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BIF
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Search Graphic Cards to Yield 6 Simultaneous Monitors?

Fri Nov 09, 2012 11:46 pm

Hi. I'm pretty much set on buying a GTX 680 or 690 for my new system.

Buuutttt, the 680 and 690 only drive 4 monitors concurrently, and I would like to explore any options I might have for graphic cards that could drive up to 6 separate monitors simultaneously. I want to use 3 monitors in the main working position (front-and-center), but my little studio has two workstation areas where a 19-22" monitor would be perfect for displaying mixers, or VST effect/instrument UI windows. The main "front 3" would be IPS 24" or 27" monitors, and the two side monitors could be positioned over my music instruments and keyboards, where I would also be able to set down a wireless mouse and keyboard for pseudo remote work. The two side monitors would never have to run in "eyefinity"; only the main three need that capability.

But I can't get a successful search on Newegg or other major retailers I've tried such as Microcenter. It looks like "number of concurrent monitors" is not something that those retailers have identified as a searchable thing.

Any ideas to help me mine for this info would be appreciated.

Thanks!
 
Zoomastigophora
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Re: Search Graphic Cards to Yield 6 Simultaneous Monitors?

Sat Nov 10, 2012 12:00 am

You either need a workstation GPU or one of the Eyefinity cards from AMD. All your monitors will need to support DisplayPort if you go the route of using Eyefinity, although you can buy active adapters to convert DP to DVI.
 
MadManOriginal
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Re: Search Graphic Cards to Yield 6 Simultaneous Monitors?

Sat Nov 10, 2012 12:32 am

Do you really need a high-end GPU? Are you going to game on this system? If not, look at getting two or even three of the same video card with two or three monitor output. I am quite sure that Windows and video drivers can be configured for multiple video cards/multiple monitors.

If you do want a high-end GPU for gaming, you'll want a motherboard with at least a secondary PCIe slot. Just get a low-end card from the same vendor (NVidia if you've already decided on a GTX 600), put it in the secondary PCIe slot, and use it to drive the non-gaming monitors.

These are just alternatives to what Zoomastigophora already wrote.
 
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Re: Search Graphic Cards to Yield 6 Simultaneous Monitors?

Sat Nov 10, 2012 11:45 am

Everything I've read says that 6 monitors on 1 card has to be an AMD card, and your monitors will have to be displayport, too. There are adapters and all, but I have never found any nvidia without sli that can run 6 monitors. Have you looked at going with 2 triple heads to go?
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Re: Search Graphic Cards to Yield 6 Simultaneous Monitors?

Sat Nov 10, 2012 1:12 pm

For 6 cards on a modern GPU you need to go AMD. Or go with a multicard solution for the secondary rooms. And I would still say your best bet is AMD if you want it on the cheap, although Nvidia has done huge inroads for the two- and three monitor setups.

That said, there is other options.
Depending on your budget you might go look at Matrox. Although I have no idea what they cost nowdays. Once they got rid of their desire to quit competing for the GPU crown, something they never could properly, despite being very innovative and having features that still arent available in the high-end non workstation cards today, they continued to specialize in multi-monitor graphics. And they usually made it good since they kindof were the founder of the current market for multimonitors being the first comming out with nicely integrated first dual-head then tripple head solutions. Usually you can also combine several cards to get the configuration they want, because they mostly have quad-card beyond an octa-card or their specialized solutions.

Why arent people talking about em more, because they arent on hardware sites and do products for gaming but specialising in multimonitor solution for, trading floors, medical, displaywalls, NOC and operation workstations, etc.


Why does this post make me feel like an old geezer when it comes to hardware, oh... perhaps because I remember the time before there was 3d-cards at all...
 
BIF
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Re: Search Graphic Cards to Yield 6 Simultaneous Monitors?

Sat Nov 10, 2012 2:33 pm

Hello and thank you for the great responses!

Some responses:

1. When running Windows "desktop" apps with multiple monitors (but not in eyefinity mode), does AMD really require ALL SIX monitors to be Displayport, or just the ones after 1 and 2?

2. No, I don't "need" a high-end GPU. But I want to fold too, and getting a dual GPU in a dual-slot (not triple slot) package is very appealing to me for that reason.

3. I use a UAD-2 card for the DAW work, which takes up a slot. I plan to get another UAD-2 card sometime in 2013 and if I add up the PCIe slots for 2 graphic cards, 2 UAD-2's, and a card for Firewire plus another for an external temperature monitor, pretty soon I'll be filling up the available slots.

So for now I would like see what I can get with a single card for GPU, and if possible, keep it to a dual-slot model (triple slot will further reduce my future flexibility).

4. One possible option would be to completely ignore my point #3 above and proceed with the GT690 now, and add a GT680 later. This would give me ability to drive 8 monitors total, which would be more than my current needs and desires. But it would make for a badass folding system ready for Stanford's Kepler optimizations. Not sure I want to spend $1600-1700 on graphic cards alone, but I'm crazy-excited about folding, and the 6-core i7 will easily be able to spare 3 of its 12 threads to support three GPUs for folding. So there you have it. Warp Speed!

5. I have considered Matrox, but I don't know what kind of folding support is available there, plus I do once in a blue moon play a game. So I think for now I'll stay in one of the AMD and Nvidia playgrounds.

