Question How to run 6 monitors at once with my current setup.

[keg4540]

I currently have a 2019 HP Pavilion Gaming Desktop with a AMD Radeon RX580. It can run 4 monitors, but I want to be able to run 6 at once. What is the best option to do this? I have looked into daisy chaining monitors, buying a 2nd video card to run together. (not sure if that would work), or just buying a new video card that can support 6 monitors. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Fix_that_Glitch]

https://plugable.com/products/usb3-hdmi-dvi/ Here is some good information on where to start.

 

[keg4540]

https://plugable.com/products/usb3-hdmi-dvi/ Here is some good information on where to start.

I completely forgot about the StarTech USB32HDPRO I had. I am going to give that a shot and if it works I'll just buy one more. Thanks!

 

[Fix_that_Glitch]

I completely forgot about the StarTech USB32HDPRO I had. I am going to give that a shot and if it works I'll just buy one more. Thanks!

Just cleaned out some desk drawers and found all kinds of neat stuff I had forgetten about.

 

[darksun9210]

I'm not sure what connections you have on the back of your particular card, but if you have display port, this is a good start.
a quick look at the spec of the 580 tells me it supports Displayport version1.4 with HDR.
display port version 1.2 brought in multistreaming, allowing you to split the port into 2/3/4 separate ports with a splitter box, or daisychain monitors together.
DP1.4 supports an actual data rate of about 26gigabits a second, and provided the display data for all the screens you want to connect to this one port fits into that data rate, then you should be fine. but it is still a limit, so if you're running some 1920x1080 screens, you'll be able to run a few of those, but if you're running 4k, then maybe only one or two.

other options are things like the matrox dual or triplehead-to-go, which takes a single output either VGA/DVI, or DP, and the box presents itself as an actual display - the capabilities it present to the graphics card then depend on the monitors attached to the triplehead-to-go. for example, connecting three 19" screens that can each display 1280x1024 to the matrox box, would look at the computer like a single display that runs 3840x1024. the max supported resolution of the matrox thing is 5760x1080 for 3x 1920x1080 screens, or 3840x1200, on 2x 1920x1200 screens

so your options are there, just depends what screen resolutions you are going to be running and your monitor layout.
where we were running 8x 19incher's at 1280x1024 we went to 3 or 4 30incher's at 2560x1600. now i'm seeing layouts for 2x 48incher's at 4k

otherwise yes, you can run multiple graphics cards in your machine. ideally both are from the same manufacturer AMD or Nvidia, and able to run from the same combined driver pack you've installed and even better that both are the same card/GPU. I do hear that with windows10, you're able to run both Nvidia and AMD cards in one machine much more reliably - but i wouldn't put it past either of them to pull a trick like "opponent's card detected! rebooting!".

i've run a pair of nvidia quadro M4000 8G's to drive a bottom row of three 30 inch screens (each 2560x1600) and a top row of three 27 inch screens (each 2560x1440).
i got annoyed that i couldn't SLI the quadro's in any other way than just having a big desktop, so pulled out one card and the 30 inchers.

just remember that your power consumption is going to double, and heat problems are going to more than double with two cards in the mix.

 

[keg4540]

I'm not sure what connections you have on the back of your particular card, but if you have display port, this is a good start.
a quick look at the spec of the 580 tells me it supports Displayport version1.4 with HDR.
display port version 1.2 brought in multistreaming, allowing you to split the port into 2/3/4 separate ports with a splitter box, or daisychain monitors together.
DP1.4 supports an actual data rate of about 26gigabits a second, and provided the display data for all the screens you want to connect to this one port fits into that data rate, then you should be fine. but it is still a limit, so if you're running some 1920x1080 screens, you'll be able to run a few of those, but if you're running 4k, then maybe only one or two.

