6 monitors use display port hub or 2 GPUs

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DBell02

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Jan 27, 2014
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I am finishing up my build for a daytrading computer. I am trying to find the best solution for six monitor display (not one large screen), I was recommended to use the EVGA display port hub.

http://www.evga.com/Products/Product.aspx?pn=200-DP-1301-L1

Then I read this: The Display Port Hub cannot grant additional monitors per card. A GTX 780 Ti, for example, can run a maximum of 4 monitors. With the Hub, you can still only run up to 4 monitors, not 6. The Hub is simply an easier way to port out 3 monitors on a single hub, rather than try to use multiple cable types from the card.

I would like some expert advice. The platform requires 512mb per screen they also mentioned accelerated calculations. Would two GPUs work better or would the EVGA hub be the best solution?
Thank you for you time.
 
Solution
giantbucket
well, you don't need as many cards as I have 😛 but yeah, a GT640-2G will be fine. I personally like the Asus one since it has 2 DVI, 1 HDMI, and 1 VGA, so there's no DisplayPort converters ever needed - they're just basic common monitor interfaces (and HDMI converts to DVI with just a cable)

you could do the GTX660s if you want as well.

oops - the i7-4xxx won't work with a Z77 board. you could use an i7-3xxx processor with it, or use a Z87 Extreme3 board if you want i7-4xxx processor. here's a sampling of ASRock boards for an i7-4770K that let you run dual graphics cards as 8x/8x

Click here, it's a long link
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You can get workstation GPUs designed specifically for multiple monitor use. What the display port hub is saying is that if you only have 1 display port out on your gpu, but you have 4 monitors with display port, you can plug the hub into the one display port to provide 4 display port connections to plug your monitors into. The limiting factor is how many monitors the GPU can support, so if your GPU only supports 3 monitors, then 3 of those 4 connected monitors will work and none of the other connections on the GPU will provide an image.

Also, since each screen requires 512mg of VRAM, then you would need either: A) 1 video card supporting 6 monitors with 3gb of VRAM or B) multiple GPUs that can support a total of 6 monitors and 3gb of VRAM.
 
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That GPU cannot support 6 monitors. Manufacturer's website shows 4 being the maximum provided. The programs you're running, are they rendering/modeling/graphics applications? Because there is a big difference between a gaming GPU (the one you linked) and a workstation GPU.

Also, do you have something against two cards? Depending on your answer to the previous question, sometimes two cards is better than one single.
 
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I will be running 10-12 charts (java based) 10-12 hrs day. I contacted the software tech for thinkorswim and he mentioned the platform uses GPU accelerated calculations and it preforms GPGPU. He advised I quote “Gaming card with 3d graphical rendering. If using multiple monitors, 512 mb of dedicated memory per monitor. 16 gb of ram is enough.. more emphasis on processing.”

1-2-3 GPUs makes no difference to me. I just want zero lag and stability
 
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You don't want the one deauterateddog posted. Firstly, it's around 3,500$. Secondly if your tech said a gaming GPU would work for what you're running then you should be able to get by with a gaming GPU. Give me a couple minutes and i'll try to find a decent one for you.

What's your budget, which motherboard do you have, and how many watts is your power supply?
 
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There is nothing wrong with running multiple cards, I've done it many times (driving multiple monitors with video on them, not charts). Your software probably won't make use of both of the GPU for accelerated calculations though (but you can check with the software vendor to be sure).
 
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Sorry for the wait. If you want performance, as noted by the software tech, i'd suggest an r9 280x or even a 290x for blazing speed. And the first GPU you linked would work with an MST hub, the evga product you linked first, as long as 3 of your monitors used display port and the other two used HDMI and DVI.

Sorry about saying it wouldn't at first, was unclear whether the r9 series could support more than 4 monitors (as stated on gigabytes website for max allowed) with a MST.

