6 display project

[SolidSnake526]

Trying to come up with a system to run 6 displays simultaneously. Would running SLi/Crossfire allow more displays to be supported, or would it be better to simply have two different, less expensive GPU's run parallel to each other with 3 displays running on each?

 

Not gaming specific, the goal of this system is largely about being able to read large amounts of data simultaneously.

[samcool55]

1 minute ago, SolidSnake526 said:

Trying to come up with a system to run 6 displays simultaneously. Would running SLi/Crossfire allow more displays to be supported, or would it be better to simply have two different, less expensive GPU's run parallel to each other with 3 displays running on each?

 

Not gaming specific, the goal of this system is largely about being able to read large amounts of data simultaneously.

If you don't need a surround setup (so it's fine the system treats every monitor individually and not as 1 massive one) just get a few cheap GPU's and off you go.

However, if you want high-res monitors, it might be worth getting cards that are at least a bit decent to be sure they can handle it.

[Fasauceome]

An actually good graphics card for gaming and a cheap secondary to power the displays is the ideal path, say something like a Vega 64 and an RX 450, unless like stated above its for surround gaming.

[SolidSnake526]

1 minute ago, samcool55 said:

If you don't need a surround setup (so it's fine the system treats every monitor individually and not as 1 massive one) just get a few cheap GPU's and off you go.

However, if you want high-res monitors, it might be worth getting cards that are at least a bit decent to be sure they can handle it.

Not sure. It wouldn't need to run all displays with a single fullscreen program, but would need a centralized set of controls. Kinda like running two independent displays off of one GPU, except...six of them.

 

There isn't much of a better way for me to phrase this that I can think of, I don't delve much into multi-display setups beyond the simple, commonly supported arrangements.

[SolidSnake526]

2 minutes ago, fasauceome said:

An actually good graphics card for gaming and a cheap secondary to power the displays is the ideal path, say something like a Vega 64 and an RX 450, unless like stated above its for surround gaming.

Not a gaming system. This is largely a thought exercise right now, but the theory is for a day trading machine meant for rapid multitasking, capable of displaying a bunch of trading-relevant information (clearly I'm not the trader here lol).

[samcool55]

7 minutes ago, SolidSnake526 said:

Not sure. It wouldn't need to run all displays with a single fullscreen program, but would need a centralized set of controls. Kinda like running two independent displays off of one GPU, except...six of them.

 

There isn't much of a better way for me to phrase this that I can think of, I don't delve much into multi-display setups beyond the simple, commonly supported arrangements.

Well, you can just connect 6 instead of 2

Maybe this will make it a bit more clear:

 

Every GPU will take care of the displays that are connected to it.

Let's say you have GPU 1 and GPU 2.

GPU 1 has monitor 1, monitor 2 and monitor 3 connected to it.

GPU 2 has monitor 4, 5 and 6.

 

First note. The system will see 6 monitors, that's what you want, can be done, no problem.

 

note two: If you have for example a video playing on monitor 1, and drag the window to monitor 6, the video playback load will move from GPU 1 to GPU 2.

Each monitor takes care of what is displayed on the monitors it has connected to it. There are exceptions, but that's not a worry here.

 

Note 3: you don't need SLI/crossfire. I would even go as far as saying you don't even want that.

So, what this means is you can mix gpu's as you please. However i don't recommend mixing AMD and Nvidia drivers because it would make it more complicated than it needs to be and nvidia doesn't like amd drivers.

 

So, what you need are 2 gpu's (i recommend something that's at least somewhat decent, RX 560 or GTX1050) because depending what res the monitors are, you might be surprised how much gpu power you need to just run them properly, even without a gaming/production load.

 

edit: about the gpu mixing, i mean you can take an rx 560 and an rx 580 or vega whatever and run them both at the same time with the same driver without any problems.

[SolidSnake526]

2 minutes ago, samcool55 said:

Well, you can just connect 6 instead of 2

Maybe this will make it a bit more clear:

 

Every GPU will take care of the displays that are connected to it.

Let's say you have GPU 1 and GPU 2.

GPU 1 has monitor 1, monitor 2 and monitor 3 connected to it.

GPU 2 has monitor 4, 5 and 6.

 

First note. The system will see 6 monitors, that's what you want, can be done, no problem.

 

note two: If you have for example a video playing on monitor 1, and drag the window to monitor 6, the video playback load will move from GPU 1 to GPU 2.

Each monitor takes care of what is displayed on the monitors it has connected to it. There are exceptions, but that's not a worry here.

 

Note 3: you don't need SLI/crossfire. I would even go as far as saying you don't even want that.

So, what this means is you can mix gpu's as you please. However i don't recommend mixing AMD and Nvidia drivers because it would make it more complicated than it needs to be and nvidia doesn't like amd drivers.

 

So, what you need are 2 gpu's (i recommend something that's at least somewhat decent, RX 560 or GTX1050) because depending what res the monitors are, you might be surprised how much gpu power you need to just run them properly, even without a gaming/production load.

Cool that's about what I was thinking anyway, just wanted to make sure I was assuming correctly.

 

I was probably gonna pair 1050Ti's since they're not that expensive and can easily be swapped out, just wanted confirmation I'm not wrong in assuming a single system would behave this way without two synced cards.

Thanks for the advice.

[bigmouthbob1]

20 hours ago, SolidSnake526 said:

Trying to come up with a system to run 6 displays simultaneously. Would running SLi/Crossfire allow more displays to be supported, or would it be better to simply have two different, less expensive GPU's run parallel to each other with 3 displays running on each?

 

Not gaming specific, the goal of this system is largely about being able to read large amounts of data simultaneously.

actually, there is an older graphics card that can run 6 displays through it without needing a second one. I have it in my build and it is great to do almost anything you need.

 

It is a VisionTek - Radeon HD 5870 2GB Video Card

but if you are set on having multiple graphics cards I would take the advice above