Card to support 4 monitors

If you want fanless, there are a lot of radeon hd5450's out there that have no fans, and power 2 displays each if I recall correctly. I'm sure they will long outlast your processors performance needs, running all day. For an at-home trader, with one computer, seems like a good option for the price. Like this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150655

Nice thing about these is they do run higher resolution monitors, like 2560x1600 for example. Not as high as a 7850 would, but enough for most of todays monitors.

Note that not all NVS are fanless, like this one:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133493

Probably sounds like a helicopter, and will die in a few months. And it looks like it wont do more than 1920x1200 on dvi. Though it will if you get the displayport version.

I can imagine a scenario where you might want one of these, if the computer was very hot... then maybe these are more stable at high temps. Though I don't know.
 
(I'd have edit my post to add this, but it wouldn't let me).

I can think of another reason to buy an NVS, if your power supply is stock, not 850w, 1000w, etc as home builds have, these cards can run many monitors on probably a stock 250w supply. Nice to know such can be done, but most traders have good computers with decent power supplies.

So I seriously can't see a reason to buy an nvs, and I'd be a prospective customer, running as many monitors as I'd run on a computer.

I've spent years and years using ati radeon cards, and never had a problem with them, just standard radeon cards not firepro or such (the competitor to nvidia).
 
Dart, Dart, Dart, Dart... too many issues to rebut.

Radeons will work, of course... even the HD5450. But that was designed for the consumer market... mostly "one monitor on a home machine".... which is why is has a variety of ports... to accommodate whatever monitor you have. But if you're running 4 monitors or more, this is not the best choice... not even a good choice, IMV. (For running only 1, monitor... just about anything will do. For 2, monitors, lots of choices for accommodation. But when you get to 3 monitors and more, there are fewer good choices. And while one can make a lesser card choice work, there are usually hoops to jump through and compromises to be tolerated.

I don't have personal experience with the NVS 315, but it's billed as "Ultra-quiet"... it's expected to "run all day long, for years on end".... it's a workstation component after all. Your presumption of "...Probably sounds like a helicopter, and will die in a few months. And it looks like it wont do more than 1920x1200 on dvi. Though it will if you get the displayport version...." is based upon what? And of course, if you want to run monitors at res higher than 1920x1200, you have to use a proper card.

With NVS 295/300, it's easy to put together a low noise, long lasting trading workstation running up to 8 monitors... at comparatively low cost. Besides, for years Display Mate has ranked NVS as "Best in Class" for quality of display. (How much better than the competition, I don't know.)

So... if I were building a new workstation today to run 4 or more monitors, would I use Radeon "regular" cards? No. Would I use FirePro? I could, but with the NVS line available, I likely would not.
 
Quote from Scataphagos:

Radeons will work, of course... even the HD5450. But that was designed for the consumer market... mostly "one monitor on a home machine".... which is why is has a variety of ports... to accommodate whatever monitor you have. But if you're running 4 monitors or more, this is not the best choice... not even a good choice, IMV. (For running only 1, monitor... just about anything will do. For 2, monitors, lots of choices for accommodation. But when you get to 3 monitors and more, there are fewer good choices. And while one can make a lesser card choice work, there are usually hoops to jump through and compromises to be tolerated.
More...

While I can't speak for 4 monitors, as I usually run 3 on my machines, I've never had problems running three on radeons. But maybe there are compromises that I don't notice. I've also run 3 with nvidia consumer cards as well.
 
Quote from Dart:

While I can't speak for 4 monitors, as I usually run 3 on my machines, I've never had problems running three on radeons. But maybe there are compromises that I don't notice. I've also run 3 with nvidia consumer cards as well.
More...

OP said, (1) buying video cards to accomplish 4-monitor rig, and (2) maybe expand to 6-monitor later.

As you get to 4+ monitors, it's much easier to work with proper workstation cards than to work around the constraints of "Radeon consumer" cards. (Or Nvidia consumer cards, for that matter.)

OP could EASILY run 8-monitor rig with inexpensive, fanless NVS cards... wouldn't need to jump through any hoops at all. Not the case with Radeon consumer cards.
 
Quote from Bolimomo:

Please enlighten us again? What is your goal? Pure trading (charting), or both trading and gaming?
More...

Daytrading only. Some times, I may use one monitor to watch movies on netflix. That's it.
 
Quote from Scataphagos:

I'm all for avoiding VGA if possible... but you can run both an HDMI and DVI connection at the same time on your cards?
More...

I agree. Since VGA is "analog" i don't want to run. After all, I have spent money to buy nice samsung digital monitors. In order to benefit, don't you think, it makes sense to run on either HDMI or DVI? (both output digital signals).
 
Quote from Scataphagos:

Bummer! Hope he hasn't bought the monitors yet. Otherwise, he'll be looking for video cards with 2, HDMI ports... not common.

Never imagined a monitor being so cheap as to include a VGA but no DVI port.
More...

Already picked the last 2 from BJ's on Thanksgiving. Saved $50 on each monitor. U think bad deal?
 
Quote from Agassi:

Already picked the last 2 from BJ's on Thanksgiving. Saved $50 on each monitor. U think bad deal?
More...

2 of the ones you showed before? If so, potential issues with their having only HDMI and VGA ports.

You can run 1 monitor on anything. For 2 monitors, "almost anything". For 3-4 monitors, you should have your monitors, video cards, and mobo "matched up". For 6-8+ monitors, the "match up" is virtually mandatory.
 
Quote from Bolimomo:

No. You can't have 6 monitors that way. Remember your motherboard has only 2 PCIe X16 slots. You can only plug in 2 external cards for PCIe X16 bus. I suppose you can have 3 x PCI display cards (but PCI is the older bus type). Or have a mix of PCI and PCIe X16 cards. They may work okay if you stick the same make.
More...

Bolimomo:

Are you sure about this? I don't know. I am not a techie. When I see through the glass window through my computer, I see a lot of empty slots. But I don't know which one is which. I don't even know the difference between PCIe and PCI. I see a lot of blue colored slots and 1 big black colored slots. You already know my mother board. So based on this, i need to decide.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top