Does anybody have any suggestions for which AMD cards I might consider? I was planning to spend close to $1,000 for a GTX 690, so anything cheaper that can support 6 monitors plus heavy folding and light gaming would be a strong contender. And I won't shy away from a dual GPU card either!

And thanks again!
 
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Re: Search Graphic Cards to Yield 6 Simultaneous Monitors?

Sat Nov 10, 2012 3:08 pm

1. For a single card, yes. Any outputs above 2 (last I knew, maybe 3 on some cards now) require Displayport because there are limited DVI/HDMI logic ports.

Here's a dual slot with 6 outputs: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814161419

Here's a few all Displayport cards: link

i've seen a few NV cards, although not Kepler-based, that had more than 2 or 3 outputs but weren't low-end either. They are specialty cards that have extra display logic chips, Galaxy makes some but their website is giving me problems right now.
 
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Re: Search Graphic Cards to Yield 6 Simultaneous Monitors?

Sat Nov 10, 2012 4:16 pm

BIF - I guess you already read this article here on techreport... if not, it's a good read that gives some info on using a eyefinity setup.

http://techreport.com/review/18756/eyef ... xth-degree
 
JustAnEngineer
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Re: Search Graphic Cards to Yield 6 Simultaneous Monitors?

Sat Nov 10, 2012 6:59 pm

With most AMD Radeon graphics cards, the first two monitors can be DVI or HDMI. Monitors 3 and up must use DisplayPort (or active adapters).

Note that Eyefinity (all monitors acting as one large display for full-screen gaming) requires that all of the monitors be plugged into the same card and have the same resolution and orientation. However, a large multi-monitor Windows desktop can be created using multiple graphics cards and monitors of varying resolutions. My 3760x1600 Windows desktop is spread across a 1200x1600 monitor beside a 2560x1600 monitor.
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Re: Search Graphic Cards to Yield 6 Simultaneous Monitors?

Sat Nov 10, 2012 7:05 pm

To confirm, six screens in a single card will have to be an Eyefinity setup, Nvidia cannot match this because they're busy farting around with 3D vision instead.

You'll find most 6-port cards will have 4 displayport outputs and the remaining two will be either HDMI or DL-DVI.

You don't have to use any displayport monitors at all, as long as you use active adapters.
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JustAnEngineer
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Re: Search Graphic Cards to Yield 6 Simultaneous Monitors?

Sat Nov 10, 2012 7:16 pm

$435 -20MIR Asus Radeon HD7970 3GB (2x DVI + 4x DisplayPort)
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vargis14
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Re: Search Graphic Cards to Yield 6 Simultaneous Monitors?

Sat Nov 10, 2012 8:23 pm

Gigabyte makes a 7950 that will support 6 monitors and is a lot cheaper along with being a double slot card compared to the asus triple slot card. They overclock over 1ghz easily. They only have 2 display ports but you can Daisey chain to up to 4 from theDP's.

Or just get one 7950 and then get a 80$ 7750 to power the other 3 monitors that do not need to be in eyefinity mode.
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JustAnEngineer
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Re: Search Graphic Cards to Yield 6 Simultaneous Monitors?

Sat Nov 10, 2012 9:29 pm

vargis14 wrote:
Gigabyte makes a 7950 that will support 6 monitors and is a lot cheaper...
What is the model number and where can you purchase it?
http://www.gigabyte.us/products/list.as ... 2,8@6@1,17
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zzz
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Re: Search Graphic Cards to Yield 6 Simultaneous Monitors?

Sun Nov 11, 2012 12:15 am

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814129262

with 6 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6815129012

This is the most no-fuss solution to your needs, although if you are getting three higher-end IPS monitors they may not need active adapters (native displayport), so instead of 22.99 you can find a 5$ or whatever cheapo adapter for those.
 
BIF
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Re: Search Graphic Cards to Yield 6 Simultaneous Monitors?

Sun Nov 11, 2012 1:14 am

MadManOriginal wrote:
Here's a dual slot with 6 outputs: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814161419

Here's a few all Displayport cards: link


Any of those three choices would be very good.

-----------------------
Question 1:
I like the pair of 7870s with 6 mini-displayport ports, but they have only half the stream processors of the more expensive HIS 7970. I'm thinking of spending the extra money for added folding power and the occasional game. Opinions on that?

================
And also, I'm thinking of making the monitor and graphic card purchases now to get some use out of them for a few weeks with my existing system:

1 of the three cards in the quoted message above (probably the HIS 7970).
...plus...
3 of these: EQ276W 27" IPS LED Monitor

I have an Asus P5KC motherboard with one blue PCIe graphic card slot and one black slot.
Here's the verbiage from the motherboard specs:

2 x PCIe x16 (blue @ x16 mode, black @ x4 or x1 mode) Supports CrossFire Technology
1 x PCIe x1
3 x PCI


The blue slot has an old Radeon 5750 (which would be replaced with the new 7970 or 7870).
The black slot currently has my UAD-2 Duo card in it (which must remain and will eventually be transferred to the new computer).

---------------------------
Question 2:
Can I proceed NOW with the purchase of these and use them for a month or so on my Q6600 system while I continue to work out the other details of my new system?

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