Which graphics card(s?) for 6 x high res monitors, not gaming

[DeathtoGnomes]

Eyefinity treats all monitors that part of it as one huge generic monitor, its great for 3 monitor gaming.

 

[multimonitormaniac]

Thanks for your help, guys. A quick update.

Quick followup.

Have received the GPU and have daisy-chained 2x2 monitors to two Displayports on it, and after a bid of fiddling with settings (enabling DP1.2 in the Dell monitor menus), it works.

Now I am waiting for three Dell U2715H to arrive next week, then I can finish my setup.

I have also received the Viotek Articulating Hex 6-Monitor Stand and put it together - but will not mount monitors, until the last ones arrive.

I have also attached my TV to the IGP, which also works just fine. I could probably daisy-chain two more monitors to the IGP displayport as well, and make it 8 - but 6 will do - for now.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

Cant wait to see the finished assembly.

 

[Toothless]

Good lord PLEASE get a proper background! Use that screen space! Get something that'll float across them all or I'ma have to rip my eyes out.

 

[multimonitormaniac]

Good lord PLEASE get a proper background! Use that screen space! Get something that'll float across them all or I'ma have to rip my eyes out.

Easy now, mate! All in due time - when I get the last 3 monitors, I will find something suitable.

 

[jboydgolfer]

I remember there was a 7870ghz that had 6 DP ports or HDMI ports. But thats not exactly cutting edge tech... i guess they didnt like the mixing of consumer & commercial retail products cuz I havent seen a similar one since. Still an option for some,

Here

 

[Toothless]

Easy now, mate! All in due time - when I get the last 3 monitors, I will find something suitable.

I'ma take your word for it

 

[multimonitormaniac]

Received the monitors and everything else.

I have attached 2x2 daisy-chained monitors to the GTX1060, and that works. But I cannot hook a third monitor up to the GPU (this was kind of expected), as it will only handle a total of 4 monitors.

I was then expecting to be able to add 1x2 daisy-chained monitors to my IGPU, but it seems I run into some kind of system limitation (??). If I hook up my 24" 1920x1200 monitor, it works. If I hook up another 2560x1440 monitor, it says "entering power-save mode" and does not want to display anything. The monitor works, the cable works - but I hit some kind of wall here.

Question is, if I should get another GPU with displayport for 1x2 daisychained monitors - or if that will not work either...

Damn, this stuff is frustrating.

 

[TheoneandonlyMrK]

Received the monitors and everything else.

I have attached 2x2 daisy-chained monitors to the GTX1060, and that works. But I cannot hook a third monitor up to the GPU (this was kind of expected), as it will only handle a total of 4 monitors.

I was then expecting to be able to add 1x2 daisy-chained monitors to my IGPU, but it seems I run into some kind of system limitation (??). If I hook up my 24" 1920x1200 monitor, it works. If I hook up another 2560x1440 monitor, it says "entering power-save mode" and does not want to display anything. The monitor works, the cable works - but I hit some kind of wall here.

Question is, if I should get another GPU with displayport for 1x2 daisychained monitors - or if that will not work either...

Damn, this stuff is frustrating.

I think the 1060 is limited to a max of four screens or and a certain resolution , all amd Rx 570/580 cards Will do six via display port(requiring mst hub with some monitors, not yours) but i think they too limit the maximum total resolution ,im not sure how high but im @ 8k width now so i dunno I thought it was 5k but thats definitely per screan not total and vegas go upto 8K so seam like a way to do this on one card ,id imagine the higher end nvidia cards like 1080ti might do it on one card too but im guessing there.
At this point a second 1060 or your onboard might be the way just be sure to boot to Peg not onboard first in bios.

 

[Toothless]

My GTX780 could do 5760x1080 and game on it. Only issue is power draw but I wonder if they could've been a cheaper solution.

 

[multimonitormaniac]

Got back from 5 days of vacation, and went back to working on the monitor-solution... And I got there!

I tried all kinds of stuff to make the IGPU work, but it was not a workable solution. I then tried with my old GTX750 GPU, which I added to the PC next to the GTX1060. And then I got there - and it works!

Final setup:
2x2 monitors daisy-chained displayport to GTX1060
1x monitor HDMI to GTX750
1x monitor DVI-D to GTX750

I still have to re-cable everything to make it pretty, but at least it works now. I also think the 7th monitor (TV) will work when attached to the GTX750 - but that is for another day.

A couple of pics:

Big thanks for all the help I have received in here!

 

[kn00tcn]

this really makes me prefer a single(/fewer) large resolution monitor(s)

a single 5k monitor is FOUR 2560x1440 monitors without the black bezels in the way, no more multi card multi cable multi mount hassle

 

[amarok]

If you want to expand, try nvidia nvs 810.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

You should be able to get the IGP to work and it should be able to handle those last two displays. Make sure it is enabled in the BIOS and then install the drivers for it in Windows and they should show up. You may have to plug one into DP and the other into HDMI though...not entirely sure the IGP supports daisy chaining.

