Best bang, lowest noise for 5-ish monitor setup

vbuggy

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Nov 13, 2005
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So I'm looking into replacing some of my main PC's, and it's turning out that I'm going to need a lot less CPU grunt than I've hitherto needed - a 3770 would do fine.

However I do plan to reduce the number of machines I have as well, and as part of that I expect all of my desktops at each of my places to pull multi-duty in a bigger way than before (right now I have separate workstations for work, and DIY's / etc for gaming). I've not yet decided whether to reuse anything I have, it's probable, but the GPU's will most likely need to be swapped out in any case.

Needs to be air-cooled - don't want to mess with hydro, but I am a noisenik - so in idle or during light work it should ideally be as silent as e.g. the quietest dual-fan Asus DirectCU II setup.

I'm still exploring what's feasible in each instance, but the monitor arrangement will most likely be a 23-24-23 front, 30-30 rear-and-up in most cases - i.e. 23-24-23 touch/pen monitors laid somewhat prone in a fan shape, then the 30-30 above and slightly behind that arrangement.

Productivity will use all 5 monitors, but I'd like gaming to use the 30-30 in the main.

I'm assuming this has to be a non-SLI dual-GPU setup, with the serious work done by the card connected to the 30-30.

So with the above proviso, what's the best GPU arrangement?
 

24601

Golden Member
Jun 10, 2007
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Titan + filler card.

I would recommend a Thermalright Archon or a Thermalright True Spirit 140 for your cpu cooling if you're not doing water as well, as they are the only super quiet CPU coolers that don't sacrifice performance due to the use of the excellent TY-140.

You could wait for the 780 or the 770 as well as they both have excellent quiet coolers as well (most likely)

All the good 7970 coolers blow huge amounts of heat into your case (necessitating good case fans and a good case) or are loud blowers.
 
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vbuggy

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As I said, I'm anticipating a 2-card setup. If you have better/different suggestions I'm open to them.

Connection-wise the monitors most likely being used are:
30": Dell U3014
23": Viewsonic TD2340
24": Cintiq HD Touch (Might be subbed for a 22" HD Touch - depends on which has better behaviour with Windows 8, as I've seen driver issues reported for the 24)
 

_Rick_

Diamond Member
Apr 20, 2012
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You can daisy chain the U3014s, if you get a card with DP 1.2 (do those exist yet?)

Depending on the connectors of the Cintiq and Viewsonic, you might use the on-CPU GPU for two or three of those.

I would probably look at two 4GB Phantom 680s in SLI (now, or 4GB 770s in the near future), as the most silent way to push geometry at 5120x1600 or 3200x2560, short of going with water-cooled solutions. Make sure you have sufficient case ventilation, as you'll be hitting around 500W of thermal output in the case. A GPU-temp-controlled front and side-fan will do wonders to overall idle and load noise levels.

I would recommend Titan, if performance would be better, but at the price it currently sells, it doesn't appear to be an alternative. A pair of 6GB 7970 might be one, but the added thermal output is difficult to manage, and there is less choice, compared to tri-slot 4GB 680s.
 

3DVagabond

Lifer
Aug 10, 2009
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Well, you are using pro monitors. Are you interested in pro cards? I'm not sure what software you use. Pro cards that could game on the 2x 30" will cost you big bucks, though.

If I've done my research right the 4 monitors all have DP inputs and the Wacom has DVI.

If you are planning on using a consumer card the Asus 7970 DCII and Matrix (if you can find one) both have 4xDP + DVI-D + DVI-S. They would work. The MSI 7970 Lighning should also work (If the Cintiq is DVI-S, which I believe it is.). The Lightning has 4x mini DP + 2x DVI-S.

With nVidia you would need 2 cards, but the card for the 2x 30" will have to be a pretty powerful card and I don't think you'll save money going with 2 cards, just add complexity.
 

vbuggy

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Well, you are using pro monitors. Are you interested in pro cards? I'm not sure what software you use. Pro cards that could game on the 2x 30" will cost you big bucks, though.

If I've done my research right the 4 monitors all have DP inputs and the Wacom has DVI.

