6 Monitor setup for general use/gaming etc..

[Sphiinx]

I was wondering how I could accomplish a 6 monitor setup, Im not looking to game across all 6 monitors, I would only game on 1 monitor. I just want 6 for coding/multitasking/ and general use.

Current Specs:
Processor:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819117369
Motherboard:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130771
Graphics card: (I have 1 of this GFX card currently)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150686
Monitors: (I have 2 of these monitors already)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009513
Ram: 4x(16GB):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231314

Questions:
1. What would be the best route to go to have 6 monitors w/o hurting my FPS while gaming on a single monitor in the middle.
2. Should I crossfire 2 of my Graphics card and use a MST Hub with adapters for those monitors?
3. Should I have 2 cards and not crossfire them and put 3 monitors on each card (Dont know how this would affect gaming)
4. I dont know if there are any better routes to get 6 monitors with what I currently have, my card currently supports 4 monitors.

My budget is around $800-900 (I already have 2 of those monitors, and 1 of those GFX cards)

Thanks!

 

[rhysiam]

I'd go the MST hub route. This one allows you to get 3 DVI/HDMI/DP displays (with cheap passive adapters) from one of your two single miniDP outputs: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA0ZX2576374&cm_re=mst_hub-_-15-158-402-_-Product

You can then run 2 from your DVI & HDMI ports.

Final display must connect to your last Mini-DP. It MUST be either native DP or ACTIVE DP -> DVI/HDMI adapter. That should give you 6 from the same card.

 

[Sphiinx]

I'd go the MST hub route. This one allows you to get 3 DVI/HDMI/DP displays (with cheap passive adapters) from one of your two single miniDP outputs: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA0ZX2576374&cm_re=mst_hub-_-15-158-402-_-Product

You can then run 2 from your DVI & HDMI ports.

Final display must connect to your last Mini-DP. It MUST be either native DP or ACTIVE DP -> DVI/HDMI adapter. That should give you 6 from the same card.

Would this hurt/change my current FPS? Also what if I did that but I got a second card to crossfire to keep my gaming graphics up while I use the MST Hub on the first card?

 

[rhysiam]

Would this hurt/change my current FPS? Also what if I did that but I got a second card to crossfire to keep my gaming graphics up while I use the MST Hub on the first card?

Additional (non-gaming) displays shouldn't affect gaming performance in any tangible way. Crossfire (unlike SLI) requires all monitors to be connected to the primary card, so you need an MST hub anyway. Unless you're prepared to go through the rigmarole of disconnect the non-gaming displays every time you want to enable CFX for a gaming session.

Here's a couple of other thoughts worth considering...

As someone who works with multiple displays all the time. Have you considered making sure at least a couple of your displays pivot to portrait mode?

I have 3 screens for productivity purposes (regularly work with large amounts of data), and I've found that 1 Landscape and 2 portrait displays works best for me. Of course, this is entirely a personal preference and depends greatly on what kind of content you're working on. Coding is great on portrait though, as the display width is still plenty for most lines of code and your basic set of toolbars, but then you just get so many extra lines of code on the screen due to the height.

THEN, if you start looking at higher end monitors, another option to the MST hub is spending a bit more on a pivot-capable monitor with Displayport daisy chaining. In the US Dell has a $70 off the u2414H displays, which pivot, daisy chain and have ultra-slim borders for really nice multi-screen working: http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&sku=860-BBCG
$270 is hardly a cheap screen, but it would save you the MST hub and they're inherently nicer displays too.

FYI - there were really massive issues with daisy chaining on early revisions and firmware of those u2414H displays. My understanding is that the rev03 models with the latest firmware have sorted everything, but I'd avoid second hand or refurb models. Apparently you need to enable DP 1.2 manually, and make sure your firmware is up to date.

This may not be the way you want to go and it's certainly not a cheap option, but 2 (or 3 or even 4 if you wanted) of those Dell displays would daisy chain nicely. The last in the chain can use an adapter (so you could get 2 u2414h and use an adapter to another display, saving yourself the need for an MST hub). If you think about it, 2 of those adds $200 to the cost over the $170 displays you have at the moment), but considering it avoids the need for an expensive MST hub means you're not paying much extra for nicer monitors with pivot and tiny bezels... worth considering.

 

[Sphiinx]

Would this hurt/change my current FPS? Also what if I did that but I got a second card to crossfire to keep my gaming graphics up while I use the MST Hub on the first card?

Additional (non-gaming) displays shouldn't affect gaming performance in any tangible way. Crossfire (unlike SLI) requires all monitors to be connected to the primary card, so you need an MST hub anyway. Unless you're prepared to go through the rigmarole of disconnect the non-gaming displays every time you want to enable CFX for a gaming session.

Here's a couple of other thoughts worth considering...

As someone who works with multiple displays all the time. Have you considered making sure at least a couple of your displays pivot to portrait mode?

