Graphics Card to drive *SIX* 4K monitors

[ballerboy]

I am planning to build a new AMD system (CPU: AMD 7900X, Mobo: X670E Steel Legend, 64GB RAM)

The system will drive *SEVEN* 4K displays (SIX 32” 4K monitors with DP inputs, and ONE 75” 4K TV with HDMI input)

Here are my requirements:

1) The system won’t play games, is mainly used for productivity / web browsing / financial markets trading / light video editing.
2) System should be as “low power” as possible, therefore would prefer card with low power usage
3) Hopefully looking for cheaper priced graphics card (whilst still being able to output to *SIX* 4K displays)
4) Most important is RELIABILITY, system must to be STABLE with low risk of crashes

I already understand the below:

-I will be able to drive at least one (likely two) 4K monitors directly from the iGPU in the AMD 7900X, from the DP / HDMI ports on the X670E Mobo. Therefore, the Graphics Card will need to drive the remaining *FIVE* or *SIX* 4K monitors.
-Maximum of two displays via HDMI, the rest must all use DP
-I understand that most graphics cards only have 4 outputs (3*DP, 1*HDMI), therefore I will need to purchase two MST hubs to drive 5th and 6th monitor
-Likely Radeon RX 6000 series would be a good choice, I understand they can output to a maximum of *SIX* 4K displays?


Here are my questions:

1) Is Radeon RX 6000 series best choice for my needs?
2) What is the cheapest / lowest spec RX 6000 card which is capable of driving *SIX* 4K monitors? For example, would RX 6600 be “good enough”, or would a higher spec card such as RX 6800 be needed?
3) Any other requirements which I should watch out for? For example, for graphics card memory, is 8GB enough, or would need 12/16 GB?
4) For MST hubs, any recommendations for stable, reliable, relatively low-priced model? (which can split a single DP input into two, to drive two 4K monitors)

[jaslion]

You can buy like 2 used quadro p620's and call it good. Very low power ones. That or buy one and get a board with more display outs.

 

1) no consumer card is allowed to do more than 4 displays. You will need a professional card if you wany more and they cost a lot

2) anything half decent will easily drive all those sceens hence the quadro recommendation

3) since its just displays a couple gigs of vram is enough else get something modern WITH A VIDEO CODEC rx6400/rx6500xt do NOT have one and that puts a lot of load on the cpu if anything needs a bit of hardware power

4)get screens that do it or just run all the cables? Going to be much cheaper and more stable to avoid mst

 

 

[Kisai]

1 hour ago, ballerboy said:

I am planning to build a new AMD system (CPU: AMD 7900X, Mobo: X670E Steel Legend, 64GB RAM)

The system will drive *SEVEN* 4K displays (SIX 32” 4K monitors with DP inputs, and ONE 75” 4K TV with HDMI input)

I'd probably stick 6 monitors on one GPU, but you'd need a (older) workstation card. 

 

Technically you can also just use any two GPU's. Just keep in mind that there are power considerations. Like you could even use the iGPU for monitor 5 and 6 (though I don't really recommend this since they're pitifully slow.)

 

1 hour ago, ballerboy said:

4) For MST hubs, any recommendations for stable, reliable, relatively low-priced model? (which can split a single DP input into two, to drive two 4K monitors)

MST doesn't really care, since you're usually daisy-chaining the monitors. So you might have 3DP ports on the card, and then connect the DP upstream to the next monitor so you have a 3x2 setup rather than 6x1. If the monitors don't have upstream ports, then you could do DP 1.4 hubs (which support 4K.)

 

I would probably try to get monitors with upstream ports rather than deal with MST hubs, but keep in mind the limitations:

https://www.startech.com/en-ca/display-video-adapters/mst14dp123dp

It's likely you will only get 4Kp30 if you connect two or three.

[Stahlmann]

Buy two 8K TVs and use these instead of dozens of monitors.

[mariushm]

Have a look at used workstation video cards from AMD, they usually have at least 4  miniDisplayPort or DisplayPort connectors and they're single slot, so you can have two cards in your system.

 

WX 5100 is around $100 on eBay, and it's based on Ellesmere ( the 14nm chip used on RX 470, 480) ... 4x standard size DisplayPort 1.4a, it supports 4K on all... drivers still exist and the cards are still supported even on windows 11

 

Random ebay search results:

(60$ each, 5 available, 38 sold) : AMD Radeon Pro WX 5100 8GB 256-Bit GDDR5 4x DP 1.4 Workstation Graphics Card | eBay

AMD Radeon Pro WX 5100 8GB GDDR5 PCIe Graphics Card P/N: 102C9541200 Tested | eBay

AMD Radeon Pro WX 5100 8GB GDDR5 Graphics Video Card GPU - 4x DisplayPort | eBay

 

WX7100 is the same, and it's available at same prices ... it's just a bit higher core frequency and more shaders ... basically like difference between RX 470 and RX 480 ... for 2D stuff it would make no difference.  the cards are also a bit longer but other than that no special difference.

