There is a price that comes with multi-monitor cards. The most economical way is to use "dualheads" if you've got enough mobo capability. 4-port (quads) cost much more... and there are even up to 12 ports on one card. The more "complex" the card, the more it costs.
2 Cards better than 1 for 4 or more monitors?
- Thread starter Maverick1
- Start date
There is a price that comes with multi-monitor cards. The most economical way is to use "dualheads" if you've got enough mobo capability. 4-port (quads) cost much more... and there are even up to 12 ports on one card. The more "complex" the card, the more it costs.
Lots of mobos today have 3 or more PCIEx16 slots. You can run 6 monitors on those with cheap dualheads... $15-$20 each on eBay. No need to spend more for a trading rig.
(FWIW... my 1st multi-monitor rig to run 4 monitors had only 2 choices... 4x single monitor cards or 1x "quad". The single monitor cards cost ~$50 each. The Matrox quad cost about $600. Today we've got cheap dualheads.)
You are beating your head against the wall Scat. We are old school, redundancy, efficiency and cost effective are not as important as bragging rights.
Just like "Trading computers", some need state of the art, (although they can't articulate their actual needs), custom made etc... When in actuality for most a mid class system is more than sufficient. (it must be better, it cost 5x the price of that dell refurb)
Regarding CPU coolers, I like Noctua, low profile version is fine for typical system, reliable and silent. worth the extra $20 to the cheaper options... I replaced all my intel coolers with noctua.
Edit: yes, I use dual matched cards on all my systems which require 3+ monitors, dedicated dual head card for the others. I don't use onboard video unless no other option. No need to share system ram for Video.
My first system dual monitor system also was Matrox. Do you remember the ability to flip to portrait view? That was cutting edge tech back in the day... Portrait view was the catalyst for second moniter now that I think back...
Kids these days are spoiled... lol
Just like "Trading computers", some need state of the art, (although they can't articulate their actual needs), custom made etc... When in actuality for most a mid class system is more than sufficient. (it must be better, it cost 5x the price of that dell refurb)
Regarding CPU coolers, I like Noctua, low profile version is fine for typical system, reliable and silent. worth the extra $20 to the cheaper options... I replaced all my intel coolers with noctua.
Edit: yes, I use dual matched cards on all my systems which require 3+ monitors, dedicated dual head card for the others. I don't use onboard video unless no other option. No need to share system ram for Video.
My first system dual monitor system also was Matrox. Do you remember the ability to flip to portrait view? That was cutting edge tech back in the day... Portrait view was the catalyst for second moniter now that I think back...
Kids these days are spoiled... lol
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All true. Onboard video used to be "marginal"... simply a cost-cutting way to avoid the price of a video card. I guess today they are better.
In any event, dedicated video cards which are more-than-adequate for trading are cheap.
Not exactly true. I read recently that Nvidia's margin on these business class cards is much much higher in comparison to gaming cards where AMD is offering solid competition.
That's the CPU. I believe that while Flash is GPU accelerated these days, it's not enough to strain the GPU. Do yourself a favor and disable Flash altogether, security holes and bugs a plenty.
Exchanging the CPU fan isn't that hard, the attachment process does require some delicacy - over a decade ago I broke an AMD processor as the pins got bent. The cooler he's installing is too big, that's why it looks complicated. You don't need anything that dramatic since you're not overclocking the CPU.
One card is better in how the entire graphics desktop is rendered. Basically the windows desktop is only rendered on one card that is the primary.
If you are running windows , get a amd card with multiple mini dp ports and then get a DisplayPort 1.2 MST .
The professional series cards usually can drive more monitors out of the box.
Nvidia purposely borked the windows driver on the geforce cards to prevent more than 4 monitors.
AMD doesn't seem to play those silly games of wanting to up sell you to the pro cards.
I have gone overboard a bit . I have 8 monitors with synergy , so I can have all my charts running on a separate machine from the trades.
If you are running windows , get a amd card with multiple mini dp ports and then get a DisplayPort 1.2 MST .
The professional series cards usually can drive more monitors out of the box.
Nvidia purposely borked the windows driver on the geforce cards to prevent more than 4 monitors.
AMD doesn't seem to play those silly games of wanting to up sell you to the pro cards.
I have gone overboard a bit . I have 8 monitors with synergy , so I can have all my charts running on a separate machine from the trades.
Hi, I own and tested nvidia 295, 420, k420, 450, fx580 and intel mobo graphics with xeon quadcore processors. The benchmark for 295 slowed down the whole benchmark considerably by over 50% vs lenovo thinkstation e31 sff xeon e3-1275 onboard intel graphics processor. For $9 bucks the 295 is in shoebox, it's for sale if anyone wants it $9 plus shipping. IMHO the K420 works real nice with true 4k 2160p, same as 4x 1080p.