Graphics card for 3 monitors

T

thedarklord

Member
Hi
Can anyone suggest a graphics card please, that supports 3 monitors? Not interested in gaming, it's for a development box so messing around with websites, databases, stuff like that so shouldn't need anything crazy from a performance perspective.
Keen to avoid VGA (monitors don't support it), but can work with DP, DVI, HDMI.
Keen for peace & quiet as well, so low decibels would be nice as well!
 
S

Steveyg

MOST VALUED CONTRIBUTOR
Pretty much any modern GPU supports 4 monitors, if you let us know what your budget is and what you'll be using your machine for I'm sure we can help recommend something

Or if it's just a GPU upgrade you're looking at you can let us know your specs and we can offer suggestions or help you choose
 
Aza

Aza

Rising Star
thedarklord said:
Hi
Can anyone suggest a graphics card please, that supports 3 monitors? Not interested in gaming, it's for a development box so messing around with websites, databases, stuff like that so shouldn't need anything crazy from a performance perspective.
Keen to avoid VGA (monitors don't support it), but can work with DP, DVI, HDMI.
Keen for peace & quiet as well, so low decibels would be nice as well!
Click to expand...
If you can post your current PCS spec from your orders page, along with your uses, it will make suggestions much easier.
But also worth noting that this forum is for PCS customers and potential customers, so if yours isnt a PCS machine, i'd recommend Toms Hardware as you'll need to use an open forum and they are very good.
 
M

Mnemonic

Bronze Level Poster
thedarklord said:
Hi
Can anyone suggest a graphics card please, that supports 3 monitors? Not interested in gaming, it's for a development box so messing around with websites, databases, stuff like that so shouldn't need anything crazy from a performance perspective.
Keen to avoid VGA (monitors don't support it), but can work with DP, DVI, HDMI.
Keen for peace & quiet as well, so low decibels would be nice as well!
Click to expand...
As mentioned above, just about any modern GPU will do the trick, although it will depend on your monitors (i.e. resolution and refresh rates). I have an AMD Radeon 5500 running three monitors: 2 x 2560x1440 and 1 x 1920x1080 (all running at 60Hz). I have been very satisfied with this card, does everything I need. I usually have IDEs up, terminals, browsers, VLC playing something etc.... I use simplescreenrecorder which has no problems recording 2560x1440 at 60Hz.

I also have a an Nvidia GTX 1070. I never use my 1070 as although it may be "faster", I have found the desktop experience quite annoying (i.e. there's "glitches", like skipped frames when dragging windows around with "Wobbly Windows" enabled, and stuttery scrolling in Firefox and Chrome). This is probably because of restrictions in regards to Nvidia proprietary code not being able to "touch" open source code. Perhaps this will change now that Nvidia is starting to open source bits 'n pieces of its driver stack.

That's the other advantage of AMD GPUs compared to Nvidia GPUs - the AMD drivers are open source. You just have to install Linux, and that's it! No need to install a separate proprietary binary package.

Code: 
$ lspci | grep ' VGA ' | cut -d" " -f 1 | xargs -i lspci -v -s {}
0b:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Navi 14 [Radeon RX 5500/5500M / Pro 5500M] (rev c5) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
        Subsystem: Sapphire Technology Limited Device e421
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 114, IOMMU group 25
        Memory at d0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
        Memory at e0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=2M]
        I/O ports at e000 [size=256]
        Memory at fce00000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=512K]
        Expansion ROM at fce80000 [disabled] [size=128K]
        Capabilities: <access denied>
        Kernel driver in use: amdgpu
        Kernel modules: amdgpu

I've been thinking about getting something more modern, like the AMD RX 6600, but to be honest, I just can't justify it - my 5500xt "just works", it's quiet, and performs well with my setup.
 
T

thedarklord

Member
Many thanks for all of the advice so far. Meant to include the spec I was looking at, looks like I forgot to press ctrl-v! I've remembered this time.
Budget is probably around £1200 (inc VAT), could perhaps go more if it's really worth it. The AMD Radeon 5500 Mnemonic mentioned looks like it could be a good option (though Sapphire looks to be out of stock everywhere, possibly discontinued) - good to hear it's quiet, that's a requirement I'm keen on!
Not talking about anything crazy with the monitors - likely 3 @ 1920x1200, 60Hz

