Benutzer:Ralf König/Making large screens work on low-cost graphics cards for multidisplay work

Making large screens work on low-cost graphics cards for multidisplay work

Target audience

• home enthusiasts / amateurs looking for a stable setup - Pros do typically not require cheap
• 2D graphics sufficient (charts, large Excel tables, typesetting, web browsing, illustrations, mind maps, graphical modelling)
• video playback and editing
• extended mode with independent displays (clone modes for multi-projection e.g. in conference rooms are not considered)
• only digital displays, no CRTs
• starting with one display above 1920x1200 or three smaller displays (one or two displays is usually plug-and-play)
• only digital connections between graphics card/onboard graphics and displays (exceptions are mentioned explicitely)
• both graphics cards and onboard graphics are considered
• only recent Windows considered (Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8), no Mac, no Linux (hardware sections apply, for software issues on X configuration etc. look elsewhere)

Approach

• practice oriented (collection of tested and confirmed solutions)
• with sound theoretical basis, but not only spec-ware

Of minor concern here:

• past stuff:
  • CRT monitors and VGA or BNC connections

• multimedia stuff:
  • 3D performance
  • gaming on one large screen
  • gaming on more than 1 screen (wide-screen gaming, multiscreen gaming)
  • stereo vision (stereo video cameras, video shutter glasses, playing stereo video Bluerays and stuff)
  • touch monitors and Windows 8
  • optional sound connections (via HDMI, Displayport or DVI)
  • colour depth with more than 3x8 Bit, such as 3x10Bit or 3x12 Bit
  • colour spaces apart from RGB, such as RGBA or YCC
  • cable lengths

• future stuff:
  • wireless transmission of display signals
  • Thunderbolt interfacing (on Windows I consider this as too recent stuff to truely be stable)
  • 4k displays
  • HDMI connections with more than 1920x1200 (rare exception so far due to transmitter limits as of 225 to 300 MHz)
  • monitor chaining with Displayport 1.2

What is meant by cheap?

• mainstream hardware, no special hardware
• existing or used monitors (they are very cheap today)
• few expensive adapters (only when cheap)
• existing computers and cheap hardware upgrades, when necessary and possible

Basic theory

DVI

• single link: *one* TMDS link (=3 differential pairs, =6 wires) supports transmitting data at up to 165 MHz, good for 1920x1200@60Hz
• dual link: *two* TMDS links (=2x3 differential pairs, =2x6 wires) supports transmitting data at up to 165 MHz, good for 2560x1600@60Hz

HDMI

• until 1.2, *one* TMDS link (=3 differential pairs, =6 wires) supports transmitting data at up to 165 MHz, good for 1920x1200@60Hz
• starting with 1.3 and 1.4 (optional!): *one* TMDS link (=3 differential pairs, =6 wires) supports transmitting data at up to 340 MHz, good for 2560x1600@60Hz

Displayport

• 1.1 - 4 lanes of 2.7 GHz each, good for 2560x1600@60Hz
• 1.2 HBR2 (High Bit-rate) - 4 lanes of 5.4 GHz each, good for 4kx2k@60Hz

Basic rules

• Use Displayport wherever you can afford to. Otherwise use Dual-Link-DVI.
• Pay special attention that people know what Dual-link-DVI actually means. You cannot judge, whether a DVI port is single link or dual link just by looking at it.
• Do not trust HDMI 1.3 or HDMI 1.4 and resolutions above 1920x1200. Often the actual hardware does not use the 340 MHz HDMI transmitters actually required, but transmitters with 200 to 300 MHz.
• Choose a mainboard with at least 2 PCI-Express x16 slots (long slots, no matter how they look electrically, such as 16x and 4x), simply for upgradability.
• Prefer PCIe 1x slots over PCI slots, when having the choice and not being forced by legacy PCI cards, such as sound or TV adapters.
• Running multiple old graphics cards with 2 Dual-link DVI outputs and low power consumption is often the cheapest and relatively flexible solution.
• Do not mix ATI and Nvidia cards in one system (reason: compatibility issues). Make a decision.
• Do not trust integrated graphics or cheap graphics cards to run your multi-display scenario unless someone has actually confirmed it works.
• The cheaper a graphics solution is (e.g. integrated graphics, cheap graphics cards), the more variations in actual implementations there are, e.g. in terms of display interfaces.
• Read the fine print in the specs. There are usually footnotes on restrictions on multiple display configurations.
• Adding USB 2.0 graphics adapters is a simple and often cheap solution but has issues. Use with care.
• Notebooks: Use of a docking station supplied by the OEM will sometimes give you additional graphics interfaces.
• Rely on CPU compute power. Useful GPU computing is still relatively rare with many applications in use today.
• Do some simple math on bandwidth to verify a certain solution.