If you are planning on using a consumer card the Asus 7970 DCII and Matrix (if you can find one) both have 4xDP + DVI-D + DVI-S. They would work. The MSI 7970 Lighning should also work (If the Cintiq is DVI-S, which I believe it is.). The Lightning has 4x mini DP + 2x DVI-S.

With nVidia you would need 2 cards, but the card for the 2x 30" will have to be a pretty powerful card and I don't think you'll save money going with 2 cards, just add complexity.

All the monitors are DP-capable FYI.

As for pro cards, no - I'm looking more for general flexibility out of flagship consumer cards as the only heavy lifting the setup will be doing will be for games and remote 3D visualisation, which works pretty much just as well with Geforce/Radeon as it does with Quadro/Firepro. I already use K5000's quite widely and I know they're not that great from a gaming perspective.

My issue with AMD cards, even the Asus DCII implementations - certainly from what I've experienced with the lone 7770 that I threw into another PC recently, and from what I've read around - is that the noise profile appears to be highly variable compared to flagship NVidia cards - even stock, let alone DCII.

As I said, the lower three monitors wouldn't need huge graphics grunt - they're for productivity use. However having seen latency with some work on Cintiqs, if I do go for a second GPU it can't be that rubbish. And sure, if I can throw power at it without a noise penalty - great.

Saving money - not a great priority, you can safely consider my budget to all practical intents and purposes unlimited - I mean, even from an implied perspective it probably stands to reason that if someone's considering buying >$7K of monitors for each of his new setups, a few more K's on GPU's will probably not be a concern. What I'm most after is suitability for purpose, and low noise in idle/productivity use.
 
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24601

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Jun 10, 2007
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All the monitors are DP-capable FYI.

As for pro cards, no - I'm looking more for general flexibility out of flagship consumer cards as the only heavy lifting the setup will be doing will be for games and remote 3D visualisation, which works pretty much just as well with Geforce/Radeon as it does with Quadro/Firepro. I already use K5000's quite widely and I know they're not that great from a gaming perspective.

My issue with AMD cards, even the Asus DCII implementations - certainly from what I've experienced with the lone 7770 that I threw into another PC recently, and from what I've read around - is that the noise profile appears to be highly variable compared to flagship NVidia cards - even stock, let alone DCII.

As I said, the lower three monitors wouldn't need huge graphics grunt - they're for productivity use. However having seen latency with some work on Cintiqs, if I do go for a second GPU it can't be that rubbish. And sure, if I can throw power at it without a noise penalty - great.

Saving money - not a great priority, you can safely consider my budget to all practical intents and purposes unlimited - I mean, even from an implied perspective it probably stands to reason that if someone's considering buying >$7K of monitors for each of his new setups, a few more K's on GPU's will probably not be a concern. What I'm most after is suitability for purpose, and low noise in idle/productivity use.

Titan is best performance/watt (therefore performance/case cooling, especially the fact that it has a blower that's quiet), performance/noise.

If you will spend anything, Titan is best bet for driving your main displays.
 

vbuggy

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Nov 13, 2005
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Which brings us onto the second card to drive the lower triple deck. Suggestions?
 

_Rick_

Diamond Member
Apr 20, 2012
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You should be able to hook up almost all of the screens to the Titan.
3014-3014-other via DP daisy chain
Two more via DVI.
Otherwise get any cheap passive 28 nm card to drive one display (or use onboard ports), in case it doesn't work (might run into a daisy-chain issue, when pushing quite that many pixels over DP1.2). Low profile should help getting air to the Titan.

I'd still go with SLI 4GB 680/770s though (unless there is some connector restriction introduced by SLI?)
 

Micrornd

Golden Member
Mar 2, 2013
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Just a heads-up -
Regardless of what brand card(s) or what size monitors, stick with a odd number of monitors for gaming.
Any setup using an even number of monitors centers the targeting point for shooters or action centerpoint for drivers on the bezels. ;)
 

blackened23

Diamond Member
Jul 26, 2011
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Titan is best performance/watt (therefore performance/case cooling, especially the fact that it has a blower that's quiet), performance/noise.

If you will spend anything, Titan is best bet for driving your main displays.

