How can I run 24x 1080p displays? (11,520x4320px)

[AdultSwimmer]

I have a simulator application built on Unity that currently displays on a 6x4 grid of 1080p displays (so 24 total). The setup is one simulator machine connected to 6 mid-spec graphics PCs (each with a 3070) which each run 4 displays. My task is to reduce this down to one (maybe two) custom PCs. 

 

I have a couple of questions: 

 

1. The Nvidia cards all support 4 displays max. Running 6 GPUs in one machine obviously wont work with PCI slots / bandwidth. Could I do the graphics grunt work (rendering) with 1-2 4080/4090s and then have a couple output focussed focussed cards that will support multiple displays? If yes, any good options? I saw Matrox, nVidia looked like it did one itself with 8 outputs but is now discontinued.

2. Imagine the simulator is no more taxing that Microsoft Flight Simulator and I need about 50FPS, could I reliably do this with a card like the 4090 or is it just going to die at that resolution? LTT on YouTube looked like it could run at 8K okay on an FPS game...

3. the 4090 says it has a maximum 'digital resolution' of 8K, does this mean it would only be able to render out an 8K image if I am using one GPU, then I would have to use DLSS to upscale it to the resolution I require? Alternatively I could run the video wall as an 8K display. 

 

The aim is to do this for around the same price as what 7 machines are costing (so about 10-12K) - looking at proper video wall processors, for 24 displays becomes prohibitively expensive over triple the price. 

[jaslion]

Get a nvidia rtx a or t series quadro/pro gpu. They have single slot cards that can do 6 displays or more.

 

2 minutes ago, AdultSwimmer said:

the 4090 says it has a maximum 'digital resolution' of 8K, does this mean it would only be able to render out an 8K image if I am using one GPU,

Basically yes

 

2 minutes ago, AdultSwimmer said:

looking at proper video wall processors, for 24 displays becomes prohibitively expensive over triple the price. 

Because you go from consumer prices to bussiness prices. Its paying what they call the bussiness tax.

[jaslion]

3 minutes ago, AdultSwimmer said:

Alternatively I could run the video wall as an 8K display. 

At that point get 1 big screen? Or a couple big screens and simplify it?

 

I mean really you are trying to do a display matrix without using proper display matrix stuff which makes it really really hard to do and well not budget efficient

[Dreckssackblase]

I'm really wondering why it needs to be 24 displays. You could alternatively use 6 (3x2) Grid of 4k Monitors / TVs and run then from 2 Quadro-Cards connected via NVLink. Like 2 Quadro RTX 4500 or something similar.

That way you could get a similar size and the exact same pixel count with like a quarter of the bezels.

I cant tell you what GPU would be sufficent though since I dont know how demanding your application is.

[Eigenvektor]

44 minutes ago, AdultSwimmer said:

3. the 4090 says it has a maximum 'digital resolution' of 8K, does this mean it would only be able to render out an 8K image if I am using one GPU, then I would have to use DLSS to upscale it to the resolution I require?

DLSS is not going to help you here.

 

The maximum digital resolution is the maximum number of pixels the card can push out over its video ports in total.

 

This happens after any type of upscaling.

 

So the resolutions of the monitors attached to it can't exceed 8K when added together.

[Glenwing]

1 hour ago, Eigenvektor said:

The maximum digital resolution is the maximum number of pixels the card can push out over its video ports in total.

 

So the resolutions of the monitors attached to it can't exceed 8K when added together.

This is not really correct; "Maximum resolution" on graphics cards is a kind of fake spec. See here:

 

[AdultSwimmer]

3 hours ago, Glenwing said:

This is not really correct; "Maximum resolution" on graphics cards is a kind of fake spec. See here:

 

Interesting, see I did wonder seeing as when you add the sum of supported displays it comes to a value above it. Seems a strange spec to add seeing as though it makes the card theoretically ‘worse’ than it actually is then? Is it the rendering side of the card as in it can generate a maximum single resolution of 8k? 

[AdultSwimmer]

5 hours ago, Dreckssackblase said:

I'm really wondering why it needs to be 24 displays. You could alternatively use 6 (3x2) Grid of 4k Monitors / TVs and run then from 2 Quadro-Cards connected via NVLink. Like 2 Quadro RTX 4500 or something similar.

That way you could get a similar size and the exact same pixel count with like a quarter of the bezels.

I cant tell you what GPU would be sufficent though since I dont know how demanding your application is.

