Question Cheap/-est GPU for Multimonitor 1080p@144hz?

[Morgray]

Howdy!

I am in a bit of a conumdrum.
Our Goal is to find a cheap GPU to run multiple Monitors at 1080p@144hz and I am quite frankly not sure which GPU might be best.

It won't be used for playing games, so it does not have to be a powerful GPU.

As far as I am aware there are limitations due to bandwith constraints regarding the video connectors (Displayport 1.2/1.4 , HDMI 2.0), but it really is a bit much and googling sometimes result in contradicting user comments.

I have great trust in this community and I hope someone is kind enough to help me with this problem of mine.

To clearly express my Question:
Would it be possible to power 4 1080p@144hz monitors with a single GPU? What GPU would be a cheap choice for that and could I maybe go to 8 Monitors by adding a second GPU? Which connector DP/HDMI would I have to use?

Any suggestions are appreciated ♥

 

[Bouowmx]

NVIDIA Quadro P620 or AMD Radeon Pro WX 3200. 4 DisplayPort, single-slot, no extra power connectors. Or search used for NVIDIA Quadro K1200, AMD FirePro W4100, or in general, old, low-end professional-range graphics cards.

 

[Morgray]

NVIDIA Quadro P620 or AMD Radeon Pro WX 3200. 4 DisplayPort, single-slot, no extra power connectors. Or search used for NVIDIA Quadro K1200, AMD FirePro W4100, or in general, old, low-end professional-range graphics cards.

So would the P620 be able to power 4 Monitors 1080p@144hz? I can see that it has 4 Displayports but does DP1.4 have enough bandwith for that? Thanks for the suggestion

EDIT: What I find confusing is that Displayport 1.4 has a total maximum data rate of 25.92 Gbit/s but a 4k@60hz display would require roughly 12.54Gbit/s so I could run a maximum of 2 4k monitors BUT on https://www.pny.com/nvidia-quadro-p620 the description says "Support four 4K monitors at 60Hz". How can that be?

And also a 1080p@144hz would need roughly ‭7.52Gbit/s so Id max out at 3 screens right? Or maybe not? ‬

 

[richaron]

So would the P620 be able to power 4 Monitors 1080p@144hz? I can see that it has 4 Displayports but does DP1.4 have enough bandwith for that? Thanks for the suggestion

EDIT: What I find confusing is that Displayport 1.4 has a total maximum data rate of 25.92 Gbit/s but a 4k@60hz display would require roughly 12.54Gbit/s so I could run a maximum of 2 4k monitors BUT on https://www.pny.com/nvidia-quadro-p620 the description says "Support four 4K monitors at 60Hz". How can that be?

And also a 1080p@144hz would need roughly ‭7.52Gbit/s so Id max out at 3 screens right? Or maybe not? ‬

I'd assume each port is capable of max bandwidth. And it has 4 ports. Though it may be possible to daisy chain compatable DP monitors on a single port or use a DP hub/splitter(/whateverit'scalled) and in this situation your calculations may count, but I have little personal experience with this.

My consumer grade GPU has 3 x DP and 1 x HDMI and each one should have the bandwidth to drive FHD@144Hz. You'll need adapters to output all HDMI for example (but I assume they're dual mode DP ports and cheap passive adapters are fine).

I guess the problem you'll run into is if you're looking to run a huge screen made up with a bunch of individual monitors working together and for that you may need pro grade hardware/software. And something I have little experience with either.

 

[Morgray]

I'd assume each port is capable of max bandwidth. And it has 4 ports. Though it may be possible to daisy chain compatable DP monitors on a single port or use a DP hub/splitter(/whateverit'scalled) and in this situation your calculations may count, but I have little personal experience with this.

My consumer grade GPU has 3 x DP and 1 x HDMI and each one should have the bandwidth to drive FHD@144Hz. You'll need adapters to output all HDMI for example (but I assume they're dual mode DP ports and cheap passive adapters are fine).

I guess the problem you'll run into is if you're looking to run a huge screen made up with a bunch of individual monitors working together and for that you may need pro grade hardware/software. And something I have little experience with either.

Judging from the Datasheet for the PNY NVIDIA Quadro P620 (https://www.pny.com/File Library/Su...glish/Product-Brochure/nvidia-quadro-p620.pdf) where it states "Support for up to four 4K displays (4096x2160 @ 60 Hz) with HDR color" your assumption seems to indeed be correct.

Now I am wondering if display port "ports" in general work like that so if you have lets say 3 ports on your gpu every port will be capable of the full bandwith individually, or is this only the fact for some cards and for others the bandwith is indeed shared between the ports?

 

[richaron]

Judging from the Datasheet for the PNY NVIDIA Quadro P620 (https://www.pny.com/File Library/Support/PNY Products/Resource Center/NVIDIA - Quadro Graphics Cards/English/Product-Brochure/nvidia-quadro-p620.pdf) where it states "Support for up to four 4K displays (4096x2160 @ 60 Hz) with HDR color" your assumption seems to indeed be correct.

Now I am wondering if display port "ports" in general work like that so if you have lets say 3 ports on your gpu every port will be capable of the full bandwith individually, or is this only the fact for some cards and for others the bandwith is indeed shared between the ports?

Bandwidth isn't shared between ports. There's some validation (at least informal) to make sure the ports comply to standards.

As I said before you may share bandwidth by daisy chaining compatible monitors or using some sort of DP "hub", but I have little experience with this and I assume there is some sort of overhead.

Just trying to drive a bunch of monitors is one thing but if you are trying to make them work together, in an array for example, then you might need more pro hardware/software. Otherwise a single consumer GPU with compatible components/monitors might do the job (though the extra price of those special monitors/products would likely be more than another low/mid range dedicated GPU which could also provide more ports).

 

[Morgray]

Bandwidth isn't shared between ports. There's some validation (at least informal) to make sure the ports comply to standards.

As I said before you may share bandwidth by daisy chaining compatible monitors or using some sort of DP "hub", but I have little experience with this and I assume there is some sort of overhead.

Just trying to drive a bunch of monitors is one thing but if you are trying to make them work together, in an array for example, then you might need more pro hardware/software. Otherwise a single consumer GPU with compatible components/monitors might do the job (though the extra price of those special monitors/products would likely be more than another low/mid range dedicated GPU which could also provide more ports).

Thanks for your response!

I stumbled upon a neat video of a guy explaining his setup to play Microsoft Flight Simulator on 8 screens, he is using 2 nvidia 980gtx, each powering 4 monitors.

. So that setup should likely work on any gpu that supports 4 Displays?!

If what you say is indeed true and bandwith isnt shared between the ports, what is the actual limitation then not allowing me to hook up 8 1080p60hz Monitors onto a single DP1.4 Port or a single gpu, since the bandwith should allow for that?

 

[richaron]

If what you say is indeed true and bandwith isnt shared between the ports, what is the actual limitation then not allowing me to hook up 8 1080p60hz Monitors onto a single DP1.4 Port or a single gpu, since the bandwith should allow for that?

As I said before you may share bandwidth by daisy chaining compatible monitors or using some sort of DP "hub", but I have little experience with this and I assume there is some sort of overhead.

So you can share bandwidth to a certain extent, to which I'm not aware. But again:

I stumbled upon a neat video of a guy explaining his setup to play Microsoft Flight Simulator on 8 screens, he is using 2 nvidia 980gtx, each powering 4 monitors.

. So that setup should likely work on any gpu that supports 4 Displays?!

Just trying to drive a bunch of monitors is one thing but if you are trying to make them work together, in an array for example, then you might need more pro hardware/software. Otherwise a single consumer GPU with compatible components/monitors might do the job (though the extra price of those special monitors/products would likely be more than another low/mid range dedicated GPU which could also provide more ports).

Making them work together is the hard part. Maybe that dude's solution is only possible with all monitors side by side. But as I've already stated:

I guess the problem you'll run into is if you're looking to run a huge screen made up with a bunch of individual monitors working together and for that you may need pro grade hardware/software. And something I have little experience with either.

It might help if you could state (or decide) what you're actually trying to do. Then someone else might be able to help, or you'll know what to research on your own. Just being able to display something on a screen is very different to combining many screens to display a single image.

 

[Morgray]

Just being able to display something on a screen is very different to combining many screens to display a single image.

Oh did I ever say I wanted many screens to display a single image? Actually I want every Monitor to display a seperate image