Read Amazon reviews for this TV. Tons of users happily using it as computer monitor at 30hz. Unless you have a really old GPU, it should run 4K at 30hz fine.
4K Ultra HD Trading
- Thread starter rxtrader
- Start date
I was only able to get 15Hz via HDMI 1.4a, and I bought two new graphics cards in vain attempts to get something better. But I tried it using Linux, so my case might not be the best example.
DisplayPort 1.3 might make it worth it for me, but that standard isn't even finalized yet -- no cards or monitors currently on the market support it.
Scaleout.Scalper
Guest
In my personal experience trying to get ahead of adapted technology can result in a great deal of headaches.
Patience is key here.
Patience is key here.
Looking for graphics card that has (4) Dual Link DVI-D outputs to drive (4) 27" monitors at 2560 x 1440. Newegg has 118 monitors at that resolution so it's quite common and reasonably priced. Four has always been my preference.
I have not bought the new monitors yet and it might be possible Display Ports or another standard will work but the typical requirement specifies special Dual Link cables without adapters.
I only have one pci-express slot so I can't use 2 cards without upgrading mb, ram and os. If there aren't any cards supporting 4 at that Dual Link spec then I'm open to whatever is available.
I have not bought the new monitors yet and it might be possible Display Ports or another standard will work but the typical requirement specifies special Dual Link cables without adapters.
I only have one pci-express slot so I can't use 2 cards without upgrading mb, ram and os. If there aren't any cards supporting 4 at that Dual Link spec then I'm open to whatever is available.
Quadro NVS 420...
Quadro NVS 450 (DP)
Quadro NVS 510 (mini-DP). Latest model... multiples faster than the other 2.
In the hopes of helping anyone similarly situated save time by staying close to a known good configuration, I am going to describe my present system configuration and also try to list what did not work.
Monitors:
Seiki se39uy04 3840x2160 @ 30Hz HDMI
Hewlett-Packard HP LP3065 2560x1600 @ 60Hz dual link DVI (via DisplayPort)
Motherboard: MSI b85m-g43
Processor: Intel i7-4770k (relevant because it contains the video silicon)
Memory: 2x 8GB pc3-1600 unregistered DIMM's
DisplayPort adapter: (Dell?) BizLink (but does not pass EDID video timing information, which is a big pain)
Software: Linux-3.13.0-64bit kernel (sometimes 3.14-rc4-64bit), X.org X server 1.12.2.901, xf86-video-intel 2.99.910 (using kernel-based video timing mode setting).
Hardware that did not fully work:
Video cards that did not work (all of them successfully do 3840x2160 @ ~15Hz, but not 30Hz):
Asus Radeon 6450 - Dual Link DVI OK, but cannot drive 4k @ 30Hz HDMI (probably a hardware limitation)
XFX Radeon r7-240 (the fanless version of this card) - No dual link DVI, cannot drive 4k @ 30Hz HDMI (HDMI problem is probably a Linux kernel bug)
XFX Radeon r7-250a-zlh4 - same as r7-240, even though TigerDirect describes it as having a "1 x Dual-Link DVI-D."
The XFX r7-240 and 250 cards supposedly have a chip that only has two digital links: one for HDMI and one for single link DVI. So, I don't think the that lack of dual link DVI is a driver bug.
DisplayPort adapters that did not fully work with my HP LP3065 2560x1600 dual link DVI display:
Okeba, VisionTek 900639 - these two failed in slightly different ways. Both were able to do 1280x800 single link, both were advertised as supporting dual link
(Dell?) BizLink - I can drive 2560x1600, but had to manually specify all of the video timings (using "cvt -r 2560 1600", "xrandr --newmode...", "xrandr --addmode...", etc.), because for some reason I not get the EDID video timings advertised by the display. Fortunately, the "cvt -r" timings exactly match the EDID timings from the monitor when I dump the information by connecting it from one of the other DisplayPort adapters. Using timings from cvt without "-r" results in my HP display blinking a few black frames every few minutes; with "-r" I have not seen any such blinks.
Cables:
Using the blue "UHD" cable that came with the Seiki resulted in the video going black for a second every now and then. Using an HDMI cable that I think I bought for $2 several years ago seems to work fine. Seiki's blue cable is very hard to bend. Perhaps I bent it at some senstive point near a connector in the course of connecting everything.
Other observations about the Seiki display:
I have not been able to get the Seiki to do a firmware upgrade. Maybe it is already running the latest and senses this. The firmware appears to be a Linux distribution. I read online that the Linux distribution is "Darwin Linux", that it may be possible to ssh into it, and that a chip in the display has a built-in ethernet port. Some people on that forum were talking about trying to reprogram an FPGA in the display to do 60Hz over two HDMI cables, but I wouldn't hold my breath for any of those hardware hacking plans to become reality.
Anyhow, I hope these notes might save somone considering 4k right now from a mistake or two.
In the preceeding notes, I am not trying to argue one way or the other about who should be an early adopter of this. Perhaps I'll try to make a separate posting describing the parts of my impressions so far that I think might help others decide. For now, I'll just say I'm happy with the result of this upgrade, in spite of how much work it has taken, but that has a lot to do with my particular situation.
Monitors:
Seiki se39uy04 3840x2160 @ 30Hz HDMI
Hewlett-Packard HP LP3065 2560x1600 @ 60Hz dual link DVI (via DisplayPort)
Motherboard: MSI b85m-g43
Processor: Intel i7-4770k (relevant because it contains the video silicon)
Memory: 2x 8GB pc3-1600 unregistered DIMM's
DisplayPort adapter: (Dell?) BizLink (but does not pass EDID video timing information, which is a big pain)
Software: Linux-3.13.0-64bit kernel (sometimes 3.14-rc4-64bit), X.org X server 1.12.2.901, xf86-video-intel 2.99.910 (using kernel-based video timing mode setting).
