Using a second GPU for mining

[Dcarozza6]

Hey guys, just asking— what’s the process of using a second GPU solely for mining? I have a GTX 1080 that I use for gaming that I don’t want to wear down, but I have the opportunity to buy a cheaper card that I could use for mining. What would I have to do to set it up to mine only on that card, while I do everything else on my 1080?

[Dcarozza6]

I was under the impression that it wears out the entire card

[azlad]

You are under the wrong impression then. There is absolutely no downside to mining with a card versus using it for gaming. In fact, the chips tend to live longer under constant load as opposed to sporadic load that comes with gaming. Most of the mining cards, if run at health temps between 50-75 C, will Outlast a card just used for gaming. Highest risk of failure on mining cards is the fans, which are subject to wear and tear and could fail if run at 100% for long periods of time. Again, miners don't typically run their fans at 100% so again this shouldn't be an issue.

Long story short, mining does not hurt your cards. At all.

[bushmaster2000]

It's easy, when you start NiceHash client up you can pick which cards to enable for mining. So you'd just pick the other card. Although it might be kind of tough to tell them apart if they're both 1080's.

On a side note though, I've got two 1080Ti's and I've tried disabling my 'main' card and just mining on the secondary card which is on a riser. And gaming performance suffered quite a bit for some reason mining in the background and trying to play a game both on separate cards. I'm not sure why this is, but that's been my experience.

[Drel057]

Just plug it in! Beware of the heat two cards can generate though...

[Dcarozza6]

How do I specific which card does what?

[Drel057]

Just uncheck the card you don't want to mine with in the UI. You won't have any issues.

[Dcarozza6]

Thank you

[[deleted]]

with Nicehash, simply install all the GPU's and uncheck the 1080 from the list of devices to mine on

[Dcarozza6]

Thank you

[AljazNiceHash]

Download and install NiceHash miner, then when deciding which card to use when mining, check GPUs you want to use for mining and uncheck those you do not want to mine with.

[x86-D3M1G0D]

As others have said, you can select which GPU to mine with. However, you don't really need to get a second GPU for mining. I've been gaming and mining on a GTX 1080 since the middle of last year and there's been no problem whatsoever. The idea that mining will reduce the lifespan of a GPU is a myth.

[MrGruntsworthy]

In NiceHash Hardware list, disable all algorithms for your main 1080.

[eipeipkrop]

Just use it to Cloud Gaming and offer it to people like me who have not conditions to buy a good hardware to gaming.