What happens with nvidia's 4 monitor limit if you have a gpu with 5 outputs and all off them are populated

[gamagama69]

Recently I found out that consumer nvidia cards are limited to 4 outputs for some reason. Some models of 3080s have 5 video outputs, and like 2 gigabyte models have 6.

What happens if oyu populate all of these? Will a monitor just not work? Will it be split somehow?

Why are there cards even made like this if they can't even use all outputs, and why is there a restriction at all?

[HeroRareheart]

2 minutes ago, gamagama69 said:

Recently I found out that consumer nvidia cards are limited to 4 outputs for some reason. Some models of 3080s have 5 video outputs, and like 2 gigabyte models have 6.

What happens if oyu populate all of these? Will a monitor just not work? Will it be split somehow?

Why are there cards even made like this if they can't even use all outputs, and why is there a restriction at all?

I did this with an old ATI card once, it had a 2 display limit and the 3rd display just didn't work. It's likely to be the same thing.

[Eigenvektor]

Only four of them will work at the same time. There's a limit because performance isn't infinite. There's a limited amount of hardware resources available to drive those monitors.

 

It has more outputs to give you a choice, e.g. 2x HDMI + 2x DP or 4x DP

[mariushm]

1 hour ago, gamagama69 said:

Recently I found out that consumer nvidia cards are limited to 4 outputs for some reason. Some models of 3080s have 5 video outputs, and like 2 gigabyte models have 6.

What happens if oyu populate all of these? Will a monitor just not work? Will it be split somehow?

Why are there cards even made like this if they can't even use all outputs, and why is there a restriction at all?

The 5th/6th monitor will receive no signal 

In the past it was common to have a HDMI and DVI connector sharing resources - so you could use only one of the two at same time. Saved user from buying a hdmi-dvi passive adapter and the dvi could also contain analogue signals (vga output) allowing for a cheap passive dvi-vga adapter to be used to get vga.

 

[BiotechBen]

Also helps with redundancy because no port will work forever. If you have more than one DP/HDMI port as an extra, then if one of those ports stops functioning, you still have one that works. 

[gamagama69]

11 hours ago, Eigenvektor said:

Only four of them will work at the same time. There's a limit because performance isn't infinite. There's a limited amount of hardware resources available to drive those monitors.

 

It has more outputs to give you a choice, e.g. 2x HDMI + 2x DP or 4x DP

I'm sure it's more of an arbitrary restriction so oems can't put tons of video outputs. amd cards support up to 6 monitors

[mariushm]

16 minutes ago, gamagama69 said:

I'm sure it's more of an arbitrary restriction so oems can't put tons of video outputs. amd cards support up to 6 monitors

No, there are specific limitations inside the video card, hardware limitation. There's a maximum number of TMDS pairs the chip supports (think of it like pci-e lanes, like the chipset has a built in pci-e controller with 6-8-10 lanes depending on chipset.  

HDMI has a minimum number of tmds pairs as requirement, as does displayport

 

The gpu chip may have transistors and anything required built in just for 2-3 monitor outputs but may support additional ones if extra components are installed on the video card.. or may only be supported by daisy chaining monitors on DisplayPort.

 

A chip like GT1030 may be simply cut down to support max 2 or 3 displays, literally not having the transistors in the silicon die, in order to make the die smaller.