Hardware that did not fully work:
Video cards that did not work (all of them successfully do 3840x2160 @ ~15Hz, but not 30Hz):
Asus Radeon 6450 - Dual Link DVI OK, but cannot drive 4k @ 30Hz HDMI (probably a hardware limitation)
XFX Radeon r7-240 (the fanless version of this card) - No dual link DVI, cannot drive 4k @ 30Hz HDMI (HDMI problem is probably a Linux kernel bug)
XFX Radeon r7-250a-zlh4 - same as r7-240, even though TigerDirect describes it as having a "1 x Dual-Link DVI-D."
The XFX r7-240 and 250 cards supposedly have a chip that only has two digital links: one for HDMI and one for single link DVI. So, I don't think the that lack of dual link DVI is a driver bug.
DisplayPort adapters that did not fully work with my HP LP3065 2560x1600 dual link DVI display:
Okeba, VisionTek 900639 - these two failed in slightly different ways. Both were able to do 1280x800 single link, both were advertised as supporting dual link
(Dell?) BizLink - I can drive 2560x1600, but had to manually specify all of the video timings (using "cvt -r 2560 1600", "xrandr --newmode...", "xrandr --addmode...", etc.), because for some reason I not get the EDID video timings advertised by the display. Fortunately, the "cvt -r" timings exactly match the EDID timings from the monitor when I dump the information by connecting it from one of the other DisplayPort adapters. Using timings from cvt without "-r" results in my HP display blinking a few black frames every few minutes; with "-r" I have not seen any such blinks.
Cables:
Using the blue "UHD" cable that came with the Seiki resulted in the video going black for a second every now and then. Using an HDMI cable that I think I bought for $2 several years ago seems to work fine. Seiki's blue cable is very hard to bend. Perhaps I bent it at some senstive point near a connector in the course of connecting everything.
Other observations about the Seiki display:
I have not been able to get the Seiki to do a firmware upgrade. Maybe it is already running the latest and senses this. The firmware appears to be a Linux distribution. I read online that the Linux distribution is "Darwin Linux", that it may be possible to ssh into it, and that a chip in the display has a built-in ethernet port. Some people on that forum were talking about trying to reprogram an FPGA in the display to do 60Hz over two HDMI cables, but I wouldn't hold my breath for any of those hardware hacking plans to become reality.
Anyhow, I hope these notes might save somone considering 4k right now from a mistake or two.
In the preceeding notes, I am not trying to argue one way or the other about who should be an early adopter of this. Perhaps I'll try to make a separate posting describing the parts of my impressions so far that I think might help others decide. For now, I'll just say I'm happy with the result of this upgrade, in spite of how much work it has taken, but that has a lot to do with my particular situation.
Thanks for the leads. Here's what I found after some research.
I like the NVS 510 but the cheap 2560 resolution monitors only have one input that requires a native dual link dvi output from the vid card without using adapters.
NVS 420 has a dvi output option but it only supports single link (1920x1200) in that mode. It's 2560x1600 output is only via DP.
To make this work I have to find a card with 4 dual link dvi ports.
A card with "4 DL-DVI ports" is a rare bird. I can't think of any off hand. DL-DVI is sort of a rarity... usually found on higher end cards and usually with only 1, sometimes 2. Display Port is supplanting DVI all around. Perhaps you should make it a point to get monitors with DP... would make video display easier for you.
Or, you could get 24" or 27" monitors, 1920x1080/1200. That way you could use DP-DVI or DMS-59 DVI connectors with no problemo.
You might find that with the higher resolutions of 2560x xxxx, you will want to increase the font size so that "things" are displayed the same size as in 1920x1080 resolution.
My rig.... 1, 27", 2560x1440, connected via DP. (Made the fonts larger.... up to the 1920x1200 size for easier viewing).... same size "things" on the screen, just sharper display.
Also have 3, 24", 1920x1200 monitors I display as 1200x1600 on DVI... more than adequate for charting.
You mentioned "inexpensive monitors with only DVI" ports. Yet you say you want 2560x1440. That doesn't seem right. I'd think most 2560x1440 monitors have DP as well as DVI. ??
If you search for 2560 on newegg or ebay and sort the results by price the market for 27 and 30" is saturated with monitors that only accept dual link dvi-d. There's an elite trader topic from last month about a 30" for $450. I'm pretty sure that is one of those that will only work with DL dvi.
I want the increased resolution so I can pack more bars into each chart while maintaining the pixel separation with any given choice of bar spacing, but I am taking your advice and looking at spending more to get DisplayPort monitors. Thanks again!
Eventually some engineers will work out all the problems but it's not there yet. There are numerous reports of DP to DL DVI-D Active Adaptors that fail to work with these monitors. That's not much of a problem for users who are only running 1 or 2 LCD's because single port cards that do DL are plentiful but for anyone who wants more monitors, it seems these reasonably priced monitors won't work.
I want the increased resolution so I can pack more bars into each chart while maintaining the pixel separation with any given choice of bar spacing, but I am taking your advice and looking at spending more to get DisplayPort monitors. Thanks again!
Eventually some engineers will work out all the problems but it's not there yet. There are numerous reports of DP to DL DVI-D Active Adaptors that fail to work with these monitors. That's not much of a problem for users who are only running 1 or 2 LCD's because single port cards that do DL are plentiful but for anyone who wants more monitors, it seems these reasonably priced monitors won't work.
There are LOTS of cheap 27/30" monitors available now... all apparently stemming from a particular LG panel platform. The cheapest ones have "DVI only" and usually have only 1-year warranty. As you "add features"... like DP port and others, the price increases.
I think HP has a version of this... 27" with DP and 3-year warranty for about $400.