The issue is that NV cards cannot, regardless of whether one is using SLI or not, drive 5 monitors simultaneously. A few AMD eyefinity 6 cards can. If he does indeed have a 5th monitor it won't be usable with nv at all - If that's a criteria a 7970 eyefinity 6 card is what OP wants. The DC2 card isn't noisy, not by a long shot, not sure what you're referring to there? Anyway, if he wants only 4 monitors (3 surround + 1 accessory) with a maximum of 3 in surround/spanned, he can use nV. As far as a good card to use, this is a good one specifically for 5 screens:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814202005

This is better than the DC2 because it has better connectivity options, it has also has a great cooler and comes with a dual BIOS (one of them is heavily OC'ed IIRC). I think the DC2 has only SL-DVI ports, I could be wrong though - this would make the DC2 not very usable with WQHD monitors (which you plan on using if I understand correctly). The sapphire above has DL-DVI which would make it usable for all 5 screens. Also has 4 free games which can't hurt.
 
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blackened23

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Jul 26, 2011
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Do you have a source for that?
Why shouldn't daisy-chaining DP work?

Let me preface with a question: do you understand how DP 1.2 MST works? I'm guessing not. Not trying to be rude or anything, but let me clear a few facts about MST daisy chaining and the u3014 in particular. The first point here is that displayport 1.2 MST daisy chaining is barely functional, in fact - Dell's MST implementation is flat out broken. You can look at Dell's forums for proof of this, hardly anyone can get it to work. It isn't a "feature" you can count on. There were even posts at HardOCP discussing this with no one, except one person being able to make it work.

Another point. He is using multiple brands and multiple resolutions. There are obvious implications to this because MST daisy chaining even WHEN working (which it doesn't work correctly on the u3014) requires identical dell u3014 monitors. You can't daisy chain a non MST monitor to the u3014, because any additional DP monitor will not have the MST electronics built-in. MST daisy chaining requires every monitor in the chain to have MST electronics. Only the Dell u3014 has it, and the firmware within the monitor has made it non-functional for the great majority of users.

Additionally, MST doesn't override the surround limitations of your GPU. If you have an AMD GPU, MST doesn't suddenly grant you the ability to run unlimited monitors, it still abides by the surround and spanning rules of your GPU design. Also, nvidia does not support more than 4 monitors, and a maximum of 3 in surround.

One final point. Even *IF* dell's MST were functional, which it isn't currently, even *IF* nvidia cards didn't have a 4 display limit, even *if* MST didn't have to obey your GPUs surround implementation - the Dell MST implementation in theory supports on 3 identical dell u3014 monitors in MST daisy chain. That means you can use 3 identical u3014s via MST daisy chaining. But - again - Dell's implementation is horribly broken with most users not being able to make it work.

Hopefully this answers your questions. So i'll go back to what I said earlier, the OP can run 3 displays in surround with an nvidia card in single or SLI, with 1 accessory display. Or he can use 5x1 surround with an eyefinity 6 AMD card.
 
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Stuka87

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Dec 10, 2010
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I would probably look at two 4GB Phantom 680s in SLI (now, or 4GB 770s in the near future), as the most silent way to push geometry at 5120x1600 or 3200x2560, short of going with water-cooled solutions. Make sure you have sufficient case ventilation, as you'll be hitting around 500W of thermal output in the case. A GPU-temp-controlled front and side-fan will do wonders to overall idle and load noise levels.

I would recommend Titan, if performance would be better, but at the price it currently sells, it doesn't appear to be an alternative. A pair of 6GB 7970 might be one, but the added thermal output is difficult to manage, and there is less choice, compared to tri-slot 4GB 680s.

SLI is not an option if he is going to run 5 displays. The cards need to be in stand-alone mode so they can each drive monitors by themselves. SLI will limit him to the ports on one card. And there are not any nVidia cards that will drive 5 displays off one card. They can do a max of 3. Only single card that can run 5 is an AMD Eyefinity card.

Personally, unless he is actually gaming on one of the displays, he doesn't need a lot of 3d horse power. Just good 2d performance. Two 7850's or something would be fine as long as they have the display connections he needs. Be it DP, HDMI, DVI, whatever.

Or is just DP is ok, get this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...E16814131474&gclid=CJG8ver9mrcCFUHe4AodUDsABg
 

vbuggy

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Nov 13, 2005
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Hmmm. Interesting points. My only seriously multi-monitor implementations are with Quadros (as well as the odd Matrox and Firepro) in multi-GPU configurations, so can't pretend to know much when veering into the consumer capabilities.