Basics

Enough display controllers

Up to 2 displays recent Intel chipset graphics per card Nividia Geforce before GT 600 series (7000, 8000, 9000, GT 200, GT 400, GT 500) AMD Radeon up to Radeon 4000 series

Up to 3 displays AMD Radeon™ HD5400, HD 5500, HD 5600, HD 6400 Series per card AMD FirePro™ V4800, V5800, V5900, V7800 Intel HD 4000 (only with at least 2 Displayport connections!)

Up to 4 displays AMD Radeon™ HD 6500, HD 6600 Series per card AMD Radeon™ HD 6300M, 6400M Series AMD FirePro™ 2460 Multi-View, V7900, V8800

Nvidia Geforce GT 600 series and up

Up to 5 displays AMD Radeon™ HD 5700, HD 6700 Series per card

Up to 6 displays AMD Radeon™ HD 7700, HD 7800, HD 7900 Series per card AMD Radeon™ HD 6800, HD 6900 Series AMD Radeon™ HD 5800 Series AMD Radeon™ HD 6500M, HD 6600M, HD 6700M, HD 6800M, HD 6900M Series AMD FirePro™ V9800

Enough display interface connectors

VGA - used as backup interface for (old) projectors, no other use as of today (DVI-A) - did not actually get used

DVI-I Single Link - integrates VGA and DVI-D single link DVI-I Dual Link - integrates VGA and DVI-D dual link

DVI-D Single Link - is a digital interface with 3 internal parallel TMDS links, is standard for computer gear such as displays and graphics cards

                    (upto 1920x1200 (~2MP), 60p, 165MHz on the TMDS link)

DVI-D Dual Link - is a digital interface with 6 internal parallel TMDS links, is standard for high-resolution computer gear (upto 2560x1600 (~4MP), 60p, 165MHz on *both* TMDS links doubles available data rate)

Single-Link DVI Cable - only for single link connections up to 1920x1200 Dual-Link DVI Cable - use for any DVI connection up to 2560x1600, single link OR dual link

HDMI - is a digital interface with 3 internal parallel TMDS links, essentially DVI single-link has extensions for audio transmission (very common), ethernet transmission (rare) is standard for AV gear, such as Flat-screen TVs current support upto 1920x1200 (165 MHz on the single TMDS link)

Mini-HDMI - evt. use adapter to HDMI

HDMI cables - actually all the same, all with support upto 1920x1200 (Ethernet in HDMI in not of interest here) expensive cables are rather snake oil here

Displayport - is a serial digital interface, standard for newer high-res displays and graphics cards

Displayport 1.0 or 1.1 - 2,7 GHZ smybol rate = 2,16 GBit/s data rate per link) in total: 8,64 GBit/s

Displayport 1.2 - HBR2 (high bit rate 2 = 5,4 GHZ smybol rate = 4,32 GBit/s data rate per link) in total: 17,28 GBit/s Mini-Displayport is compatible with that. Mini-Displayport - evt. use adapter to DisplayPort

Other interfaces (to recognize, that they are not suitable): S-VHS

Enough PCI Express Slots, when using multiple cards

Be aware: all slots share the available PCI Express Pipelines! 16x or 8x and 8x

Each display output and cable capable of the monitor attached to it

Single-Link DVI, Dual-Link-DVI, Displayport, VGA cables

Graphics bandwidth arithmetics

VGA ~ 1132 MBit/s, 1024x768, 60 Hz (low Beamer resolution) ~ 1887 MBit/s, 1280x1024, 60 Hz (low Beamer resolution) ~ 6400 MBit/s, 2048x1536, 85 Hz (300 MHz RAMDAC on good graphics card, professional CRT)