 

AMD Radeon Pro WX7100 8GB GDDR5 PCI-E 16x 4x Display Port Graphics Video Card | eBay

AMD Radeon Pro WX7100 8GB GDDR5 PCI-E 16x 4x Display Port Graphics Video Card | eBay

AMD RADEON PRO WX7100 7122B93000G 8GB GDDR5 DP GRAPHICS CARD WX 7100 DELL XFR29 | eBay

 

WX8100 and WX8200 are based on Vega and have HBM memory and SOME will have 6 miniDisplayPort but most models will have only 4 outputs.  They are a bit more expensive and I'm not sure it's worth it, as Vega is much less common and not sure if AMD's gonna support them as long as they're gonna support the others.

 

 

 

[OddOod]

Welcome to the forums!
Yeah, couple quadros should be good. 
I remember back pre pandemic I worked for an F500 company and the NOC had a lil tower with 4 quadros humming away in the corner running 16 screens that just displayed rotating metrics and graphs and alerts. v cool

[manikyath]

i was gonna suggest matrox, but even they dont make their stupid high port count GPU's anymore it seems.

[mariushm]

12 minutes ago, manikyath said:

i was gonna suggest matrox, but even they dont make their stupid high port count GPU's anymore it seems.

They release video cards with AMD chips , and with some customized firmware ... not sure if they can do 60 hz output on all displayports, and also not sure if they can do 4K on all outputs at same time, the gpu chip is kind of old.

They make them for digital signage, advertising, not gaming

 

ex

 

Matrox c680 has 6 outputs, 4 gb ram ... Matrox C680-E4GBF PCIe 3.0 x16 Graphics Card 4GB GDDR5 6x MiniDP | eBay

Matrox c420 LP has 4 outputs, 2 gb ram... MATROX C420-E2GBLAF 2GB GDDR5 PCIe 3.0 x 16 Full Height Graphic Card | eBay

 

Both are GCN 1.0 card based on Cape Verde (AMD HD 7750, HD 7770, W4100, R7 250, R7 350 etc)  - see second video below

 

 

 

[ballerboy]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

I appreciate the comments about using two cards in my system, however I would prefer to rely on integrated graphics as much as possible (I want system to be super stable and low power)

 

I was searching around on Google and saw that AM5 (Zen 4 and Zen 5) CPU integrated graphics can support a maximum of FOUR displays, can anyone confirm if this is correct? (I will likely buy either 7900X or 9900X CPU)

 

Of course, another problem is motherboard also needs to have enough ports to connect the displays (using integrated graphics).

 

I see that X870 motherboards will likely be released around 30^th Sep, I would be happy to wait around until X870 release.

 

(No particular preference for Gigabtye, would be happy to consider any Mobo manufacturer)

I see that most Gigabyte X870 boards have 3 ports for onboard graphics: 1*HDMI (supports 4K @ 60Hz), and 2* USB4 Type-C ports, supporting DP (supports 4K @ 240Hz).

 

I wonder if it would be possible to use MST Hubs to connect *TWO* 4K monitors to each of the USB4 Type-C ports? If so, it might be possible to run a total of FOUR 4K monitors directly from AM5 integrated graphics?

 

Or if not, worst case scenario could run THREE 4K monitors directly from AM5 integrated graphics? (2 from USB Type C, 1 from HDMI)?

[manikyath]

30 minutes ago, mariushm said:

They release video cards with AMD chips , and with some customized firmware ... not sure if they can do 60 hz output on all displayports, and also not sure if they can do 4K on all outputs at same time, the gpu chip is kind of old.

They make them for digital signage, advertising, not gaming

some years ago they had a card with 9 micro HDMI outputs that could all do 4k 30Hz (because that was what HDMI did back in the day)

 

on that note.. USB display adapters can actually push 4K these days.

[mariushm]

The WX5100 cards are single slot, slot powered video cards.

 

They consume up to 75 watts when gaming on them, and only around 20-35 watts when in 2D, doing Windows, playing movies, showing 2D stuff, your financial markets thing.  You don't even need full pci-e x16 slots, the WX5100 will also run perfectly fine in a slot that has only 4 lanes.

 

I would argue that a system will be much more stable and reliable when the outputs are on a dedicated video cards and not routed through usb or hubs. There's a much higher chance of instability and you're introducing various quirks when you introduce DisplayPort through USB type-C (most likely involving repeater / signal amplifier chips on the motherboard), then dealing with MST hubs which also cost money. 

 

The integrated graphics card inside the AM5 processors are VERY BASIC ones, unless the cpu has the G in the name. (for example 8500G , 8600G etc) ... even then, they're not that powerful  ... the 740m inside these 8500g/8600g have 256 shaders / 16 tpus / 8 rops and runs at 800 mhz