Case
PCS 6003B BLACK CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 Eight Core Processor i7-10700 (2.9GHz) 16MB Cache
Motherboard
GIGABYTE B560 HD3 (rev. 1.0) : LGA1200, DDR4, USB 3.2, PCIe 4.0
Memory (RAM)
64GB PCS PRO DDR4 2666MHz (2 x 32GB)
Graphics Card
INTEGRATED GRAPHICS ACCELERATOR (GPU)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
256GB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (2000 MB/R, 1100 MB/W)
1st Storage Drive
2TB PCS 2.5" SSD, SATA 6 Gb (520MB/R, 470MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 550W CV SERIES™ CV-550 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
STANDARD CPU COOLER
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
 
SpyderTracks

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
JustARandomPerson said:
I am not sure you need an 8 core CPU given your uses...I have a 6 core CPU (the Ryzen 3600) and, to get 100% usage, I have to be compressing 6 mkv files whilst also having Firefox open and an audio program playing music.

I am thinking AMD here but my question mark is whether the 5600G supports 3 monitors...as far as I can tell from my research, it does, but I can't find an official AMD answer anywhere:

Case
FRACTAL DEFINE 7 BLACK QUIET MID-TOWER CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 5 5600G Six Core CPU with Radeon™ Graphics (3.9GHz-4.4GHz/19MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF GAMING B550-PLUS (DDR4, USB 3.2, 6Gb/s) - ARGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
64GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (4 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
NONE, I ALREADY HAVE A GRAPHICS CARD
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 6900MB/R, 5000MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB INTEL® 670p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3500MB/sR | 2500MB/sW)
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W RM SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
CoolerMaster Hyper 212 (120mm) Fan CPU Cooler Black Edition
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2,400Mbps/5GHz, 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Firefox™
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 4 to 7 working days
Price: £1,177.00 including VAT and Delivery
Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/vkC8RE6Xez/
Click to expand...
With an APU, the Apu itself will support whatever max resolution which will well above 3 X 1080p, but it's how many display outputs the motherboard has, I don't know of any with 3 display outputs, certainly not that PCS offer, it would be quite a specialist use case.

But yea, any basic GPU will do so long as it has 3 outputs. I'm sure there's a GT1030 out there with that. There's no need for a gaming GPU, just wasting money.
 
Scott

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
thedarklord said:
Many thanks for all of the advice so far. Meant to include the spec I was looking at, looks like I forgot to press ctrl-v! I've remembered this time.
Budget is probably around £1200 (inc VAT), could perhaps go more if it's really worth it. The AMD Radeon 5500 Mnemonic mentioned looks like it could be a good option (though Sapphire looks to be out of stock everywhere, possibly discontinued) - good to hear it's quiet, that's a requirement I'm keen on!
Not talking about anything crazy with the monitors - likely 3 @ 1920x1200, 60Hz

Case
PCS 6003B BLACK CASE
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i7 Eight Core Processor i7-10700 (2.9GHz) 16MB Cache
Motherboard
GIGABYTE B560 HD3 (rev. 1.0) : LGA1200, DDR4, USB 3.2, PCIe 4.0
Memory (RAM)
64GB PCS PRO DDR4 2666MHz (2 x 32GB)
Graphics Card
INTEGRATED GRAPHICS ACCELERATOR (GPU)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
256GB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (2000 MB/R, 1100 MB/W)
1st Storage Drive
2TB PCS 2.5" SSD, SATA 6 Gb (520MB/R, 470MB/W)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Power Supply
CORSAIR 550W CV SERIES™ CV-550 POWER SUPPLY
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
STANDARD CPU COOLER
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
Wireless Network Card
WIRELESS 802.11N 300Mbps/2.4GHz PCI-E CARD
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Click to expand...
Just to manage your expectations here. The above suggestion from @JustARandomPerson highlights a balanced build in the £1200 bracket. You aren't likely to be able to afford an i7 chip with a balanced spec all around. The spec you have posted is not very well configured or balanced. It'll work, and it will all be compatible, but there are many very below par choices that noone would ever recommend.

If you are wanting to stay at the i7 level, we can certainly work with that. It would involve a 12700k CPU though (the modern variation). If you were OK with AMD I would probably opt for the 5800X, given your uses, but I don't think £1200 would cut it unfortunately.

The 5800X3D would possibly be an even better option with the databases in mind (compression etc). Are they locally stored?

Anyway. Post back your thoughts on the above and we will see what can be done.
 
T

thedarklord

Member
Thanks for that. Forget the spec I posted I guess - sounds like it's junk! Glad I asked for some advice first before ending up with something that's sub-standard.
i7 would be nice to have, and the £1200 budget is certainly not set in stone or anything. If it needs to go higher, so be it.
That said, I'm be quite happy with AMD as well, just need some decent processing power really, and something that'll last a while. A few years ago, I had some weird issues with AMD and virtualization which put me off them a bit, but I'm sure anything in that area has long been fixed. Just means they don't come to mind straight-away for me.

Database stuff will mostly be locally stored I think - probably connect via command line to remote servers. Compression is a good point, and not something I'd considered. Still, it'll be rare for it to be a common thing to worry about I think.
.
The spec from @JustARandomPerson looks pretty nice - what's the thinking behind 2 SSDs and then the 2TB metal? Would one SSD be enough, with the metal for general storage?
 
T

thedarklord

Member
Feels like we're getting close to a final build. I like the idea of the 5800X. How's this build look? Just need to find an OK gfx card for a sensible price.

Case
CORSAIR 4000D AIRFLOW TEMPERED GLASS GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X Eight Core CPU (3.8GHz-4.7GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF X570-PLUS GAMING WIFI (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0, CrossFireX) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
64GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (4 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
NONE, I ALREADY HAVE A GRAPHICS CARD
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 7000MB/R, 5000MB/W)
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W RM SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair iCUE H100i RGB PRO XT Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Firefox™
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 4 to 7 working days
 
Scott

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
Can you include the unique link from the bottom of the spec so that we can advise :)
 
Scott

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
PS, if you want to use one of the on-board APU setups, you can use a USB hub to output to multiple displays.
 
Scott

Scott

Behold The Ford Mondeo
Moderator
I think an MST splitter would work with the below. Such as:


Case
CORSAIR 4000D AIRFLOW TEMPERED GLASS GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X Eight Core CPU (3.8GHz-4.7GHz/36MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF X570-PLUS GAMING WIFI (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0, CrossFireX) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
64GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3200MHz (4 x 16GB)
Graphics Card
NONE, I ALREADY HAVE A GRAPHICS CARD
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 6900MB/R, 5000MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB INTEL® 670p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3500MB/sR | 2500MB/sW)
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W RM SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair iCUE H115i RGB PRO XT Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Firefox™
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 4 to 7 working days
Price: £1,295.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/w09EDqAmbv/
 
T

thedarklord

Member
5800X doesn't have an APU, so I think that build would need a separate gfx card, so looking at the 5700G, I get this build. Changed the RAM to 2x32GB so I can increase later when required. This is using the MST splitter you suggested.
Anything else you'd change with this?
Case
CORSAIR 4000D AIRFLOW TEMPERED GLASS GAMING CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD Ryzen 7 5700G Eight Core CPU with Radeon™ Graphics (3.8GHz-4.6GHz/20MB CACHE/AM4)
Motherboard
ASUS® TUF X570-PLUS GAMING WIFI (USB 3.2 Gen 2, PCIe 4.0, CrossFireX) - RGB Ready!
Memory (RAM)
64GB Corsair VENGEANCE DDR4 3000MHz (2 x 32GB)
Graphics Card
NONE, I ALREADY HAVE A GRAPHICS CARD
1st M.2 SSD Drive
500GB SAMSUNG 980 PRO M.2, PCIe NVMe (up to 6900MB/R, 5000MB/W)
1st M.2 SSD Drive
1TB INTEL® 670p M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD (up to 3500MB/sR | 2500MB/sW)
1st Storage Drive
2TB SEAGATE BARRACUDA SATA-III 3.5" HDD, 6GB/s, 7200RPM, 256MB CACHE
Power Supply
CORSAIR 650W RM SERIES™ MODULAR 80 PLUS® GOLD, ULTRA QUIET
Power Cable
1 x 1.5 Metre UK Power Cable (Kettle Lead)
Processor Cooling
Corsair iCUE H115i RGB PRO XT Hydro Series High Performance CPU Cooler
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Card
10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
USB/Thunderbolt Options
MIN. 2 x USB 3.0 & 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL + MIN. 2 FRONT PORTS
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Operating System Language
United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media
NO RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Browser
Firefox™
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 4 to 7 working days
Price: £1,248.00 including VAT and Delivery

Unique URL to re-configure: https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/saved-configurations/amd-am4-gen3-pc/bAkTJ9xsPr/
 
T

thedarklord

Member
Before I click 'Buy' on this, is there anything else you'd suggest I look at changing? It looks pretty good to me, but just want to be sure I haven't changed something stupid!
Also, going to get Windows installed as well, then dual-boot Linux/Windows - don't think that'll make any difference to the spec, but thought I should mention it just in case.
 
Last edited:
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