6 monitor setup advice

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smodtactical

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 26, 2010
Messages
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Right now I am running three monitors, one 4K and to 2K monitors. I would like to add on either three more 2K monitors or three more 4K monitors. I have a single GTX 1080. My understanding is this card can handle a Max of four displays.

I have a old GTX 670 lying around could I put that in my open PCI Express slot and get that card to run the remaining three monitors?

Is there any other better solution to this?
 
You could use another card, as you noted above, or use USB video cards. The preferred method would be a video card. And for best results, the same chipset brand (ie: nVidia).
 
Do you have onboard graphics? When you add a second gpu it can limit your pci lanes for the other gpu depending on your motherboard.
 
effectively reduces your bandwidth across the PCI slots. Have a read of your Motherboard manual, that should tell you if your motherboard would do that.

BTW, from experience USB GFX cards are horrid, and introduce lag to the mouse and input. Recommend a second Nvidia card.
 
Yep. When you use 2 slots It might limit you to 8x bandwidth instead of 16x and potentially hurt your gaming performance.

I'm not familiar with your motheroboard, but my old PC has a 4770k and the motherboard has 2 HDMI connections and a DisplayPort so I used 3 monitors through my motherboard and 4 through my 1080ti. I didn't need to run a second card for to use 7 screens.
 
sharknice said:
Yep. When you use 2 slots It might limit you to 8x bandwidth instead of 16x and potentially hurt your gaming performance.

I'm not familiar with your motheroboard, but my old PC has a 4770k and the motherboard has 2 HDMI connections and a DisplayPort so I used 3 monitors through my motherboard and 4 through my 1080ti. I didn't need to run a second card for to use 7 screens.
Click to expand...

A quick google finds the product page and shows his monitor only has a single HDMI out; so a second card will be needed.

https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/MAXIMUS_VI_HERO/gallery/

Unless you're using the PCIe x1 slots which share lanes with it, I'd recommend putting the second card in the bottommost black x16 slot. That will limit it to x4 mode, but leave your main GPU at x16. Using the middle x16 would put both cards in x8 mode because the two red slots share bandwidth.

For non-gaming use even an x1 slot is fast enough, so no need to steal from your main GPU.

OTOH if you're planning to keep this setup for more than a few years and have your PC on a decent amount of time buying an otherwise crappy low power card like a GF1030-DDR4 would pay off vs the 670 in terms of lower power. Unlike for almost everything else, you don't want the GDDR5 model because it uses more power (30 vs 20W) to run the faster ram. The 1030 is more or less an IGP on a card; for non-gaming use DDR4 is fine.
 
Thanks everyone!

DanNeely said:
A quick google finds the product page and shows his monitor only has a single HDMI out; so a second card will be needed.

https://www.asus.com/us/Motherboards/MAXIMUS_VI_HERO/gallery/

Unless you're using the PCIe x1 slots which share lanes with it, I'd recommend putting the second card in the bottommost black x16 slot. That will limit it to x4 mode, but leave your main GPU at x16. Using the middle x16 would put both cards in x8 mode because the two red slots share bandwidth.

For non-gaming use even an x1 slot is fast enough, so no need to steal from your main GPU.

OTOH if you're planning to keep this setup for more than a few years and have your PC on a decent amount of time buying an otherwise crappy low power card like a GF1030-DDR4 would pay off vs the 670 in terms of lower power. Unlike for almost everything else, you don't want the GDDR5 model because it uses more power (30 vs 20W) to run the faster ram. The 1030 is more or less an IGP on a card; for non-gaming use DDR4 is fine.
Click to expand...

I think I might do this then. Also my GTX 1080 is quite huge plus it has a support bracket so I think another card right under it would choke it anyway.

Just found out my gtx 670 actually doesn't even work so I think I might take your suggestion on another basic low power card.

Right now I have a 4k 32 inch, center gaming 165hz 27 inch and right 27 inch ips. I will only use my center predator for gaming, the rest is for productivity, browsing etc. Im trying to think if I should do a top triple row of 32 inch 4k or 27 inch 1440. Im leaning towards 1440 as it will be more readable when looking up at it. But the 4k work space and crispness is quite nice.
 
smodtactical said:
Thanks everyone!



I think I might do this then. Also my GTX 1080 is quite huge plus it has a support bracket so I think another card right under it would choke it anyway.

Just found out my gtx 670 actually doesn't even work so I think I might take your suggestion on another basic low power card.

Right now I have a 4k 32 inch, center gaming 165hz 27 inch and right 27 inch ips. I will only use my center predator for gaming, the rest is for productivity, browsing etc. Im trying to think if I should do a top triple row of 32 inch 4k or 27 inch 1440. Im leaning towards 1440 as it will be more readable when looking up at it. But the 4k work space and crispness is quite nice.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't ever add a top row of monitors, it hurts your neck and you won't want to use them.

If you want a second row adding it below is much better and comfortable to use. But it kind of requires a special desk.
 
Probably a special stand too? I've never seen someone do that. Traditional 6 monitor stands won't work in that case.
 
smodtactical said:
Probably a special stand too? I've never seen someone do that. Traditional 6 monitor stands won't work in that case.
Click to expand...

There are hex monitor stands. The problem is the bottom row extends lower than your keyboard and mouse so you need a separate surface for the monitors.

Like this
cc03212016.jpg
 
Ahhh I see that looks good. I think what I'll do is I'll use a normal VIVO 6 monitor stand and just make sure my bottom row monitors go as low as possible so top row is lower down.
 
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