can I run 2 different gpus to power 6 monitors

[imjouster]

Basically need a computer to support 6 monitors. Will be doing some intensive cad/revit/3dsmax work, but for the most part 2 of the monitors won't be doing anything too intensive just excel, and an online security camera feed.

Trying to save some cash, I know I can run up to 6 monitors with 2 identical cards hooked up, but I really want to put in either a 1070 or 1080 into this system, could I then take an existing 750ti card that I have and put it in the computer to run the extra 2 displays that the 1080 will not support?? I just want to run all 6 monitors in extended desktop mode. Thanks

 

[James Mason]

If the monitors are all displayport monitors, you can just split a displayport connection multiple times: https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-DisplayPort-Multi-Monitor-Splitter/dp/B00JLRBB8I

You can also add a 2nd GPU for more monitor support, but drivers aren't exactly the same between gpus, and that can cause problems sometimes, so a gt 1030 may be a more stable option.

 

[Glenwing]

To answer the question directly, yes you can use multiple different graphics cards to attach additional monitors without any adverse effects. They do need to be the same card or have SLI enabled or anything, they do not even have to both be NVIDIA cards.

 

[James Mason]

To answer the question directly, yes you can use multiple different graphics cards to attach additional monitors without any adverse effects. They do need to be the same card or have SLI enabled or anything, they do not even have to both be NVIDIA cards.

Though it's generally a horrible idea to have an AMD and Nvidia card in your system at the same time, it can cause a crazy amount of issues.

 

[imjouster]

Good to hear, I ended up just getting the 1080 and a 1050, might be spending more than I needed to but from what I understood in reading other places this should be a fairly stable option. I've heard lots of different things about the display port connectors... I'd love to hear more info about them.

So like the 1080 has 3 display port connections... it only supports 4 monitors. I've heard from some people you can use those splitters to run like 3 monitors on one port... so essentially you could run like 10 monitors on one 1080 (assuming vram is enough) but I've also heard that the 4 display support is a hard number, and if you hook up a displayport splitter it will still cap out at 4 displays total... Can I get some confirmation on which one of these is accurate???

 

[James Mason]

Ah I see, so you can run more than 4 on one card, but you have to use the right hardware and have the right monitors.
What happens is the GPU sends a 5760x1080 (1920x3) signal to the splitter, the splitter than processes that and cuts it into 3rds and sends a 1920x1080 picture to each monitor.
The hub and the monitors both have to support MST technology though for that to work I think.
But with the price of a hub/splitter being as high as it is, just buying a separate GPU seems to be an equally cost effective solution.

 

[Glenwing]

Though it's generally a horrible idea to have an AMD and Nvidia card in your system at the same time, it can cause a crazy amount of issues.

Is that from experience or just an assumption? I've been running a GTX 1080 and an RX 480 together for a while, and before that used a 780 Ti with the 480. Never encountered a single issue, not one.

So like the 1080 has 3 display port connections... it only supports 4 monitors. I've heard from some people you can use those splitters to run like 3 monitors on one port... so essentially you could run like 10 monitors on one 1080 (assuming vram is enough) but I've also heard that the 4 display support is a hard number, and if you hook up a displayport splitter it will still cap out at 4 displays total... Can I get some confirmation on which one of these is accurate???

It's a hard number, you can only support up to 4 monitors on an NVIDIA card, even via daisy-chaining. I hooked up a few monitors to test it:

You can see I have 5 monitors, but only using 4 ports, the two on the right side coming from a single DP port, however one of them is still disabled due to the 4-monitor limit. The same thing will happen with a hub as far as I know.

AMD cards support up to 6 monitors per card, so if you just want a card to run 6 monitors then an RX 570/580 might be a good bet. I don't know how the performance is in CAD/3D applications though.

 

[James Mason]

Though it's generally a horrible idea to have an AMD and Nvidia card in your system at the same time, it can cause a crazy amount of issues.

Is that from experience or just an assumption? I've been running a GTX 1080 and an RX 480 together for a while, and before that used a 780 Ti with the 480. Never encountered a single issue, not one.

From lots of people who post here trying to do it and running into problems.
I don't know what you're using the GPUs for, but most people who do it are trying to play pretty intense games, and they're having BSODs or performance issues.
Usually the drivers won't play nice with each other, as they "use the same channels" to talk to the GPU(s) but they send different signals so you get weird issues.
It's possible if one is just using the windows basic drivers for extra monitors, it's not an issue.

 

[Glenwing]

Though it's generally a horrible idea to have an AMD and Nvidia card in your system at the same time, it can cause a crazy amount of issues.

Is that from experience or just an assumption? I've been running a GTX 1080 and an RX 480 together for a while, and before that used a 780 Ti with the 480. Never encountered a single issue, not one.

From lots of people who post here trying to do it and running into problems.
I don't know what you're using the GPUs for, but most people who do it are trying to play pretty intense games, and they're having BSODs or performance issues.
Usually the drivers won't play nice with each other, as they "use the same channels" to talk to the GPU(s) but they send different signals so you get weird issues.
It's possible if one is just using the windows basic drivers for extra monitors, it's not an issue.

I have two monitors on the NVIDIA card and one on the AMD, I play games on the NVIDIA card and use the AMD card's hardware encoder to record the output of the NVIDIA card with OBS. Works fine for me anyway.

 

[imjouster]

See this is exactly the issue I keep running into haha. James is saying you can do it with a MST just fine, but then Glenwing hooked it up via daisychain and couldn't get it to work. Do you maybe have to have everything hooked up via displayport to do it maybe? I'd really love to see a working example of someone setting up 6 or more monitors on a single nvidia card, because I've heard from some places that it's possible... but I've never actually seen it work.

 

[James Mason]

more GPUs always can be the solution.
May have to contact Nvidia and ask them specifically if it's possible.
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