Simply put, r9 270x w/ 4gb vram or r9 280x w/ 4gb vram or r9 290x w/ 4gb vram + EVGA MST hub you first linked = 6 monitors supported. Choose the GPU depending on price limit and how much processing power you want.

Also, AMD is a must for this setup, it's architecture is better suited for general purpose GPUs (GPGPU) over Nvidia who tends to be more CUDA specific.
 
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I would SERIOUSLY question that tech. 512MB per monitor, for 2D charting??? haha! that's an LOL OMG WTF kind of a requirement.

if the charts are actually weird 3D charts, then you're gonna spend a ton of money just to do this. and really if you plan on displaying (like you said) 10-12 charts, and they really ARE complex 3D charts, then I wonder how fast YOU can actually process the data and make a buy/sell/hold/wait decision.

what have you been daytrading on thus far? how many charts at a time, and have you noticed your own ability to process that much info get strained or do you still have adequate mental bandwidth to analyze another 3-4 charts?

if you haven't daytraded much yet, and you plan on diving in with 10-12 charts, you're gonna fail. it's analysis-paralysis.

if you have daytraded for a while, then presumably you've made a decent profit and the price of the hardware is irrelevant. run dual computers or an LGA2011 with triple cards (2 monitors each) and call it a day. if you're good enough, you can have the setup paid off within 5 decent trades.

if you have daytraded for a while but the cost of the setup is "too expensive", then you're not gonna be any more successful by having another 8 charts staring you in the face.

what's your chart time resolution? 1min candles? 5min candles? that's how much time you have to make a decision on your position.

I trade forex across 8 screens, 6 of which have charts (2D) with 2minute candles, and one has my buy/sell controls and last screen is a newsfeed. going double on the charts would be a bit excessive with 2D charts, and ridiculous with 3D charts.
 
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Currently I am using a late 2009 imac i5 with another 24 inch monitor. When the market heats up around 9am est the charts tend to lag and my mouse beings to delay when hovering over charts trend lines etc. it has become worse since I updated to mt lion due to Thinkorswim upgrading java. Yes the charts are 2D I am sure you have seen thinkorswim charts before if you trade, I am merely regurgitating the comments of the tech. I am not adding any more charts just tired of not having them up needing to dig for them. I really don't want to bore the people helping me with my trading strategy just trying to find suitable solution to my need. And lastly true traders talk about gains in percentages not dollar amounts. To say If I can't afford something or it's "too expensive" then I'm not a true day trade is comical to me. I have been trading for over 5 years but I appreciate your concern. Just looking for advice on my rig not on my trading career.

Thefox I appreciate the breakdown I will look into those setups and get back to you.

I appreciate everyone's input.
 
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"if you're good enough, you can have the setup paid off within 5 decent trades." This makes no sense coming for a "day trade" I could scalp so it's more then 5 trades.i could swing trade etc... I don't recall mentioning my strategy or my funds allocated per trade so you would have noway of knowing what 5 trades do and that's assuming you are profitable every trade haha, but if you have input that would aid in my decision that I would appreciate.
 
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if the lag is mostly at 9a EST when the markets open (well, that should be 9:30am but we can be fuzzy here) but they're OK otherwise, it might be related to the servers themselves and the sheer amount of traffic on the network, so having more GPU power on your end might have no effect at all. if the charts ALWAYS lag, then yeah you may need some hardware upgrades. but if it's only during market open / market close, then you likely can't do much about that.

does your mac have a task monitor so that you can see how much resources your system is using during those hours and during the quieter lunch hour, or during times when you don't see annoying lags?

but if you really want to have 512meg per monitor with 6 screens, then maybe dual GT640-2GB cards are a simple solution (as long as your mobo can/will let them run at 8x/8x and not 16x/4x). the Asus cards (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121643) can run 4 screens each, so you have room to expand.

