Personal computing discussed
Moderators: renee, morphine, SecretSquirrel
EndlessWaves wrote:You only need to splash out on an gaming/workstation card like a 560 or 1050 for 3440x1440 and above, all the cheaper cards will happily do 2560x1600 and below. A GT710 is often a good combination of cheap, only a bit ancient and not too much slower than integrated graphics, but even the 5450/R5 230 and G210 will do it.
You don't need any amount of memory on it for normal use, a few hundred megabytes. I don't know whether VMs use VRAM though.
blahsaysblah wrote:One other thing to consider, see which board is recommended for running KVM/QEMU for GPU passthrough. Technically, not ready for prime time. Not for sake of using Linux instead of ESXi but rather, it might be good indication of which is better "Threadripper" class board. If its doing device grouping nicely(so you can just send that device to a VM)...
blahsaysblah wrote:I never bothered to keep up with VMWare after workstation 10-ish...
But... you barely need a monitor for ESXi as its not a typical OS. During install it would be nice, other wise you do everything remotely with management tools.
Unless you plan to pass through a GPU to each VM and that is what you are connecting to monitor. You should be able to get away with setting up one VM like that to act as your GUI/management OS. At cost of not being able to change around stuff since you need a running VM to do anything. FYI, standard GTX driver wont let you install if it detects its inside a VM. Do some research before you buy. Maybe workaround is available.
You dont need anything more than DP 1.2a or HDMI 2.0 for 4k@60. RAM is totally irrelevant except for gaming or other GPU accelerated graphics software.
Doctor Venture wrote:I just didn't know if I needed X amount of VRAM to push a 2K WQHD monitor.
Doctor Venture wrote:Do the older cards you mention have HDMI or DP outputs? I don't recall if I saw one of the more reasonably priced monitors having a DVI input.
Doctor Venture wrote:Since I'm planning on building a Threadripper system to use as a workstation (no games), I've got a question I'm hoping the knowledgeable folks here can answer.
About 99% of the time, this machine will be running VMs in ESXi (I plan on getting the best CLC for the CPU, and adding 128GB RAM, since I *really* need that much). One thing I'd really like to use along with it, is a 32"-34" WQHD 2K monitor, since the 1080p monitor I have now is just too cramped for the info I need to have on-screen.
Any recommendations for a good WQHD monitor (I've seen the hate here for curved monitors, so I'm not sure I want one of those anymore)? Also, since this won't be a gaming rig, any suggestions for a cheapish video card that has HDMI or DP outputs for it? And what would be the minimum RAM that the board should have? Is 2GB enough, or should I look for a 3GB or 4GB board? I'm hoping to sidestep the boards that the cryptominers are pillaging, since the only other thing I *may* do with it, is watch a movie on it.
Any thoughts?
Chrispy_ wrote:What OS are you running the management client from? If it's the ESXi Embedded Host Client, then any GPU will do as long as it has the output you need.
If you're running windows get yourself a basic RX 550 for the Eyefinity support, if you're running Linux get yourself a GT 1030 for the Proprietary Nvidia driver, that is all; Having ReLive or Shadowplay is nice, too for making quick video records of what you did, if you're into that sort of experimentation with ESXi.
As for monitors, the biggest issue I've found with ultrawides is not curvature (they're all pretty subtle curves anyway) but the viewing angles at the edges of the very wide screens. You're looking at 30-45° off-centre at the the corners when you're sitting right in front of the middle of the screen, so the panel technology really matters, and curvature can help to reduce the viewing angle and keep you in the viewing angle sweet spot for the panel type.
VA screens suffer from off-angle contrast shift less than most IPS panels, but there's more of a colour-shift than with IPS panels. For me, the contrast is more important than outright colour accuracy, and additionally, VA doesn't suffer from corner-glow like IPS - though how much corner glow/light-bleed there is on the IPS panel depends a lot on what filters the manufacturer has added.
Samsung, AOC and Acer tend to choose VA for wide-angle viewing panels
LG, Dell and Asus usually opt for IPS.
I would take a look at a curved screen in the flesh before ruling them out. They improve viewing angles and if you're working on them a lot they help to reduce eyestrain caused by your need to constantly varying the focal distance when scanning a flat ultrawide from left to right. As someone who has seemingly good healthy focus working with an LG 34" ultrawide all day sometimes, I can tell you now that the lack of a curve actually causes me eyestrain. That's why at my normal desk with two screens, I angle my screens towards me like everyone else does - to create a rudimentary curve - it reduces the off-centre viewing angle to improve the image quality and it reduces the strain on your eyes from constantly changing focal distance.
You're probably not budget-constrained with a Threadripper build, but I'd rather work on two 1440p screens I think, and it'll be cheaper than a single ultrawide of similar quality. The only downside is the bezel gap, but something minimal like the Samsung SD850 gives you an outrageously high-quality image for pretty low cost, and you'd have 5120x1440p with less than an inch between both screens, plus the advantage of being able to watch 16:9 borderless content on one screen when you don't need to work on both of them at once.
Doctor Venture wrote:I had contemplated one of those samsung designo's since they have that blue light (or filter), to help reduce eye strain. I'm getting older, and sometimes I work with my home office lights off at night, so I don't disturb the rest of my family, and anything that'll help keep my eyesight from getting worse is always welcome. I'm not about to pay the price Samsung is charging, though.
just brew it! wrote:Even a bargain basement GPU should be able to drive a 2K monitor these days. My primary desktop has a craptastic GT 720 (no gaming, so I opted for something cheap with passive cooling when I put this build together), driving a 1920x1080 primary display plus a pair of equally craptastic 1280x1024s from the "junkyard", in triple-head configuration. That's more total pixels than a single 2560x1600. And I know it has a HDMI output, because there's a HDMI-to-VGA converter driving one of those crappy old 1280x1024s.
As far as this overall project goes, I have to wonder whether your needs might be better served (from a cost/benefit/effort angle) by a pair of less beefy builds? I understand that there's a certain elegance to virtualizing everything on a single killer box, but you may be making things more difficult (and expensive) for yourself.