Economical solution to drive 6 monitors, business use, non-gaming

[silencednine]

OK. I'm currently running a 6 monitor setup with a hodge podge of parts, but the performance is struggling. I know I'm pushing a lot of pixels even if I don't need gaming performance.

PC: HP Z400 workstation, quad core, 3.5 ghz or so I think.
16gb DDR3 10600 ram
MB has (2) PCIE x16 slots
I have 2 nvidia cards - one 9600 GT and one GT 520.
Each are pushing (2)older 20" LCD screens at 1600x1200. Double DVI out on the cards to DVI on each screen.
I have 2 of the EVGA UV39+ USB rigs pushing a 17" monitor each at 12XX x something. DVI on the EVGA to VGA on the screens.
I know my cards are older, dated cards. So are my monitors. I'm not real sure how well the UV39's really perform. Work is not paying for any of this so I'm trying to keep it budget friendly.

What I would like to find is a 2 card setup that ideally would support 3 monitors each. This is not for gaming but my work machine. Spreadsheets, Email, PDFs, folders, etc. Just lots of them.

I'm having a hard time finding info on cards based on their output and how many monitors they will support. I'm totally OK with older equipment.

Any direction?

 

[popatim]

What other ports do your monitors have?

 

[Scottray]

Take a look at two of these GTX1050 cards: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125951. This GPU supports a max resolution of 7680 x 4320, which is the equivalent of three 1440p monitors (2560x1440). It also has 1DP, 2 HDMI and 1 DVI outputs and support up to 4 monitors per the spec. Note that if you need to connect to VGA ports on your older monitors, make sure to get "active" adapters. This will convert the digital video output from the GPU to an analog VGA signal.

Also, the GTX1030 GPUs would be a little cheaper, but they only support 2 monitors.

 

[silencednine]

Current monitors have dvi and vga. 2 have vga only

 

[Karadjgne]

The issue is the monitors themselves being analog. Any modern card will be pushing digital signals through dvi-d, hdmi, dp and not the analog signals as in dvi-i or vga. On any card supporting DP 1.3 or newer, you could daisy chain 4 monitors at those resolutions from a single DP, but would be cost prohibitive due to the need for active converters.

So there really is no budget friendly solution that's going to be much more effective.


PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Video Card: Asus - GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4 GB Phoenix Video Card ($154.95 @ Amazon)
Monitor: AOC - I2279VWHE 21.5" 1920x1080 60Hz Monitor ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Monitor: AOC - I2279VWHE 21.5" 1920x1080 60Hz Monitor ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Monitor: AOC - I2279VWHE 21.5" 1920x1080 60Hz Monitor ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Monitor: AOC - I2279VWHE 21.5" 1920x1080 60Hz Monitor ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Monitor: AOC - I2279VWHE 21.5" 1920x1080 60Hz Monitor ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Monitor: AOC - I2279VWHE 21.5" 1920x1080 60Hz Monitor ($89.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $694.89
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-11-06 10:21 EST-0500

 

[RobCrezz]

What about using these:
https://www.displaylink.com/products/usb-adapters

 

[Karadjgne]

Same issue, digital signal converters. Built basically for laptops, they use USB 3.0 at the device, convert to hdmi/dp connection on the tv/monitor. OP has dvi-i and vga. Still would require a further active converter to change hdmi/dp to vga.

With everything from 1080p to 4k, Tv's and monitors, even cable boxes and DVR's all switching to hdmi/dp because of its versatility and lack of necessary amplification in devices, analog is slowly but surely being retired as obsolete. It's enough that modern cards like the 1030 and most 1050 models do not even have the analog DAC, only pure digital outputs

 

[RobCrezz]

Same issue, digital signal converters. Built basically for laptops, they use USB 3.0 at the device, convert to hdmi/dp connection on the tv/monitor. OP has dvi-i and vga. Still would require a further active converter to change hdmi/dp to vga.

With everything from 1080p to 4k, Tv's and monitors, even cable boxes and DVR's all switching to hdmi/dp because of its versatility and lack of necessary amplification in devices, analog is slowly but surely being retired as obsolete. It's enough that modern cards like the 1030 and most 1050 models do not even have the analog DAC, only pure digital outputs

They arent Digital signal converters, they are USB connected display adapters. Some have DVI and VGA connections.

 

[popatim]

We use USB GPU's on some older systems for an easy way to add a second or third display to a system that doesn't natively support them. They are fairly reliable, at least the ones we use are. We have VGA, DVI, DP, and HDMI ones. A few times a year we have to un[plug it from the usb port , wait a minute, and then plug it back in to get it to work again. This isn't bad for a usb device imo; I've never had one with an 'always on' connection that was super reliable.

 

[RobCrezz]

Same, they work pretty well as basic display adapters for extra screens.