Video Card For 4x High Resolution Displays

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Patrick

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Thanks to mrkrad I now have a major issue: a second HP ZR30w. dba has seen my main workstation setup, there simply isn't much room left on the desk.

Current setup: Main (middle) HP ZR30w + 2x Yamakasi 27" 2560x1440 monitors.

There's no way I have enough disk space... unless I rotate both 30" HP ZR30w's (the Yamakasi monitors do not rotate to portrait mode). My current Radeon HD 6970 just isn't cutting it. It can barely drive all three monitors so I do have an issue that the monitors do not display video when the workstation comes out of sleep mode. This even happens in simple screen standby mode.

The question is: are there any video cards that can handle 2x 30" monitors and 2x 27" monitors? That's over 15.5 megapixels worth of real estate!

Looks like NVIDIA doesn't have anything out so the option is an AMD HD 7970 like this?
 

Patrick

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Why not run two cards? You're already looking at a bloated WOFTAM video card to chew up three slots.
Aim for a dual GPU card like the 6990, 7990 or the nVidia Titan.
Power and noise. That HD7970 has 4x display port and 1x dual link DVI port all for $420 - 20 MIR. Would much rather use one quiet card if possible. Plus, I'm very much considering swapping the i7-3930K out for a 2P LGA 2011 setup so I don't want to waste lots of PCIe slots for 2x dual slot coolers. Very surprised there is basically nothing in NVIDIA land.
 

MaxCFM

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Having a HP 30" and 2 20s (1600x1200) rotated for the last 4yrs, how do you wish to use this setup when gaming if at all? There may be some caveats that you need to be aware of. There are also solutions to at least get the 30's on one stand to unbusy the desk surface, my setup uses one stand. I'll try and remember to snap a pic of it.
 

Patrick

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Heh games I play are like minesweeper in airports/ on the plane these days :)
 

Patrick

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Ha! Sadly mobilenvidia those do not work. I need either Displayport or DVI-D. DVI-I and HDMI won't drive any of the monitors so the current-gen GeForce cards can only drive half of my setup.
 

Lost-Benji

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Oh take your skirt off for crying out loud. You are not playing games, run a smaller pair of single slot cards and be done with it.

Games are not the issue so look at running a Matrox instead to throw money away
 

Patrick

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Oh take your skirt off for crying out loud. You are not playing games, run a smaller pair of single slot cards and be done with it.

Games are not the issue so look at running a Matrox instead to throw money away
May end up doing that. I did look at the Matrox M9148-E1024LAF but that costs 1.5x a HD7970 with 6x outputs. Only reason I don't just buy a HD7970 is a preference for NVIDIA drivers and the fact that AMD is only 1Q from the HD8970 die shrink generation.
 

mobilenvidia

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Ha! Sadly mobilenvidia those do not work. I need either Displayport or DVI-D. DVI-I and HDMI won't drive any of the monitors so the current-gen GeForce cards can only drive half of my setup.
Getting back to this, has been gnawing at me.

Why won't the Monitors run on DVI-I ?
DVI-D and DVI-I are the same, excepting DVI-I has extra Analogue pins
A DVI-D cable plug will go in a DVI-I socket, but NOT the other way round as per Wiki below
So you can keep your DVI-D cables

The long flat pin on a DVI-I connector is wider than the same pin on a DVI-D connector, so it is not possible to connect a male DVI-I to a female DVI-D by removing the 4 analog pins. It is possible, however, to connect a male DVI-D cable to a female DVI-I connector. Many flat panel LCD monitors have only the DVI-D connection so that a DVI-D male to DVI-D male cable will suffice when connecting the monitor to a computer's DVI-I female connector.
 

PigLover

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Getting back to this, has been gnawing at me.

Why won't the Monitors run on DVI-I ?
DVI-D and DVI-I are the same, excepting DVI-I has extra Analogue pins
A DVI-D cable plug will go in a DVI-I socket, but NOT the other way round as per Wiki below
So you can keep your DVI-D cables
Its not so much that his monitor requires DVI-D, its that his monitors require Dual-Link DVI-D (aka DVD-DL). DVI-I and DVI-D will only support up to 1080p and you need dual-link to support the QVGA of his large format monitors. There is no "DVI-I" version of dual-link DVI.
 
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Patrick

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Its not so much that his monitor requires DVI-D, its that his monitors require Dual-Link DVI-D (aka DVD-DL). DVI-I and DVI-D will only support up to 1080p and you need dual-link to support the QVGA of his large format monitors. There is no "DVI-I" version of dual-link DVI.
Exactly. I basically need a card that can drive 4x high resolution displays either through display port or dual link DVI.
 

mobilenvidia

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OK, the D got lost in translation, still a little confused

All NVIDIA cards have Dual link support.
All the cards from the GTX650 up have quad Monitor support. (2x DVI, HDMI and DP), top end cards do away with HDMI and have 3x DVI

But that said, AMD do DP support much better than NV, where NV seems reluctant to head down the road, where the future lies.

Found this for the Yamakasi, quite odd as picture says not to put in Dual link DVI-D port on card


Sorry graphics cards and me go way back
 
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