As I move to flying larger and larger projects and add more ground photos to projects I have pushed my I9/gtx1080ti tower to see longer processing times. from reading much of the testing that Puget systems have done, it looks like Pix does not use Multi cards with SLI or Multiprocessors setups. Is this in the works of development or something that I can upgrade to?
https://www.pugetsystems.com/recommended/Recommended-Systems-for-Pix4D-207/Hardware-Recommendations
Hello Kevin,
SLI or multi-GPU technology is compatible but will not have an impact on processing.
It is possible to use SLI. However, using 2 graphics cards connected the with SLI has the following effect:
For Processing
It will make big difference in terms of processing.
Let’s say that you have 2 cards and each of them has 2GB of RAM. Using the SLI connections does not mean that you will have 1 card with 4GB of RAM, it will still be 2 GB of RAM. So, practically, it will not help the processing.
For visualization in the rayCloud
It could indeed help the visualization of objects in rayCloud for big projects. If you already have a good card and you see things smoothly and nicely in the rayCloud, then maybe it will not make any difference. If you have problems with the visualization of the outputs in the rayCloud (for big projects), then using SLI (Dual Graphic card) technology could help.
Another option, where you would actually get benefits from having two cards for processing would be to have the two cards but not connect them using SLI. This allows you to more or less always have a free GPU (one that is not connected to the screen) and avoid the RAM duplication done when using SLI.
For more information about SLI for processing with Pix4D Desktop check here.
Some steps during processing use more than one processor but other steps use only one processor. There are some processes that cannot be done in parallel. For example, processing time will not be half with two socket CPUs instead of one. Please note that different steps of the processing do not use the resources in the same way: 202559519.
Currently, there is no plan for changing the way the hardware resources are handled during processing, at least until the end of the year. Please keep in mind that what is the most important to reduce processing time, is to have a balanced computer.
Regards,