![]() ![]() One other point to consider, which is often overlooked is component failures. All of this means that you are likely going to need to use a number of adapters to connect up to your screens, adapters which add to the cost and are points of failure. You often find that these higher end gaming graphics cards have a real mix of monitor outputs on them, 1 x DVI, 1 x HDMI and 2 x Mini DisplayPort connectors is not untypical. More cooling fans means higher noise levels. Higher power draw equals more heat generated which in turn means that extra cooling has to be installed on the graphics card to control temperatures. They tend to be physically bigger cards which can affect case airflow and can also cause issues if you are trying to fit 2 or more of them into a system build.ĭue to the fact that they are optimised to play the latest 3D games, which demands a lot of processing power, they have powerful chips on them which draw a lot of amps from the system power supply which usually means an increase in power supply size is required. These gaming cards have a lot more power than the traditional quad monitor graphics cards but they also have some drawbacks. Over the past few years some high end gaming graphics cards have been produced with can support 3 or more screens, they have been designed specifically for gaming use (imagine playing a racing car simulation across 3 screens). In some scenarios though they can allow for a much higher number of screens to be supported than you could manage with dual monitor cards. There are some newer workstation class quad / six monitor graphics cards which do offer better performance levels than traditional quad monitor cards have however they are expensive and usually need a lot of adapters to be able to support DVI or HDMI screens which adds to the cost quite a bit. you may see some ‘lag’ as the screen catches up with what you are doing. What do I mean when I say performance is worse? Well, an example could be that dragging or resizing a program from screen to screen might not be instant, i.e. In certain scenarios they are unavoidable but on the whole performance is often worse than it could be. ![]() ![]() Generally speaking, quad monitor capable graphics cards tend to be underpowered, you are asking 1 card to power four screens after all. Well, yes that would be the ‘easiest’ option, but we all know that the easy option is often not the best option don’t we? So, if we want to build a 4 monitor capable PC then the simplest thing to do would be to use a graphics card with 4 monitor outputs on it right? Selecting Graphics Cards for a Multi-Screen PC Often connecting up too many screens gives you either a black / blank screen or a cloned copy of one of the other monitors which is not what we want. It’s worth pointing out that many graphics cards may carry 3 or 4 monitor ports but that doesn't automatically mean that they can support a screen on each port at the same time. You can also purchase some gaming graphics cards which offer 4 or even 6 monitor outputs on 1 card.ĪTI were the first ones to really do this with their Eyefinity range however nVidia also now offer some higher end cards with larger numbers of monitor outputs on them. Now a days you are hard pressed to find one that doesn’t have at least two or three, usually a mix of HDMI, DVI and VGA outputs to cater for different types of monitors. Traditionally graphics cards only ever had 1 monitor output on them, supporting just one screen. How Many Monitors Do Graphics Cards Support? When building a multi-screen capable PC what is required more than anything else are monitor outputs, you can only connect as many screens as you have monitor outputs available. I completely understand John’s line of thinking and can see why he may assume this, on the face of it that does seem logical. I recently had a discussion with a potential customer (let’s call him John) about graphics cards, John believed that you needed a really powerful graphics card to be able to handle 4 or more monitors, his logic was that more monitors means more graphics processing power was required. ![]() I want to talk about graphics cards requirements for multi-screen PCs, trading computers and gaming systems. Most non-gaming quad monitor graphics cards perform poorly and are expensive, and higher end gaming graphics cards are noisy, draw more power and need a ton of adapters for no real world performance gain. The best way to achieve a stable and silent multi-screen computer which can survive a dying graphics card is to use multiple, passively cooled, dual monitor graphics cards. ![]()
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