DVI-D Single link (165 MHz) = HDMI 1.0–1.2 ~ 3300 MBit/s, 1920x1200, 60 Hz, (theoretically: up to 3960 MBit/s, 165 MHz * 3 * 8 Bit) ~ 3774 MBit/s, 2048×1280, 60 Hz

DVI-D dual link ~ 5900 MBit/s, 2560x1600, 60 Hz, (theoretically: up to 7920 MBit/s, 165 MHz * 6 * 8 Bit)

HDMI 1.3+ ~ 5900 MBit/s, 2560x1600, 60 Hz, (theoretically: up to 8160 MBit/s, 340 MHz * 3 * 8 Bit)

WARNING: Many 1.3 and up capable graphics cards and monitors still use transmitters/receivers with only up to 200 MHz! They are therefore still limited to single-link resolutions of 1920x1200.

DisplayPort 1.1, symbol rate 1,62 GHz: 1024x768, 60 Hz, 1x 1,296 GBit/s (1,62 GHz * 8/10) 1680×1050, 60 Hz, 2x 2,592 GBit/s 2048x1536, 60 Hz, 4x 5,184 GBit/s

DisplayPort 1.1, symbol rate 2,7 GHz: 1400×1050 or 1440×900, 60 Hz, 1x 2,16 GBit/s (2,7 GHz * 8/10) 1600×1200 or 1920×1200, 60 Hz, 2x 4,32 GBit/s 3072×1920 or 2560×1600, 60 Hz, 4x 8,64 GBit/s

DisplayPort 1.2 (August 2009), symbol rate 5,4 GHz: 1600×1200 or 1920×1200, 60 Hz, 1x 4,32 GBit/s (5,4 GHz * 8/10) 3072×1920 or 2560×1600, 60 Hz, 2x 8,64 GBit/s 3840×2400 or 4096×2560, 60 Hz, 4x 17,28 GBit/s

Displayport 1.2 - HBR2 demo with multi-stream capabilitay

2x 1080p	2x3 GBit, 
1x 2560x1600	6 GBit, 
1x internal	3 GBit: 
-------------------------
               15 GBit

For comparison Theory Practice

---

Fast Ethernet 100 MBit/s ~ 96 MBit/s Gigabit Ethernet 1.000 MBit/s ~ 950 MBit/s

USB 2.0 480 MBit/s ~ 280 MBit/s USB 3.0 5.000 MBit/s ~ 2400 MBit/s

S-ATA I (150) 1.200 MBit/s (=150 MByte/s) = eSATA 150

S-ATA II (300) 2.400 MBit/s (=300 MByte/s) = eSATA 300

S-ATA III (600) 4.800 MBit/s (=600 MByte/s)

Thunderbolt 20.000 MBit/s (2x10 GBit/s) (= Mini-DisplayPort)

PCI 1.066 MBit/s 133 MByte/s (33 MHz x 32 Bit)

AGP 1.0 1x 2.132 MBit/s 266 MByte/s (66 MHz x 32 Bit) AGP 1.0 2x 4.264 MBit/s 533 MByte/s (66 MHz x 64 Bit) AGP 2.0 4x 8.528 MBit/s 1066 MByte/s (66 MHz x 128 Bit) AGP 3.0 8x 17.056 MBit/s 2166 Mbyte/s (66 MHz x 256 Bit)

PCIe 1.0 1x 2.000 MBit/s 250 MByte/s (2.5 GT/s x 8/10) PCIe 1.0 16x 32.000 MBit/s 4 GByte/s

PCIe 2.0 1x 4.000 MBit/s 500 MByte/s (5.0 GT/s x 8/10) PCIe 2.0 16x 64.000 MBit/s 8 GByte/s

PCIe 3.0 1x ~8.000 MBit/s 1000 MByte/s (8.0 GT/s x 128/130) PCIe 3.0 16x ~128.000 MBit/s 16 GByte/s

