• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

Which graphics card for 6(?) x high res monitors, not gaming

multimonitormaniac

multimonitormaniac

multimonitormaniac

Associate
Joined
1 Sep 2017
Posts
9
Location
Malta
I want to expand from a four monitor setup to a six monitor setup. Why? Because six is two more than four and therefore obviously better, that's why! :D

--------------------
Displays
--------------------

The monitors will be 6 x Dell 27" U2715H with resolution 2560x1440px @ 60hz.

Specs:
http://accessories.ap.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=hk&l=en&s=bsd&cs=hkbsd1&sku=210-adsz

The connection options of the displays are:

- 2 HDMI(MHL) connector
- 1 Mini DisplayPort
- 1 DisplayPort (version 1.2)
- 1 DisplayPort out (MST)

--------------------
Motherboard
--------------------

My motherboard is Gigabyte GA-Z170X-Gaming 5.
Specs: https://www.gigabyte.com/Motherboard/GA-Z170X-Gaming-5-rev-10#sp

Relevant expansion slots:

- 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x16 (PCIEX16)
- 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x8 (PCIEX8)
- 1 x PCI Express x16 slot, running at x4 (PCIEX4) (blocked by SSD)
- 4 x PCI Express x1 slots

--------------------
PC
--------------------

The PC runs Intel I7, have 32GB RAM, SSD's etc, so that should check all the boxes.

--------------------
Graphics Card??
--------------------

What graphics card(s?) should I go for, to feed the 6 monitors at this resolution?

It will not be used for gaming at all, so game performance is irrelevant. Budget is "whatever it takes", but I don't want to spend more than necessary.

Thanks in advance!
 
Last edited:
I could be wrong here, but I would have thought if you have no interest in gaming then practically any decent GPU would work as long as it has three DP ports?

*EDIT*

Just to clarify in case you don't realise, your monitors support daisy chaining, which means you can connect three to the GPU, then connect the other three to the first three. Basically three cables come out the GPU then each one goes to a monitor, then each monitor is connected from it's DP out port to the DP port on an additional monitor.

This isn't actually that stressful on the card as two 1440p screens in a chain is less work than a single 4k screen.
 
Last edited:
As above, any GPU should work, and according to this site one DP 1.2 port should be able to drive two 2560x1440 monitors at 60Hz, so you can daisy chain out monitor to another using the MST port.

Looking at your motherboard, your CPU should have an IGP as well so that will be able to power a couple monitors itself as it's also DP 1.2. There's a HDMI port too but I've no idea if that monitor can do 2560x1400 at 60Hz over HDMI.
 
ubersonic said:
I could be wrong here, but I would have thought if you have no interest in gaming then practically any decent GPU would work as long as it has three DP ports?

*EDIT*

Just to clarify in case you don't realise, your monitors support daisy chaining, which means you can connect three to the GPU, then connect the other three to the first three. Basically three cables come out the GPU then each one goes to a monitor, then each monitor is connected from it's DP out port to the DP port on an additional monitor.

This isn't actually that stressful on the card as two 1440p screens in a chain is less work than a single 4k screen.
Click to expand...

Orcvader said:
As above, any GPU should work, and according to this site one DP 1.2 port should be able to drive two 2560x1440 monitors at 60Hz, so you can daisy chain out monitor to another using the MST port.

Looking at your motherboard, your CPU should have an IGP as well so that will be able to power a couple monitors itself as it's also DP 1.2. There's a HDMI port too but I've no idea if that monitor can do 2560x1400 at 60Hz over HDMI.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your answers, guys! I really appreciate it. I have been stuck trying to figure this out for a week, and the monitor stand + additional monitors are on their way. :)

I feel a bit like I am in deep water, so let me try to see, if I have understood you correctly.

Since my monitors have DP1.2 and DP out, I should chain them two and two (only two, not three, since that is the max for 2560x1440).

That leaves me needing to plug 3 DP cables into the GPU(s) - and either one GPU to support the full 7680 x 2880 resolution - or to spread it across two GPUs. My guess is that it will be more cost effective with two GPUs - but that is just a guess.

I looked into using the onboard graphics from the motherboard previously, and it seemed like a giant hassle that might or might not work, so unless you convince me otherwise, I prefer to do it all with 1/2 GPUs.

I know you guys say "any GPU", but not all cards have that many DP ports and might not handle the total resolution. Could you recommend either one or two specific cards, please?
 
Last edited:
How about this card?

EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 GAMING, 03G-P4-6160-KR, 3GB GDDR5, ACX 2.0 (Single Fan)

I went to newegg, picked "3 displayports", "5 egg rating" and sorted by price descending. This one is first.

https://www.evga.com/products/product.aspx?pn=03G-P4-6160-KR

Specs list a max resolution of 7680x4320, which is great - but also lists "max monitors supported" as 4. Not sure if that refers to people NOT daisy-chaining displayports, or something else.