And I do know that having one rig handle everything I want out of it is a stretch - if not in terms of CPU power but in terms of the display arrangement. This is why I'm asking.

First of all, I want touch in Metro and a pen capability for illustration, etc. This can be a two-monitor config - i.e. a Cintiq + 1 W8 touch monitor. But ideally I want another touch display I can shift things off to the side and interact with. Which is why I went for the three monitor lower deck arrangement. The two 30"s are for the bulk of productivity and gaming / entertainment use. The use of two is both a desk space (I don't want things to hulk too much) and productivity centric aspect (I like working with two 30"s). I don't expect the lower deck displays to be involved for gaming.

Taking the surround comments onboard, a 27 x 3 or a 27-30-27 at the back row might work better but I'm not a big fan of 27"s from a productivity viewpoint - and that is a bigger priority for me. A 30-30-30 would likely just hulk too much especially for my smaller desk setups, and even for gaming use I think that might involve too much head movement. I suppose I could mix & match 30's and 27's depending on the setup and experiment.

Gaming is definitely a factor, but not really that important in the overall scheme of things - it's just that when I play one, I don't want to feel held back and I don't want to fiddle with disconnecting various displays to get certain games to work, etc (which is why I thought a 2-GPU solution might be necessary)

Sorry for muddying the waters...

So how about this?

2713-3014-2713 (or do all displays need to be the same size? REALLY not keen on 27-27-27 even for a try out, it's the setup I already run with my 27" iCraps and I just don't like it)
TD2340-Cintiq-TD2340

Titan
Zotac 640 Zone edition (do all the ports work simultaneously?)

Or should I just go for 30-30-30?
 
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blackened23

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Jul 26, 2011
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2713-3014-2713 (or do all displays need to be the same size? REALLY not keen on 27-27-27 even for a try out, it's the setup I already run with my 27" iCraps and I just don't like it)
TD2340-Cintiq-TD2340

Titan
Zotac 640 Zone edition (do all the ports work simultaneously?)

You can't drive 6 monitors from 1 PC with the Titan + GT640. No, all of the ports don't work simultaneously. You can drive 4 maximum with 3 of those in surround with nV, or 5x1 with AMD. That is with consumer cards of course, some AMD firepro's have 6 displayport out's and i'm not sure about nvidia quadro cards. But if you're using a consumer card you cannot drive 6 monitors unless you use an AMD eyefinity 6 card and from what i'm reading I understand you want to drive 6 screens simultaneously.

No, using a Titan + a 640 wont' allow you to change nvidia's surround. You can run 4 (3+1) monitors. You can't use all ports. I just re-read your post and see you mention the bit about potentially using another PC. If you're gaming on 3x30, a Titan or two is a valid choice for 3 of the screens, but you can't do all 6. You can use a 2nd PC for the other, smaller row of displays.
 
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Stuka87

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If you are going to game on a 30" display, you certainly need some horse power. Playing with all three 30" displays in surround is going to require a LOT of horse power. I doubt one Titan will handle that.
 

_Rick_

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Apr 20, 2012
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If you want driver-based multi-screen gaming, then you're stuck to identical resolutions (screens? due to refresh rates/timings?).
If you have games that can run in (borderless) windowed mode, you can usually set custom resolutions and stretch the image to the width you need, without using "Surround" or Eyefinity. At least at launch Surround only worked with SLI or 590s. I'm not sure if that limitation still exists. Eyefinity is an easier solution for stretching fullscreen.
Still, I'm no fan of either, and window stretching with all it's downsides still has the most advantages for me. But that's kind of a personal choice, also depending on the titles I actually want stretches across multiple screens.

For the second card, I'm not sure if PhysX cards are still "du jour", and if they work as such if screens are attached, but maybe someone else can shed some light on that. Could be interesting to have some additional horsepower on that card, in case you play titles that benefit from that.

I'm not expecting that disconnecting displays should ever become an issue - usually you should be able to define a primary screen, and a surround/eyefinity group, if you use that. If you use window spanning, then the rendering canvas will stretch from 0,0 on the primary screen to the right and bottom. So arrange your screens accordingly, and it will render where you want it to be.