Radeon has supported up to 6 displays since Evergreen (HD 5###).

Like WhiteNoise was saying...8 mDP, 8 displays...
http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/graphics_cards/m_series/m9188pciex16/?productTabs=1

 

[Aquinus]

That's beautiful... I want new monitors now.

 

[multimonitormaniac]

this really makes me prefer a single(/fewer) large resolution monitor(s)

a single 5k monitor is FOUR 2560x1440 monitors without the black bezels in the way, no more multi card multi cable multi mount hassle

I have had 4K monitors. Did not care for it. I much prefer this.

Main reasons:
- I really want the area, square centimeters, not just the pixels
- Each screen to me is a workspace. This one has documentation, skype and slack run on this one, here is the code editor, here is a browser etc etc.

For gaming, this would not be optimal and the bezels might distract you. For my use, this is way better.

 

[arbiter]

I look at some GTX1060 cards, and they list 7680 x 4320 as max resolution and "supports 4 monitors", like here:

View attachment 91669

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125879

So my resolution of 7680x2880 is within the limits - but not within the "multi-monitor support: 4" limit... Do you think I can ignore that when using daisy-chaining?

gtx1060's have 3 DP's on each card which 2 of them don't even need to setup SLI would handle the 6 you want plus good low power draw. Since 0 gaming, you can go with the 3gb model which keep price around around 450$. if find them at msrp. Yes there are some older amd cards that can do 6 off one card but those will be some older cards. There are some AMD eyefinity on newegg around 200-300$ option but the chip is from 2012 at the newest.

 

[multimonitormaniac]

gtx1060's have 3 DP's on each card which 2 of them don't even need to setup SLI would handle the 6 you want plus good low power draw. Since 0 gaming, you can go with the 3gb model which keep price around around 450$. if find them at msrp. Yes there are some older amd cards that can do 6 off one card but those will be some older cards. There are some AMD eyefinity on newegg around 200-300$ option but the chip is from 2012 at the newest.

Hi arbiter, appreciate your advice.

Just for completeness, if somebody comes back to this thread and sees this, it is important ot point out that the GTX1060 with 3DP can only handle a total of 4 monitors, not 6. It says so in the specs and I tried it myself, because I did not think it mattered, when I used daisy-chaining.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Yeah...that's the problem. A lot of manufacturers don't clearly label how many monitors their cards support. All cards have a hard cap to how many they can handle simultaneously. That count includes daisy chained DP displays.

 

[arbiter]

Hi arbiter, appreciate your advice.

Just for completeness, if somebody comes back to this thread and sees this, it is important ot point out that the GTX1060 with 3DP can only handle a total of 4 monitors, not 6. It says so in the specs and I tried it myself, because I did not think it mattered, when I used daisy-chaining.

I didn't say it clearly but would need 2 of them to power 6 display's. Not really any cards made now days that can do over 4 displays less you get in to higher pro end lines which get expensive. Less you go with old AMD cards that are pushing 5 years old now.

 

[Aquinus]

Yeah...that's the problem. A lot of manufacturers don't clearly label how many monitors their cards support. All cards have a hard cap to how many they can handle simultaneously. That count includes daisy chained DP displays.

...and how those connections can be had. I'm using 2 DVI and an HDMI on my 390 without any adapters and it works fine. I suspect I can get a 4th from the DP port but, I doubt more than that but, that's not using any adapters. If I did that on my 6870, the 3rd wouldn't work unless I used an active mDP adapter for at least one of the displays, two if I wanted 4. So, I think it's important for manufacturers to describe in what ways those connections are usable because there are cases where they're not depending on what you're using but, I completely agree.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

I think most high end Radeon cards support at least three. Some support five (was looking at an RX 580 8 GiB). Which support six without being branded EyeInfinity, I don't know.

 

[Aquinus]

Which support six without being branded EyeInfinity, I don't know.

This could be a good option but, it's under-powered. If the OP is only doing productivity tasks like software dev, this could work. It's a bit on the older side but, it's got 6 mDP outputs. It's also single slot which is nice if you're going to be sticking other things in PCIe slots.
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIADYY6AB4772&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-PCPartPicker, LLC-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00C7EPSVS/?tag=tec06d-20

 

[FordGT90Concept]

For that price, better off going with two RX 560s.

RX 560 = 3 displays
RX 570 = 5 displays
RX 580 = 5 displays

Can't find anything on Vega.

 

[arbiter]

For that price, better off going with two RX 560s.

RX 560 = 3 displays
RX 570 = 5 displays
RX 580 = 5 displays

Can't find anything on Vega.

Issue with 560's least least it seems 1xdvi, 1xdp,1xhdmi pretty sure the HDMI lock to either 1080p or 4k rez a not letting you use 1440p rez. So would end up needing to go with 570's or i know he said no wasn't gaming but gtx1060's are a little cheaper and more powerful.