(I don't use thinkorswim, I use a different broker and never see lags, but then again forex is a bit different)
 
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LAG is not the right word, my mouse is less responsive during peak outs causing my mouse to lag. The one GPU is 4gb so in theory with the evga hub it should power each monitor enough unless I'm missing something.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125496

The iMac uses little CPU and ram during all times of the market. I think it's just a weak GPU

I trade the futures so Between 8-9 the market heats up for the gap fill play and the lunch hour is referred to as the daily doldrums 😉
 
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Again, THAT specific card doesn't support 6 monitors, only 4. The EVGA hub doesn't magically support 2 extra monitors. You even clarified so yourself way at the top of this thread.

If you trust the TOS tech, ask him which specific card is supported to drive 6 screens with the charts you intend on running, since the tech is already indicating you need at least 512MB per screen anyways....
 
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Thefoxer posted this a few post up "Simply put, r9 270x w/ 4gb vram or r9 280x w/ 4gb vram or r9 290x w/ 4gb vram + EVGA MST hub you first linked = 6 monitors supported. Choose the GPU depending on price limit and how much processing power you want."
The evga supports 3 the use the hdmi and the DVI... Unless I'm reading foxs post wrong

I posted this earlier mentioning the r9x models do support 6 monitors.
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/63523-amd-radeon-r9-270x-r7-260x-review-5.html
 
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i'm not sure why you are insisting that the Gigabyte R9 270X can run 6 monitors if Gigabyte themselves say it only supports 4. and the EVGA hub as you've pointed out doesn't add monitors but only makes it easier to connect what the card itself supports.

if you insist on taking the R9 270X plus hub gamble, then go for it. it'll cost you around $400 by the looks of it, or more depending on if you need DP-to-DVI adapters and what kind. so this might hit $500. maybe some other manufacturer's card actually does support 6 monitors using the R9 270X chipset, I don't know.

or you can go for something that's less of a gamble, one card that the manufacturer says DOES support 6 monitors, and then add that hub plus adapters etc. this might put you into 280x or 290 territory, or you might go to NVidia.

or you can go for the sure thing, which is to run dual cards, which is cheaper, easier, blah blah blah, but your mobo should support 8x/8x and the software should know which GPU to use for the funky processing. if it does, then you're looking at around $200.

plus taxes & shipping & whatever else.


on a side note, I find it very odd that you even need to step up to this level of card for that trading platform. I made do with a special 4-output GT610 and a 2-output 9400GT to run 6 screens for about a year with no hangups or glitches or unresponsiveness. mind you, that wasn't a Mac but an AMD system I built 1.5 years ago, so a good few years newer than your Mac. but still, charts shouldn't require any wild rendering, so... yeah. kinda weird that the need is for such a high-caliber card for something so seemingly simple. just out of curiosity, what graphics card are you currently using?
 
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Giantbuck I appreciate all your explanation this is all new to me. I have no problem using 2 cards, I was advised to use the one card. If 2 cards is stable and will work then I will 100% go with that. But I'm not sure what this means "but your mobo should support 8x/8x and the software should know which GPU to use for the funky processing." I still haven't purchased any parts for my computer yet I do have a PC picker list though.. As far as the imac I was researching and it said a Radeon 512mb GPU which was trying to deal with 2 screens 8-10 charts and windows parallels which I was running for my other trading software. I don't care about i5 i7 i50 I just want a computer that will last awhile stable and will give me the best chance to remove all the mouse lag/delay.
 
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This is my tentative setup of you have time to look it over...thank you

CPU: Intel Core i7-4770 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 Plus 76.8 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler
Motherboard: Asus Z87-PRO ATX LGA1150
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory
Storage: Samsung 840 Pro Series 128GB 2.5" Solid State Disk
Video Card: ??????
Case: Fractal Design Define R4 (Black Pearl) ATX Mid Tower Case
Power Supply: Rosewill Capstone 750W 80+ Gold Certified ATX Power Supply
Optical Drive: Asus DVD-E818AAT/BLK/B/GEN DVD/CD Drive
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 - 64-bit - OEM (64-bit)
 
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