other options are things like the matrox dual or triplehead-to-go, which takes a single output either VGA/DVI, or DP, and the box presents itself as an actual display - the capabilities it present to the graphics card then depend on the monitors attached to the triplehead-to-go. for example, connecting three 19" screens that can each display 1280x1024 to the matrox box, would look at the computer like a single display that runs 3840x1024. the max supported resolution of the matrox thing is 5760x1080 for 3x 1920x1080 screens, or 3840x1200, on 2x 1920x1200 screens

so your options are there, just depends what screen resolutions you are going to be running and your monitor layout.
where we were running 8x 19incher's at 1280x1024 we went to 3 or 4 30incher's at 2560x1600. now i'm seeing layouts for 2x 48incher's at 4k

otherwise yes, you can run multiple graphics cards in your machine. ideally both are from the same manufacturer AMD or Nvidia, and able to run from the same combined driver pack you've installed and even better that both are the same card/GPU. I do hear that with windows10, you're able to run both Nvidia and AMD cards in one machine much more reliably - but i wouldn't put it past either of them to pull a trick like "opponent's card detected! rebooting!".

i've run a pair of nvidia quadro M4000 8G's to drive a bottom row of three 30 inch screens (each 2560x1600) and a top row of three 27 inch screens (each 2560x1440).
i got annoyed that i couldn't SLI the quadro's in any other way than just having a big desktop, so pulled out one card and the 30 inchers.

just remember that your power consumption is going to double, and heat problems are going to more than double with two cards in the mix.

Thank you for the awesome information! I do not want to run 2 video cards if I do not have to as I worry about heat. I did find this splitter and curious if this would work to split one of the display ports on the back of my card to 3. That way I can use

1 HDMI - 1 monitor
1 Display - 1 monitor
1 Display - 1 monitor
1 Display - use the splitter box to go to 3 monitors.

Would that work with this device?

I want to run the 3 monitors off the splitter at 1920x1080 each.

SIIG 3 Port DisplayPort to HDMI MST Hub 4K UHD - 1x3 DP to HDMI Muti Monitor Splitter - Multi-Stream Transport (MST) Technology - Ultra HD up to 3840x2160 @ 30Hz (4K) - Mirror, Extended, Video Wall

 

[keg4540]

Just cleaned out some desk drawers and found all kinds of neat stuff I had forgetten about.

I tried to use that device and it caused my monitors to flicker, so figured it is not going to work.

 

[Rogue Leader]

I read this and am wondering what your configuration is planned to be. You say 6 monitors BUT do you want to use 6 monitors to display 1 large image?
or Want your desktop to be extended to 6 monitors to display 6 individual images?

In either one of these scenarios you CANNOT use a splitter box. You need one fo 2 things

6 monitor connections on your GPU

OR

Display port based monitors that support Daisychaining (aka Display port MST).

If you use a splitter box all you're gonna get is a copy of the same image on 2 screens.

The Splitter box from your last post will do what you want to do.

 

[keg4540]

I read this and am wondering what your configuration is planned to be. You say 6 monitors BUT do you want to use 6 monitors to display 1 large image?
or Want your desktop to be extended to 6 monitors to display 6 individual images?

In either one of these scenarios you CANNOT use a splitter box. You need one fo 2 things

6 monitor connections on your GPU

OR

Display port based monitors that support Daisychaining (aka Display port MST).

If you use a splitter box all you're gonna get is a copy of the same image on 2 screens.

The Splitter box from your last post will do what you want to do.

I want 6 separate images displayed on each monitor. So that device won't work?

 

[Rogue Leader]

I want 6 separate images displayed on each monitor. So that device won't work?

That device will work for you the SIIG 3 Port DisplayPort to HDMI MST Hub because it supports MST.

 

[keg4540]

That device will work for you the SIIG 3 Port DisplayPort to HDMI MST Hub because it supports MST.

I am trying to connect 3 ViewSonic VA2759 monitors to that SIIG 3 Port. I want to make sure it will work before I order it.

 

[Rogue Leader]

I am trying to connect 3 ViewSonic VA2759 monitors to that SIIG 3 Port. I want to make sure it will work before I order it.

Yes those monitors only have HDMI and the hub you suggested has 3 HDMI ports and supports MST which is what you need to be able to "Split" a displayport.

 

[keg4540]

Yes those monitors only have HDMI and the hub you suggested has 3 HDMI ports and supports MST which is what you need to be able to "Split" a displayport.

Thank you for your advice and time! Time to order that bad boy and get this ship up and running!