[SOLVED] Newbie question - Options for a 3-screen system ?

[hrxv1]

Hello.

A basic question about buying a desktop computer. This is for a hobby stock trading system. I need to have 3 screens. Can I use a single graphics card to control all 3 screens ? I already have the screens. Two of them are HDMI and the other is VGA and DVI. i was told that I do not need the power of a gaming GPU. I will be ordering the whole system online. It will be an I7 CPU. Here is the list of available GPU's from various manufacturers..

Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050, TiNvidia GeForce GT 710, Nvidia GeForce GT 1030, Nvidia GeForce GT 730, Nvidia Quadro P400, Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650, Nvidia Quadro RTX 4000, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Ti, AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060, AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Ti, Nvidia T400, Nvidia T600, Nvidia T1000

 

[morgan payne]

get a 3060 or something similar, it'll be more than enough for your needs

 

[popatim]

get a 3060 or something similar, it'll be more than enough for your needs

He doesn't need the power of a gaming GPU.

 

[popatim]

Hrxv1 your i7 may be able to handle this all by itself but we don't know which motherbd or system you will be getting to make sure it has the appropriate ports.

 

[dotas1]

get a 3060 or something similar, it'll be more than enough for your needs

Suggesting to buy a 3060 for a simple 3 monitor setup NOT for gaming, is like suggesting to buy a hammer to put a pin on the board.

@hrxv1 First you need to check that those GPUs have the appropriate outputs. I am saying that because not each and every model comes with the same outputs. You can also use the integrated graphics of the CPU but since most motherboards have usually up to 2 outputs you will need a discrete gpu as well.

 

[avg9956]

This is for a hobby stock trading system

Yes, in this use case - its not necessary to buy a gaming GPU, what matters more is matching the GPU ports to the monitor ports
Modern GPUs usually have DP and HDMI ports, and have forgone VGA and DVI

For some reason, some modern monitors still come with a VGA plug. You'd easily recognize it by its blue color.

Just a side suggestion (and I don't condone this, but just an idea if you plan to delve deep into trading in the future, especially if you're day trading stocks) - If you want to go further down the day trading setup and need more displays, a 6 monitor rack setup would be an enhancement. Such monitor racks support the vesa mounting system and thus, you need to look for computer monitors that support the vesa mounting system.

However if its just a hobby, I think you're fine with the 3 monitor setup you currently plan.

 

[geofelt]

Any graphics adapter should be ok to display charts and such.
The challenge is to find a reasonably priced card which can connect all 3 of your monitors.
GTX1050 and such will usually have something like dvi, hdmi and dp.
You will probably need a dp to hdmi adapter to connect all 3.
Can you supply the specs of the pc?
In particular, the motherboard and cpu used.
You may be able to attach the monitors to the motherboard without a discrete graphics card.

 

[hrxv1]

Any graphics adapter should be ok to display charts and such.
The challenge is to find a reasonably priced card which can connect all 3 of your monitors.
GTX1050 and such will usually have something like dvi, hdmi and dp.
You will probably need a dp to hdmi adapter to connect all 3.
Can you supply the specs of the pc?
In particular, the motherboard and cpu used.
You may be able to attach the monitors to the motherboard without a discrete graphics card.

The CPU will definitely be I7. Because of limited physical space for the case the motherboard must be micro ATX or mini ITX.

The motherboard is likely to be Gigabyte B560 AORUS Elite Micro ATX with 1 HDMI port.

For graphics cards, I have a choice between:

GT710-4H-SL-2GD5 2GB GDDR5 which has 4 HDMI ports (and no other ports)
or
Two Gigabyte GeForce GT 1030 Low Profile D4 2GB GDDR5 cards, each will have 1 HDMI
and 1 DVI ports.

If I use the 2 GT1030 cards then I will need to have the third screen connected to the motherboard.

According to this article, these lower priced cards should be more than adequate to drive the three screens - https://traderspec.com/trading-pc-graphics-cards/

Thank you.

 

[geofelt]

I3/I5/I7 no longer mean what they used to, namely the number of cores/threads.
Today, consider the designation to be more of a performance class.

What is the make/model of the monitors you already have?

Where are you ordering this rig from?
Some places are better than others.

It is better to use one graphics card if you can.