Left field suggestion: Look at Matrox cards. Those should be easily able to drive 3 screens, and often come in low profile or passive arrangements.
 

vbuggy

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You can't drive 6 monitors from 1 PC with the Titan + GT640. No, all of the ports don't work simultaneously. You can drive 4 maximum with 3 of those in surround with nV, or 5x1 with AMD. That is with consumer cards of course, some AMD firepro's have 6 displayport out's and i'm not sure about nvidia quadro cards. But if you're using a consumer card you cannot drive 6 monitors unless you use an AMD eyefinity 6 card and from what i'm reading I understand you want to drive 6 screens simultaneously.

No, using a Titan + a 640 wont' allow you to change nvidia's surround. You can run 4 (3+1) monitors. You can't use all ports. I just re-read your post and see you mention the bit about potentially using another PC. If you're gaming on 3x30, a Titan or two is a valid choice for 3 of the screens, but you can't do all 6. You can use a 2nd PC for the other, smaller row of displays.

Just to clarify, I only want the rear deck monitors to work with games. I want the front three to be ignored when gaming.
 

blackened23

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Just to clarify, I only want the rear deck monitors to work with games. I want the front three to be ignored when gaming.

Right, that's what I suspected when I read your earlier posts - I wasn't expecting you to game on all 6. I expected that your intent is to use all 6 monitors simultaneously without manual intervention (switching cables around). Unless you're using 2 PCs, you'll have to disconnect monitors or get a 2nd PC with an nvidia setup. It's still limited to 3x1, you can't do what you're asking for with 1 PC using Titan SLI or Titan + GT640. When you set up surround in the nvidia control panel, you set up your 4 displays (again, maximum) and you can't change it around without changing cables or disconnecting screens. So let's say you want to game on the 30s and then do other stuff on the other screens. You can't switch it over without manual intervention. You can't use all ports on all of your cards.

Of course, if you're near your PC maybe disconnecting and reconnecting cables from the back of your PC isn't a big deal. I don't know. What I would do is this:
If you don't want AMD eyefinity 6 with one PC, you could just use a cheap HTPC setup with a GT640 on the rear row. That should work without breaking the bank.
 
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vbuggy

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Right, that's what I suspected when I read your earlier posts - I wasn't expecting you to game on all 6. I expected that your intent is to use all 6 monitors simultaneously without manual intervention (switching cables around). Unless you're using 2 PCs, you'll have to disconnect monitors or get a 2nd PC with an nvidia setup. It's still limited to 3x1, you can't do what you're asking for with 1 PC using Titan SLI or Titan + GT640. When you set up surround in the nvidia control panel, you set up your 4 displays (again, maximum) and you can't change it around without changing cables or disconnecting screens. So let's say you want to game on the 30s and then do other stuff on the other screens. You can't switch it over without manual intervention. You can't use all ports on all of your cards.

Of course, if you're near your PC maybe disconnecting and reconnecting cables from the back of your PC isn't a big deal. I don't know. What I would do is this:
If you don't want AMD eyefinity 6 with one PC, you could just use a cheap HTPC setup with a GT640 on the rear row. That should work without breaking the bank.

That wouldn't work - what I'd want is to be able to work on all 5-6 monitors as one PC (i.e. move windows between them).

So virtual monitor-spanning setups aside, I'm basically limited to 4 practical monitors on one PC with a consumer solution if I went with NVidia, no matter how many discrete GPU's I drop in?

Could I mix Firepro (or Matrox) and Geforce?

EDIT:
You know what, it's looking more and more like this is something I have to actually test beforehand. I have pretty much all flagship cards bar the Titan already, just they're spread around the place - I will have to see what I can pull, heave over some monitors, drop into one of my Z820's and see what works. I was just hoping there were simple answers I could just follow and buy.

Thanks for the advice everyone - I'll return to this thread when/if I have more questions.
 
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vbuggy

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if you had 3 PCI x16 slots couldn't you just run 3 NVIDIA cards?

How would they be arranged though in terms of requirement vs noise?

(I'm not sure even the Z820 - should I choose to recycle one instead of getting something new - can deal with two fanless GPU's)

And besides, there'd be no room for anything else.
 
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