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I'm looking for the cheapest GPU that can drive four displays for trading. Gaming performance is not a factor.

I know tons of people have asked this all over the internet, but most of the posts are 2-3 years old from funky sites.

If there are no responses, I guess I'll probably buy this: http://www.amazon.com/VisionTek-Product ... roduct_top

I think most AMD cards from the 6xxx series upward can power 4 displays, especially if they are labeled as eyefinity. I know my XFX 6950 can (although buying mini-DP to DVI adapters is a pain).

I don't have any experience with modern NVidia hardware, so I can't offer any help to the green team.

SuperSpy wrote:

I don't have any experience with modern NVidia hardware, so I can't offer any help to the green team.

Most nvidia hardware from Kepler onwards can power 4 displays at once*.

*EDIT: Don't forget you can daisy chain monitors over displayport (up to 2x2560x1600x60Hz), so even if a card has only 3 video outs (typically DVI-I, HDMI and DP), you can probably still run 4 monitors off it.

Also, don't forget that as of Haswell, you can run your intel IGP concurrently with a discrete Radeon or GeForce card. I believe you can do the same thing with AMD's APUs, but you might want to check on that.

Milo Burke wrote:

If there are no responses, I guess I'll probably buy this: http://www.amazon.com/VisionTek-Product ... roduct_top

Waay too much money.

Try this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121643, $99.99

If you've got 2 PCIe slots open you could get a couple of cheap dual/triple head cards. There are even PCIe x1 cards out there if you don't have dual x16 slots.

A note, if you are doing more that 2 displays from a single card you will need either a display port monitors beyond the second or active display port to whatever adapters.

The computer is a cheapo Dell, with an i5 that is either Sandy or Ivy, can't remember off the top of my head. The cheapo Dells cut major corners on their motherboards, so I wouldn't expect Crossfire to be a viable solution. I could find out if necessary, though.

Monitors have yet to be purchased. I was thinking four of these: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005LN ... PDKIKX0DER They are Dell, 1080p, 23" have DisplayPort, and can swivel to portrait. They are IPS. I suspect I don't need the last word in color reproduction for trading monitors, but enhanced viewing angles might be nice, and I can't really find cheaper monitors that can swivel to portrait. I'm thinking 4x1 portrait.

Currently, I have some computers that have one monitor connected with DVI and another with VGA, or one with HDMI and one with VGA. Sometimes identical monitors look different then. The color is a bit off on one, or one is fuzzier. I suspect using only DisplayPort from GPU to each monitor would fix this. But maybe the problem is that VGA is analog, so as long as I stick to digital cables I'll be fine?

Maybe I could say to my company: a decent Eyefinity GPU costs $150-200. I'll sell you my decent Eyefinity GPU for $150-200.

If they go for it, I give them my reference AMD 5870 and have some cash to replace it with something quicker. I can't afford a $300 card outright, but if $150 of it was subsidized, I probably could justify it. Everybody wins.

Assuming the cheapo Dell has dual six-pin power plugs, which sounds unlikely. Hmm...

Milo Burke wrote:

Currently, I have some computers that have one monitor connected with DVI and another with VGA, or one with HDMI and one with VGA. Sometimes identical monitors look different then. The color is a bit off on one, or one is fuzzier. I suspect using only DisplayPort from GPU to each monitor would fix this. But maybe the problem is that VGA is analog, so as long as I stick to digital cables I'll be fine?

I'd be willing to lay money on the analogue vs digital on that.
even from HDMI 1.2 to 1.3 there was a change in the colour depth.

Take a look inside and see what you've got going on as far as PCIe slots. My first reaction would be to look for two $30-40 cards, but you could also get something like this GTX 750 with 2xHDMI and 2xDVI.

It looks like the GTX 750 tops out at three monitors: http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop ... ifications

I'm wary as it is of using $30-40 GPUs even for two monitors. I've had some pretty terrible reliability issues with units in this price range.

Milo Burke wrote:

It looks like the GTX 750 tops out at three monitors: http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop ... ifications.

That's just for the reference card though.
"The below specifications represent this GPU as incorporated into NVIDIA's reference graphics card design. Graphics card specifications may vary by Add-in-card manufacturer. Please refer to the Add-in-card manufacturers' website for actual shipping specifications."

If you look at the Gigabyte site, it specifically mentions 4 displays.

Exploding capacitors (from ~10 years ago during the "capacitor plague") aside, all of the reliability issues I have had with low-end and mid-range GPUs has been with the fans. Get something fanless and you don't have to worry about this issue.

The el cheapo Radeon card in my work PC has no problem driving 3 monitors (though the 3rd head is limited to analog VGA). The card has been in service for more than 2 years without a hiccup.

Milo Burke wrote:

It looks like the GTX 750 tops out at three monitors: http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop ... ifications

I'm wary as it is of using $30-40 GPUs even for two monitors. I've had some pretty terrible reliability issues with units in this price range.

GTX 750 is Maxwell, so may have different capabilities than the Kepler parts.

From what I've read, Kepler can power 3x3D displays or 4x2D displays.

Voldenuit wrote:

Also, don't forget that as of Haswell, you can run your intel IGP concurrently with a discrete Radeon or GeForce card. I believe you can do the same thing with AMD's APUs, but you might want to check on that.

That's true of Haswell but it seems that four displays is the limit. From Intel's datasheet:

2.5.2 Multi Graphics Controllers Multi-Monitor Support

The processor supports simultaneous use of the Processor Graphics Controller (GT)and a x16 PCI Express* Graphics (PEG) device. The processor supports a maximum of2 displays connected to the PEG card in parallel with up to 2 displays connected to theprocessor and PCH.

Note: When supporting Multi Graphics Multi Monitors, "drag and drop" between monitors andthe 2x8PEG is not supported.

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/processors/core/4th-gen-core-family-desktop-vol-1-datasheet.html

Please read this previous thread:
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=93511#p1201285

Power color has this POWERCOLOR AMD Radeon R7 250 2GB GDDR5 4Mini DisplayPorts Low Profile PCI-Express Video Card / AXR7 250 2GBD5-4DL /

It is still a bit pricy at 203$ but it is cheaper then the 6 port 7750 http://www.amazon.com/250-DisplayPorts- ... xpress+3.0

Since I gather all your monitors are DP capable I would pay the extra $ for either card since they both will work with ease and I would imagine you would need minimal calibration between monitors to match the color /brightness etc since they will all be on DP and not mix and matching of inputs to you monitors.

Excellent responses, all of them. Thank you very much.