Quote from Adobian:
Motherboard with PCI express slots are really cheap these days. Consult with a local PC guy. Then you can buy cheap PCI Express cards that would give higher performance than those expensive trader station cards. And they are abundant.
Your concept of "performance" seems to be centered around speed.
First of all, video speed is a non-issue for trading.
Second, "performance" in a workstation card is about quality of display, stability, compatibility with other cards, and longevity... the maker keeps the driver updated.
"Performance" cards usually have heat and noise issues from their cheesy GPU fans... both of which are unnecessary in a trading environment. Fans are OK for a gaming card as you'd have the audio blaring to drown out the noise, but a significant irritant in a [usually] quiet trading environment.
I think your bias to "avoid workstation cards and buy cheap performance cards" is missing the point entirely.