I have 3 screens for productivity purposes (regularly work with large amounts of data), and I've found that 1 Landscape and 2 portrait displays works best for me. Of course, this is entirely a personal preference and depends greatly on what kind of content you're working on. Coding is great on portrait though, as the display width is still plenty for most lines of code and your basic set of toolbars, but then you just get so many extra lines of code on the screen due to the height.

THEN, if you start looking at higher end monitors, another option to the MST hub is spending a bit more on a pivot-capable monitor with Displayport daisy chaining. In the US Dell has a $70 off the u2414H displays, which pivot, daisy chain and have ultra-slim borders for really nice multi-screen working: http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&sku=860-BBCG
$270 is hardly a cheap screen, but it would save you the MST hub and they're inherently nicer displays too.

FYI - there were really massive issues with daisy chaining on early revisions and firmware of those u2414H displays. My understanding is that the rev03 models with the latest firmware have sorted everything, but I'd avoid second hand or refurb models. Apparently you need to enable DP 1.2 manually, and make sure your firmware is up to date.

This may not be the way you want to go and it's certainly not a cheap option, but 2 (or 3 or even 4 if you wanted) of those Dell displays would daisy chain nicely. The last in the chain can use an adapter (so you could get 2 u2414h and use an adapter to another display, saving yourself the need for an MST hub). If you think about it, 2 of those adds $200 to the cost over the $170 displays you have at the moment), but considering it avoids the need for an expensive MST hub means you're not paying much extra for nicer monitors with pivot and tiny bezels... worth considering.

Im not really the type of person who likes a pivot screen, Im more of a landscape person. I do a lot of web design and graphic design and so I work with a lot of different work spaces and tabs open so Im looking into this 6 monitor setup before i go to college this next year. Im wondering if I went with the MST HUB for my first card and used two DVI, a 1 HDMI and then used the MST HUB for the last 3 monitors if that would be smooth and wouldn't have issues and then maybe add another card and crossfire it to help keep my fps at its current state.

 

[rhysiam]

Im not really the type of person who likes a pivot screen, Im more of a landscape person. I do a lot of web design and graphic design and so I work with a lot of different work spaces and tabs open so Im looking into this 6 monitor setup before i go to college this next year. Im wondering if I went with the MST HUB for my first card and used two DVI, a 1 HDMI and then used the MST HUB for the last 3 monitors if that would be smooth and wouldn't have issues...

I would say 'don't knock it till you've tried it', and with 6 displays, there's almost certainly some content that's better suited to a portrait orientation. But anyway, it's your money, your call of course!

Just bear in mind that AMD cards of your generation can output to a MAX of two HDMI/DVI/VGA monitors before ALL the rest of the displays need to be either native DP, or connected with an "active" adapter.

That means for 6 screens you need 4 coming from display port with either MST hubs or active adapters.

So, if none of the monitors you buy have displayport, you're back to my original suggestion. Here's how you do it:
a) two displays connected via DVI or HDMI (whatever's easiest, it doesn't matter)
b) three displays connected via any (active or passive) adapters from an MST hub - see my first post for a suggested hub
c) the final 6th display connected with an ACTIVE mini-DP to HDMI/DVI adapter. Something like this shouldwork http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812423138&cm_re=active_displayport_adapter-_-12-423-138-_-Product
Don't ignore the "active" bit - it's key and it will not work without it.

and then maybe add another card and crossfire it to help keep my fps at its current state.

As I've said above, extra screens with nothing on them won't affect your single screen gaming performance in any tangible way. You will still be able to game on your single screen just as you do at the moment.

 

[rhysiam]

Just as a side-note for what it's worth. Don't completely rule out 3 screen gaming even with a single 7870.

I've got a single 7950 and 3 1200p displays. There's not that much difference between the 7870 and 7950... and I'm pushing 10% more pixels. I've been able to get very playable settings for eyefinity gaming for a wide range of games (Portal 2, Mass Effect 1, 2 & 3, Tomb Raider, Bioshock Inifite, Deux Ex:HR).

What you'll have to do is drop image settings down a long way. I just take a few minutes when I get a new game to first off check if Eyefinity actually behaves - which it fairly often doesn't, but then if it does, whether I prefer higher settings and frame rates on a single screen or lower on mulit-screen. It's a personal call and I suspect those who demand the smoothness of a solid vsynced 60fps would usually pick the single screen option, but I almost always prefer the 3 screen lower detail option, with average frame rates somewhere in the 40s.

Moments like the opening scenes of Mass Effect 3 in the city with the epic battle going on in the distance, or climbing to the top of the radio tower in Tomb Raider are absolutely stunning across 3 displays, even on low to medium settings.

Witcher 3 would have been amazing in Eyefinity, but I could not get it to go above 25fps, so there are definitely games you'll need to drop to a single-screen for. All I'm saying is that it's worth trying to see if you can get playable frame rates without compromising too much on quality settings.

 

[Blackink]

What about using the 4 ports on the Radeon graphics card you have selected and just get larger monitors?

I just put a build together with this graphics card:http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125502&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-PCPartPicker,%20LLC-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=, and used 4 - 30" monitors.

I had no problems setting up once the graphics drivers were installed.