
My question is whether I could run Blender (on Linux) using just the Intel HD graphics for the X session (with OpenGL for Blender) and then dedicate a single Nvidia GPU for Cuda (for Cycles rendering). the Intel HD 530, in the Core i5-6600, which is OpenGL 4.4, HLSL 5.1 and DX12 compatible. Now that I've started to look into the build, I see that the Intel Skylake CPU's also include an OpenGL capable GPU, e.g. This would still give me an excellent gaming rig if I used, for example, 2x Geforce GTX 960 (4GB). Because of the shift to the cycles renderer I was thinking of going SLI (for the first time) so that I could dedicate one GPU to Cycles and leave the other for X. It's going to be a multi-use machine for Gaming, Virtualisation, Coding, Blender and possibly even VR (Rift).

I'm trying to specify the build for a new PC, my current one is 5 years old and starting to show its age.
