards as a monolith.

On a slightly different note I would like to see more 64 GB DDR5 ram reviews from an OC perspective.

Thanks

 

[mantheunknown]

I reviewed all Youtube videos on the subject but I am no wiser. It seems that I may be able to use 2 cars and not think about NVlink/sli etc and get to 48 gb ram result (a little slower I believe). Appreciate any advise you can offer. Thks

 

[EarthDog]

That depends on what you're doing with the cards....

EDIT: I don't think it's additive, but not sure. Maybe email the maker of whatever program you're using and ask how two GPUs behave as far as vRAM goes????

On a slightly different note I would like to see more 64 GB DDR5 ram reviews from an OC perspective.

The more RAM you have, the more difficult it is to overclock/the lower the potential/ceiling. If this is 'work'. I'd just buy a faster kit out of the gate and not worry about tweaking...

 

[mantheunknown]

Thank you

I am using it for an audiophile sw called HQPlayer (Signalyst). Oversampling etc. The sw uses CUDA offloading on to the GPU. That can be accomplished even with substantially lower level cards but it is the advanced filters that require the computational power. I am exploring the bleeding edge!!

I am looking for the highest speed with lowest latency wrt RAM. I have learnt a lot here (this site) about which stick is better and such. Learning never stops!

 

[EarthDog]

I don't do audio, but are you sure you need that much vRAM? I could see if this was 4k video editing or something, but not sure audio needs that much vRAM. You can still have great computational power and not spend $1K for each card.

So for me...

1. Email HQPlayer/Signalyst and ask them about GPU scaling and vRAM use...
2. For RAM, yes, the highest speed and lowest latency is ideal, but there is a point where the costs outweigh the benefits. Looking in their forums, I don't see much about RAM and people are fine with 16/32GB

What is "wrt" RAM?

I think you're ready to throw a lot of money at this system but aren't sure if there are really benefits of doing so (ultra-fast ram and 2x flagship-class GPUs). Once you know that the application scales with multiple GPUs and responds well to fast RAM, THEN I think you can go down this rabbit hole.

EDIT: I also moved this to your own thread. While it's about 3090 Ti SLI, that thread had nothing to do with audio/your needs.

 

[mantheunknown]

Thanks again!

WRT = With Respect To

Hey I was already looking at $4600 for RTX A6000. I saw the prices of 3090ti and I am like dude you are saving over 2000!!! Cheers

 

[EarthDog]

Right, but... if you don't actually need that much vRAM then one would do... or even a lesser card for that matter.

All I am saying is to find out FACTUALLY that....

1. Your software/projects actually benefit by having more than 24GB of vRAM. Fire up a project and show me that your vRAM is full or close to it?
2. Your software scales with multiple GPUs
3. vRAM is additive in a 2 card config.
4. Ask about RAM speed and scaling so you don't buy some expensive arse kit that yields 1% better performance when you could spend half and be 1% slower.

... ask them as I'm not sure we have any users of that software.

Please create a signature with your current hardware so we know what you're working with.

 

[Railgun]

I see that their ”pro” version offloads, but no mention of requirements beyond the compute level.

I believe every other DAC in existence doesn’t need this type of setup. Audio files are not that large, uncompressed or otherwise. I have a sneaky suspicion that this falls into the snake oil category.

Do you have a link that covers the details of its requirements?

 

[EarthDog]

I'm just hoping we hear back from the OP... @mantheunknown ?

 

[mantheunknown]

Hello,
Have not disappeared. Gathering data. There is a lot of discussion on this on another forum. It is the use of certain filters that require more VRAM. I may not even hear the difference but would like to hear/not hear for myself what the hoopla is. Information is scarce, more of it is in forums. This would be a good starting point. https://www.signalyst.com/consumer.html. Cheers

 

[EarthDog]

That's the website for the software I saw when I first tried to help...not the forum to the discussion? The takeaway Im hoping for is to answer the questions I had so we can answer your questions and get you the appropriate parts instead of buying 2x the parts for meager gains.

 

[mantheunknown]

AudiophileStyledotcom is the forum where there is a lot of activity on this subject. The author of the SW got back to me saying it was not tested for a dual gpu configuration and so could not say if it would work. I have also kind of moved away from the NVlink thought. Waiting for the 40xx but my sense is it would be better in many ways to stay with 3090/ti. With SLI gains would be meager that is a given. How does one define a benefit of a particular filter B in how it improves the sound of an already extraordinary sounding filter A. Counting the angels dancing on the head of a pin!!
Appreciate your questions and guidance. Cheers

 

[EarthDog]

I can't help on the audio quality side of that, sorry!

But faster hardware isn't going to make better sound. A filter is a filter is a filter in that respect.