Resolutions

---

around 2 Megapixels per screen

---

1680x1050 16:10 = old cheap monitors, usually about 22" 1600x1200 4:3 = old monitors, usually 20" 1920x1080 16:9 = Full-HD (typical resolution for all computer monitors up to 24", AV displays up to 50 or 60") 1920x1200 16:10 = rare resolution for computer monitors (work)

around 3 Megapixels per screen

---

2048x1536 4:3 - old large professional CRTs with analog VGA connection

around 4 Megapixels per screen

---

2560x1440 16:9 - usually 27" flat displays 2560x1600 16:10 - usually 30" flat displays

around 8 Megapixels per screen

---

4k (3840 x 2160) - 16:9 = 4x Full-HD 4k (4096 x 2304) - 16:9 4k (4096 x 2560) - 16:10 4k (4096 x 3072) - 4:3

Cheap interesting solutions

3x used Full-HD 1920x1080 or 1920x1200, each with single-link digital connection DVI or HDMI mainboard with 2 PCI-E 16x slots (cheap from the past), electrical reduction (4x, 8x) of minor concern 1x 8600 GT (2x dual-link DVI) 1x 8500 GT (1x dual-link DVI, VGA) 3x single-link DVI cables Nvidia drivers (one driver will take care of both Nvidia graphics cards) -> this configuration can later be upgraded to three 2560x1600 monitors

Or

3x used Full-HD 1920x180 or 1920x1200, each with single-link digital connection DVI or HDMI mainboard with 1 PCI-E 16x slots (cheap from the past) 1x Sapphire Flex HD-6450, Eyefinity with specialty by Sapphire (third monitor does not have to be connected to a Displayport) 3x single-link DVI cables 1x passive adapter from HDMI to DVI-D AMD drivers

1x 2560x1600 on integrated graphics

Nvidia 9300 or 9400 mainboard graphics -> 1x dual-link DVI Intel HD 3000 or HD 4000 on Displayport (NOT on DVI or HDMI, as they are both single link only!)

2x 30" 2560 not so cheap, but big and large areas of pixels without bezels 2560x1440 - usually 27" around 500 EUR new 2560x1600 - usually 30" around 1000 EUR new both require dual-link DVI (or Displayport)

mainboard with 1 PCI-E 16x slots (cheap from the past) 1x 8600 GT (2x dual-link DVI) 2x dual-link DVI cables

3x used 2560x1440 or 2560x1600, each with dual-link digital connection DVI mainboard with 2 PCI-E 16x slots (cheap from the past), electrical reduction (4x, 8x) of minor concern 1x 8600 GT (2x dual-link DVI) 1x 8500 GT (1x dual-link DVI, VGA) 3x dual-link DVI cables Nvidia drivers (one driver will take care of both Nvidia graphics cards)

5x single link displays 1920x1080: 2x HDMI/DVI plus 3x Displayport AMD Eyefinity 5x card

6x single link display: 2x HDMI/DVI plus 4x Displayport AMD Eyefinity 6x card bandwidth really enough for 6x 1920x1080?

Dell Multimonitor Hub MMH11 to 3840x1200 Displayport 1.1 -> 3x DVI-single-link http://i.dell.com/images/global/products/monitors/mmh11.pdf Maximum resolution • 3 monitors @ 1280 x 1024 (3840 x 1024) Connectivity • 3 DVI-D single-link connector to monitors (DVI cables not provided) • DisplayPort 1.1a compliant • Built-in 4 feet of DisplayPort/USB cable no drivers required

Zotac DisplayPort/2x HDMI Adapter (ZT-DP2HD) ab €34,57 Displayport 1.1a -> 2x HDMI, 1920x1080 each Mini Displayport 1.1a -> 2x HDMI, 1920x1080 each

http://www.zotacusa.com/zotac-displayport-to-dual-hdmi-adaptor.html no drivers required

Desktop Graphics: single card

AMD Eyefinity - cheap on one card Was a game changer for multi-screen work starting at 3 displays!

see above list 1st and 2nd via whatever output, from 3rd: only via Displayport

• cheap workarounds: an active adapter from Displayport to VGA
• active adapter from Displayport to DVI or HDMI