Thanks but It’s a pre-existing setup with an extensive frame fabrication  etc. to create a certain sized video wall so has to be 24 1080p displays in that arrangement. They do support DisplayPort passthrough so I can daisy chain say 4 together but the GPUS have a limit that you can’t get around I don’t think, even though it would theoretically be the same…
 

The supported output number on NVIDIA cards seems to be a massive bottleneck I can’t get around as NVIDIA have a max 4 limit per card and AMD has a 6 port card as the upper limit.

[AdultSwimmer]

5 hours ago, jaslion said:

Get a nvidia rtx a or t series quadro/pro gpu. They have single slot cards that can do 6 displays or more.

 

Basically yes

 

Because you go from consumer prices to bussiness prices. Its paying what they call the bussiness tax.

Thanks.

 

the NVIDIA cards are all 4 max simultaneously (even if you want to use display port passthrough). This includes the quadro / a series cards… they did do a 8 port card but this seems to be discontinued. 
 

We have it working reliably but it’s over 7 PCs, the issue with the video wall processor is it’s over 3 times the total PC cost just for the video processor before still needing a PC powerful enough to render the simulator so it becomes non-viable. 

[AdultSwimmer]

5 hours ago, jaslion said:

At that point get 1 big screen? Or a couple big screens and simplify it?

 

I mean really you are trying to do a display matrix without using proper display matrix stuff which makes it really really hard to do and well not budget efficient

We have it working reliably, it’s just a lot of components (distributed over 7 machines). The quality of displays at this stage is fixed as it’s part of a large fabricated assembly that must be shipped in smaller components. 
 

the video wall / display matrix controllers would do what we need, but at over triple the price of running 7 machines, the convenience isn’t worth spending that much extra. 
 

I was hoping to do it with a really powerful single PC and then a couple of matrox or similar video cards to run the displays but struggling to find the right solution. 
 

Thanks. 

[Kilrah]

A workstation/server-grade sytem with a threadripper pro or xeon could have enough PCIe slots to get 4 of these pro 6-display single slot cards and a 4090 for rendering... bandwidth between the cards might or might not suffice

[AdultSwimmer]

50 minutes ago, Kilrah said:

A workstation/server-grade sytem with a threadripper pro or xeon could have enough PCIe slots to get 4 of these pro 6-display single slot cards and a 4090 for rendering... bandwidth between the cards might or might not suffice

Which 6 slot cards are you referring to sorry? I know AMD do one but I’d imagine running NVIDIA for rendering alongside AMD for output is asking for trouble?

 

In terms of bandwidth between cards, how would I go about calculating something like that? Just calculate the bandwidth for running 6 displays at 1080P and ensuring the CPU and MB can handle that across each PCI  channel?

 

thanks a lot 

[jaslion]

A nvidia nvs 810 is a potential option

[tkitch]

I'm sure this is fuckoff expensive, but this card can support splitting a 4k signal to 4x 1080 screens

 

https://www.datapathltd.com/datapath-products/graphics-products/image4k/

 

[Kilrah]

8 hours ago, AdultSwimmer said:

I know AMD do one but I’d imagine running NVIDIA for rendering alongside AMD for output is asking for trouble?

Shouldn't matter.

 

Matrox actually has an 8-port card:

https://video.matrox.com/en/products/graphics-cards/m-series/m9188-lp-pcie-x16#resources

 

8 hours ago, AdultSwimmer said:

In terms of bandwidth between cards, how would I go about calculating something like that? Just calculate the bandwidth for running 6 displays at 1080P and ensuring the CPU and MB can handle that across each PCI  channel?

Doubt you even can outside of "try it and hope it works"...

[Kilrah]

There seems to be 4K to 4x1080p video wall controllers in the $250 range, likely way cheaper to use 5 of those than one big industrial unit

 

https://www.assmann.com/en/products/?ean=4016032467595

[AdultSwimmer]

13 hours ago, Kilrah said:

Shouldn't matter.

 

Matrox actually has an 8-port card:

https://video.matrox.com/en/products/graphics-cards/m-series/m9188-lp-pcie-x16#resources

 

Doubt you even can outside of "try it and hope it works"...

Thanks I’d missed that one and got excited before I realised is max 2 per system so max 16 displays! Nothing is straightforward! Thanks though 

[8tg]

22 hours ago, jaslion said:

A nvidia nvs 810 is a potential option

This

you could run 3 nvs 810’s and do this no problem

now this will power the displays, actually piping an image through the may be a bit more of a challenge, you could run these alongside a 4090 with the right workstation board and keep effectively one large system to run all 24 and feed them a video signal from the 4090, upscaled across 24 displays 

but this starts to leave the realm of what this site does, I know there’s software for this, designed to do this, but I have zero experience with digital signage cards beyond two old via uh4’s running 8 displays