2 Cards better than 1 for 4 or more monitors?

I used to have an nvs 295. Absolutely rock solid in a pc. There is an nvs 300 which is also fanless. The nvs 310 has a fan. The shipping is more expensive than the card on eBay!
 
I used to use multiple cards per computer. I've switched them all to single cards. I run 6 large monitors off a single card. There's an issue with multiple cards where you can't use all the gpu memory of each card. It wasn't affecting everyone but was eventually enough of an annoyance.
 
Factor in your existing case design. A case made for a gamer will have tons of ventilation holes and won't make a vacuum. That means you will need fans that make an incredible racket.
 
d08 said:
Modern cards, even the gaming cards have more than 1 active cooler but in low performance usage (such as trading), it's as silent as a passive card as the fans are stopped. You don't need to bother with business or workstation class cards because they're the same as the gaming ones except sold at a higher margin.
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Exactly,

The idea that you should purchase 2x cards to run 4 monitors is ridiculous. This is 2016, not 1999.

  • Any typical intel chip (eg i3, i5,i7) is going to have an inbuilt graphics processor, which will run dual monitors. SO even if your graphics card fails, you could still use 2 x monitors via your CPU's inbuilt graphics.
  • Even old gaming cards eg a GTX660, will have no trouble running 4 x 1080, 4x 1440p, possibly even 4x 4k.
  • If your graphics card supports 4 x monitor outputs, and you have typical intel CPU, Then you can run up to 6 monitors using 1x graphics card.
  • The demand on a graphics card to run 4 x monitors for trading purposes is minimal, most trading platforms are more CPU dependent, so with your CPU under load, your CPU fan is going to be making more noise than your graphics card! Thus any arguments based on GPU noise are pointless.
  • The only reason to buy a workstation card would be if you were building some kind of micro ATX work station.
  • There is no reason to buy 2 x graphics cards unless you want to run 8-10 screens.
 
Macca1 said:
Exactly,

The idea that you should purchase 2x cards to run 4 monitors is ridiculous. This is 2016, not 1999.

  • Any typical intel chip (eg i3, i5,i7) is going to have an inbuilt graphics processor, which will run dual monitors. SO even if your graphics card fails, you could still use 2 x monitors via your CPU's inbuilt graphics.
  • Even old gaming cards eg a GTX660, will have no trouble running 4 x 1080, 4x 1440p, possibly even 4x 4k.
  • If your graphics card supports 4 x monitor outputs, and you have typical intel CPU, Then you can run up to 6 monitors using 1x graphics card.
  • The demand on a graphics card to run 4 x monitors for trading purposes is minimal, most trading platforms are more CPU dependent, so with your CPU under load, your CPU fan is going to be making more noise than your graphics card! Thus any arguments based on GPU noise are pointless.
  • The only reason to buy a workstation card would be if you were building some kind of micro ATX work station.
  • There is no reason to buy 2 x graphics cards unless you want to run 8-10 screens.
More...

Agreed. You don't even need the workstation card for small builds, I'm writing this from my desktop which is a miniITX with a gaming graphics card, while my surroundings are noisier than usual, I don't hear the graphics card even under very heavy load and the fans never spin when trading - complete silence as far as the GPU is concerned. It took a bit of work to find a right length gaming card for this form factor but it's definitely possible.

Like you said, people should worry about getting a proper CPU cooler (stock Intel fans are noisy), instead of worrying about GPU cooling solutions. Nvidia has advanced a lot recently, Intel hasn't done much at all.
 
Macca1 said:
Exactly,

The idea that you should purchase 2x cards to run 4 monitors is ridiculous. This is 2016, not 1999.

  • Any typical intel chip (eg i3, i5,i7) is going to have an inbuilt graphics processor, which will run dual monitors. SO even if your graphics card fails, you could still use 2 x monitors via your CPU's inbuilt graphics.
  • Even old gaming cards eg a GTX660, will have no trouble running 4 x 1080, 4x 1440p, possibly even 4x 4k.
  • If your graphics card supports 4 x monitor outputs, and you have typical intel CPU, Then you can run up to 6 monitors using 1x graphics card.
  • The demand on a graphics card to run 4 x monitors for trading purposes is minimal, most trading platforms are more CPU dependent, so with your CPU under load, your CPU fan is going to be making more noise than your graphics card! Thus any arguments based on GPU noise are pointless.
  • The only reason to buy a workstation card would be if you were building some kind of micro ATX work station.
  • There is no reason to buy 2 x graphics cards unless you want to run 8-10 screens.
More...

What about your Xeon CPU which has no onboard video?
 
d08 said:
Agreed. You don't even need the workstation card for small builds, I'm writing this from my desktop which is a miniITX with a gaming graphics card, while my surroundings are noisier than usual, I don't hear the graphics card even under very heavy load and the fans never spin when trading - complete silence as far as the GPU is concerned. It took a bit of work to find a right length gaming card for this form factor but it's definitely possible.

Like you said, people should worry about getting a proper CPU cooler (stock Intel fans are noisy), instead of worrying about GPU cooling solutions. Nvidia has advanced a lot recently, Intel hasn't done much at all.
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Thanks Macca and D08.

D08, your comment re CPU cooling systems: is that where a liquid cooling type desktop (see OMEN series at HP) could really make a positive difference, re noise?
 
Maverick1 said:
Thanks Macca and D08.

D08, your comment re CPU cooling systems: is that where a liquid cooling type desktop (see OMEN series at HP) could really make a positive difference, re noise?
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You don't need to go that far. Just a more expensive cooler from a 3rd party would do, it'll be bigger, that means it'll spin slower which in turn means it's much quieter. I have no experience with water cooling systems myself so I can't really comment.
 
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