Comments, could this be the card I need?
 
multimonitormaniac said:
I looked into using the onboard graphics from the motherboard previously, and it seemed like a giant hassle that might or might not work, so unless you convince me otherwise, I prefer to do it all with 1/2 GPUs.
Click to expand...

The IGP itself is a GPU, you'll have no issues running it with a discrete GPU from AMD/Nvidia, and with Windows you will not run into any issues, especially considering you're not gaming. The "hardest" step will probably jumping into BIOS to enable it as most boards will disable it when it detects a GPU in the PCIe slot.

Daisy chaining is part of the DP 1.2 spec, so any GPU with DP 1.2 or above will do it fine.

As for the max monitors, it also depends on how many displays the GPU can support, even if it can provide the ports, the GPU itself may not be able to handle it (due to the display controller, not the actual GPU core). Most I've seen for Nvidia is 4, for AMD cards there were some cards supporting 6 but these special "eyefinity" cards seems to have died out. Intel I believe the recent ones can support up to 3.

1060 seems a bit expensive but I can't seem to find any cheaper cards with at least 2 DP ports.
 
I just tried enabling the IGP in BIOS, and it worked! I was able to run two 2560x1440 screens of it! One with Displayport, one with HDMI.

However, after a reboot, it no longer worked with the Displayport connected cable, for some odd reason. I could attach a 1080p monitor with the Displayport cable and it would work, but that does not really help. I tried a different cable, same issue. So something is not quite right with that IGP, and I am not really trusting it...

Edit: I also found out, that Adobe Photoshop crashes when the IGP is enabled. Not a workable solution, it seems.
 
Last edited:
Try daisychaining both monitors via DP and see if that is any better. Also, try the latest Intel GPU drivers, the Windows one might be a few versions behind.

As for Photoshop, under Edit -> Prefererences -> Performance, what GPU is it using?
 
Orcvader said:
Try daisychaining both monitors via DP and see if that is any better. Also, try the latest Intel GPU drivers, the Windows one might be a few versions behind.

As for Photoshop, under Edit -> Prefererences -> Performance, what GPU is it using?
Click to expand...
Daisy-chaining two 1440p would take the total resolution above what the IGP is specced for, but I will give it a shot.

In Photoshop, it uses my current gfx-card, a GTX750Ti. The onboard intel is not even mentioned.

qVBZvBG.png


I will try getting the latest intel drivers as well.

Thanks for all the help, I appreciate it. :)
 
Quick followup.

Have received the GPU and have daisy-chained 2x2 monitors to two Displayports on it, and after a bid of fiddling with settings (enabling DP1.2 in the Dell monitor menus), it works.

Now I am waiting for three Dell U2715H to arrive next week, then I can finish my setup.

I have also received the Viotek Articulating Hex 6-Monitor Stand (Affiliate link | Regular link ), and put it together - but will not mount monitors, until the last monitors arrive.

I have also attached my TV to the IGP, which also works just fine. I could probably daisy-chain two more monitors to the IGP displayport as well, and make it 8 - but 6 will do - for now. ;)

911nnsF.png

L8Bxa3I.jpg
 
Received the monitors and everything else.

I have attached 2x2 daisy-chained monitors to the GTX1060, and that works. But I cannot hook a third monitor up to the GPU (this was kind of expected), as it will only handle 4 monitors.

I was then expecting to be able to add 1x2 daisy-chained monitors to my IGPU, but it seems I run into some kind of system limitation (??). If I hook up my 24" 1920x1200 monitor, it works. If I hook up another 2560x1440 monitor, it says "entering power-save mode" and does not want to display. The monitor works, the cable works - but I hit some kind of wall here.

Question is, if I should get another GPU with displayport for 1x2 daisychained monitors - or if that will not work either...

Damn, this stuff is frustrating.
 
Nvidia Quadro NVS 810 and amd firepro W600 cards were designed with >4 multi monitor setups in mind. 8 displays without daisy chaining, doesn't come cheap though.
 
Might be because the TV is connected as well, maybe the IGP only has a 2 monitor limit but I thought Intel IGPs could do 3?

If the GPU is cheap enough then go for it. Or if your old 750 Ti has DP, could use that with the IGP mixed in for your crazy setup.
 
Got back from 5 days of vacation, and went back to working on the monitor-solution... And I got there!

I tried all kinds of stuff to make the IGPU work, but it was not a workable solution. I then tried with my old GTX750 GPU, which I added to the PC next to the GTX1060. And then I got there - and it works!

Final setup:
2x2 monitors daisy-chained displayport to GTX1060
1x monitor HDMI to GTX750
1x monitor DVI-D to GTX750

I still have to re-cable everything to make it pretty, but at least it works now. I also think the 7th monitor (TV) will work when attached to the GTX750 - but that is for another day. :)

A couple of pics:

HumrSmI.jpg

SU8WRS7.png

ktuhWSk.png


Big thanks for all the help I have received in here! :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom