Cheap system with 6-display outputs

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FoxMcCloud

Newcomer
I'm looking to build a cheap system with nvidia graphics cards and the ability to drive 6 displays - what would be the best choice? I don't need much cpu, memory or GPU power, as I'll use it to display a very simple opengl application - if I can run the 6 displays as one desktop it'd be best. Recommendations?
 
One would assume an eyefinity setup would be the best solution since it's 1 display card, so the question needs to be asked, do you specifically require an Nvidia GPU?
 
perhaps his program uses a nv only opengl extension
or he is using an o/s with poor ati driver support
or he's devolping an app for a company that only has nv hardware
 
basically you have to find a cheap motherboard with many PCI express slots ; here is an Asrock one, with an AMD IGP you won't use, see if you can find the same one.
http://www.ldlc.com/fiche/PB00090456.html

geforce 8400GS have gotten very cheap so looking for a geforce 6200 isn't very useful anymore. here's an exemple with passive cooling and VGA + hdmi + DVI (so it should be able to run two DVI displays)
http://www.ldlc.com/fiche/PB00095789.html

/edit : yay davros, you meant using a 6200 PCI. you can find a 8400GS on the PCIe 1x bus as well, from Club3D. it's cheap :), a good change from PCI versions at double the price.

they are slow by moderns standard but very much capable of displaying quake 3 at high resolutions.
then if you need it real cheap, a sempron 140 will do (it's like a single core core2duo), a stick of 1GB and a decent 350W to 400W PSU.
 
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I didn't think too much of the software support. if it's a custom application that can work out the multiple displays, as flight simulators do, then fine.

what nvidia says about its upcoming "eyefinity support" sucks : three displays, SLI motherboard, GTX 260 as the minimum supported board (why not 8400GS or geforce 210?)
http://www.nvidia.com/object/3DV_System_Requirements_Surround_Technology.html


please tell us the OS (linux or windows).
on windows you'll easily have the "extended desktop" feature, that can be augmented with nvidia's nview, or ultramon ; but 3D applications won't run on all displays out of the box.

on linux you can end up "hacking" up a solution but that will take some work (I wonder if you'll get the multiple 2D displays working out of the box already..)
http://www.plastk.net/
 
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The reason I need nvidia GPUs is because I want to run a visualization app that uses nv specific gl extensions. The system will be running win32. The viz application isn't heavyweight, but I'd love to be able to have one big desktop across all displays - is that feasible?
 
FoxMcCloud said:
The reason I need nvidia GPUs is because I want to run a visualization app that uses nv specific gl extensions. The system will be running win32. The viz application isn't heavyweight, but I'd love to be able to have one big desktop across all displays - is that feasible?
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, not with NV hardware at this time. From the available information, eventually when NV does provide their 6-screen-capable solution, it won't be on anything that could be considered "cheap". See also Blazkowicz's link above.
 
fox, if you tell us the extension there are some really clever people on here who could probably figure out how to do the same on ati hardware

ps: 3 monitors in 3d is certainly doable with triplehead2go
 
FoxMcCloud said:
I want to run a visualization app that uses nv specific gl extensions. The system will be running win32.
Click to expand...
Err, this probably isn't very helpful, but if you're on win32, why isn't your software using D3D instead? :) It's manufacturer-agnostic after all, which would be advantageous to you in this case...
 
maybe can you do software opengl rendering, using Mesa or Chromium. I don't know if that's multithreaded and how well a cheap quad core would work.

another guess would be to run it under linux with wine.
then if that works, have that hack I linked to running. (using chromium again, and probably multiple X11 servers)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromium_(computer_graphics)
either are probably non trivial. maybe you should ask chromium developers, or those who made that quake 3 wall to see if it's easy enough (or doable with a unmodified app)
 
Regarding porting to ATI or using D3D: I'm sure it's possible, but I don't have the time to invest in it. I'm not planning to consider SW rendering at this point. Since the 6-monitor 1-display option is out, would it be possible to drive 6 displays using 2 nvidia GPUs on x64 linux where each GPU has 3 outputs?
 
Nvidia doesn't have a card with more than 2 display capabilities. if you see a card with 3 outputs, it will be a shared HDMI/DVI or something.
 
OK, so I'll need 3 cards with 2 display outputs each then? If so, will I be able to use 3 cards to drive 6 monitors on amd64 linux?
 
I dont think any nv cards have 3 outputs or 3 that can be used at the same time

ps: I was refering porting to ati keeping opengl if you tell us what the nv extension is there may well be a way of doing it on ati cards
 
FoxMcCloud said:
OK, so I'll need 3 cards with 2 display outputs each then? If so, will I be able to use 3 cards to drive 6 monitors on amd64 linux?
Click to expand...

You should be able to. I don't know if Linux solves the issue of a single 3D viewport spanned across all monitors though... I would assume it has at least a better chance that windows :)
 
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