GPU for mITX stock-trading rig?

[Hooobi]

I recently updated my primary rig from an old e8400 to the one in my sig. System is used mainly for stock trading and I'm currently running 2 monitors at max resolution off of the integrated graphics of the Haswell chip.

Monitors are Dell u3014 and ASUS PA248 (in portrait), running at 2560x1600 & 1200x1920, respectively.

My java-based trading platform seems to bog down at times, and I'm wondering if the integrated graphics is the bottleneck?

Appreciate any input on this, and recommendations for an efficient, powerful, and cool GPU for this system. Has to be less than 10" due to case constraints, and I prefer to stick with stock cooling & no overclocking due to heat/noise concerns.

If it matters, I'd possibly like to replace the 24" monitor with a second u3014 at some point, and maybe even triple screens down the road. I do not game on this system.

TIA

 

[escrow4]

Its not the system its Java being useless and bloated, use better software.

 

[BrightCandle]

Java does use DirectX acceleration for its GUI elements and that can have an accelerating effect. However I have never seen it struggle to render quickly enough, its always another problem. Can you describe very precisely what is happening.

For example lets say that I am watching a list of stocks and seeing green and red etc as the price goes up and down. Then suddenly what happens is that the application seems to freeze for a brief moment and stops responding to my clicks.

Another example:

I add a new stock to a list of stocks being directly monitored as part of my portfolio and while it adds quickly the animation showing it appear seems to be low framerate, the movement of the item just isn't drawing very rapidly and its as if the frame rate is low.

These two different scenarios suggest different kinds of issues so if you could be as precise as possible because it might not be graphics at all, could be network bandwidth or hard drive performance or anything else. You could use Windows Performance Monitor and capture the CPU, Hard drive IO, Network throughput in bytes per second and then show us the graphs of each and mark where the problem was but a description in more detail might do the job.

 

[Hooobi]

BrightCandle:

Thanks for the reply. The issues I'm having include occasional flickering/loss of crosshairs as I move my cursor across live charts, and sometimes my u3014 will seem to change shades a bit, and then change back to normal colors.

These issues seem to occur more often later in the day, after l've been running the platform for a while. My broker's tech support helped me diagnose that my connection (TWC 50) has poor "consistency of service" (27-30% vs 80% optimal) and I've ordered a new modem (Surfboard SB6141) to replace the TWC-provided Ubee. However, this also related to sporadic slow data updating on the platform, and not just the graphics issues mentioned.

My Windows Experience Index shows everything at 7.8 or 8.0, except Graphics (5.9) and Gaming Graphics (6.6) so I assume this might be impacting my performance. I'm running Win 8 Pro & clear my Java cache daily.

 

[BrightCandle]

I think its unlikely either is associated with poor GPU performance. The cursor is most likely a bug in the software you are using, they are changing the cursor type as you go over their graph but not updating the screen quickly enough and its getting lost, could also be a mixing of so called hardware and software components on the screen (Java issue). The colour change of the whole screen is a new one, that could be indicative of a monitor problem, but it could also be the app or the graphics drivers. But its unlikely to be performance related.

See how it goes with the new modem (that was what I suspect honestly that network was your issue, but its also a software issue because they are locking the UI thread so you are seeing the problems and you shouldn't). If after you get that there is still colour changes and problems with the cursor it might be worth putting a low end GPU in there, not because of the performance but because a different vendor and its drivers might well handle things better.

 

[Hooobi]

After updating the modem and spending half my life on the phone with TWC's script readers and my broker's tech support again, nothing has improved, although it does seem more and more like a connectivity issue as you suggest. Supposedly TWC is sending a tech sometime soon to evaluate.

The cursor/crosshair issue was odd in that it was not consistent. Basically, the crosshairs would work fine on a particular graph at times, but other times they would flicker, while on the same graph (i.e., I wasn't transitioning across windows/graphs or anything).

 

[BrightCandle]

Its possible its the GPU butthe symptoms are classic GPU related issues. In the 2D world they all just work, they all have the performance necessary to push it correctly and while they do have problems (both NVidia and AMD have different issues so I am sure Intel does as well) they don't tend to manifest in this way.

One thing you can try is running fraps. If the Java application is using 3D at all you will get a counter in the top left hand corner, if not then on the fraps main page turn on "Monitor Aero desktop(DWM)". That option however only really works on Windows 7 but it will certainly show you if the graphics card is struggling to render the frames. You could record the frametimes (second tab, set benchmark setting to just frametimes and press F11 once your app is open to start and stop the recording).

 

[VirtualLarry]

I would disable Aero and see if the problems go away.

 

[Hooobi]

Thanks for the responses. TWC tech just left the house. He stated that something was messed up with my splitters. The internet was connected to the "video" port of the splitter was my understanding. Sadly, I doubt it'll make a difference, as I've now experienced similar issues on a different computer with a different internet connection (MacBook Pro while traveling), so I'm going to retry troubleshooting with my broker again, since it seems their java-based trading platform is possibly the culprit.

Broker had me troubleshoot my connection previously, and told me my "consistency of service" should be at least 80% and it is closer to 20-30%, utilizing VOIP tests. TWC tech had no idea what might be causing that. I also keep getting some kind of "java package doesn't match" errors on load-up and it kicks out before completing the start up.

I guess it might also be my firewalls, now that I think about it.

I don't think there is any 3D involved with this platform (ETrade Pro), and can't seem to find Aero settings in Win 8, just options for desktop themes...

 

[thilanliyan]

I don't think there is Aero in Windows 8.