Sapphire flex third display can also be a DVI or VGA output

Nvidia 600 series (cheapest: 640 GT) - 2D Surround 4 Displays on one card

Multiple cards possible

PCI express 16x

PCI express 1x

Nvidia Quadro

actually not much different

• 2 dual-link works fine with 2x Dual-Link DVI
• too few outputs on one card for three screens
• solution: add multiple cards, driver will take care

• NVIDIA Quadro NVS 450 x16 for Quad DVI or Quad DP -> 4x displayport or 4x single-link-DVI

http://www3.pny.com/category_buymulti.aspx?UserID=57701067&SessionID=RH8qWyQ7XhANZVHir0yD&Category_ID=364

Desktop Graphics: Multiple cards

---

use PCI express cards for future compatibility, not PCI or AGP cards populate the long PCI Express slots long cards (for 16x PCIe) never work in 1x slots, but there are (a few) special graphics cards for x1 PCIe slots long cards (for 16x PCIe) do work (at reduced speed) in slots that are physically 16x, but electrically wired only as x4 or x8

Mobile Graphics

Laptop only usually limited: internal screen + 1 external OR 2 external (1 Single-Link-DVI, 1 VGA) 2 external (1 Single-Link-DVI, 1 HDMI) 2 external (1 Single-Link-DVI, 1 Displayport)

Intel HD4000: internal laptop screen plus 2 external screens via Displayport

Laptop plus 2 external screens

Laptop and dual-link DVI: very rare, usually only with MacBooks and laptops made for extended 2D graphics

(workstations)

even discrete graphics built-in (such as Mini-PCIe-card): rarely full potential of the chip reason: keep routing effort low for the signal connections on the board low keep pin count to the dock low

Laptop and three screens: use dock with discrete graphics card

use USB graphics adapters

Integrated Graphics

---

Integrated Graphics + Discrete Graphics

---

External Adapters

---

Passive Adapters

Active Adapters

Intelligent Adapters

Matrox DualHead2Go Matrox TripleHead2Go - from Dual-Link-DVI to 3x Single Link DVI - from Displayport to 3x Single Link DVI

USB 2.0 external graphics adapters - mainly for laptops (usually: chip by DisplayLink)

slots in docking stations

Recommended solutions for popular graphics card platforms

Intel graphics

        			1x *dual*-link display		2x *dual*-link displays		3x *single*-link displays

1x 2560x1600 2x 2560x1600 3x 1920x1200 Matrox Parhelia

Intel G915 use PCIe 1x use PCIe 1x 1x Matrox Parhelia only has PCIe 1x card card OR multiple PCI cards

Intel G945 use PCIe cards, see above use PCIe cards, see above use PCIe cards, see above Intel 3-series G31, G33 use PCIe cards, see above use PCIe cards, see above use PCIe cards, see above Intel 4-series G41, G43 use PCIe cards, see above use PCIe cards, see above use PCIe cards, see above Intel 5-series G55, H55, Q55 use PCIe cards, see above use PCIe cards, see above use PCIe cards, see above and CPU with GMA HD

all with IGP interface only up to Single-link-DVI IGP+PCIe not supported

Intel P965 Intel 6-series P67 Intel X58 use PCIe cards, see above use PCIe cards, see above use PCIe cards, see above Intel X79 (all without internal graphics)

Intel 6-series Z68, Q67, H67 and CPU with IGP

IGP can run in parallel to discrete graphics (Lucid Virtu)

Intel HD2500 only via Displayport use 2x Displayport use graphics card 2 display controllers (only notebooks with DP + dock) No dual-link DVI! 4 lanes of Displayport 1.1 via FDI IGP can run in parallel to discrete graphics (Lucid Virtu)

Intel HD3000 only via Displayport use 2x Displayport use graphics card 2 display controllers (only notebooks with DP + dock) No dual-link DVI! 4 lanes of Displayport 1.1 via FDI IGP can run in parallel to discrete graphics (Lucid Virtu)

Intel HD4000 only via Displayport use 2x Displayport use graphics card 3 display controllers (only notebooks with DP + dock) No dual-link DVI! 4 lanes of Displayport 1.1 via FDI IGP can run in parallel to discrete graphics (Lucid Virtu) will have support for 4kx2k @ 60 Hz with driver update via 2x Displayport 1.1 links to the display

future: Intel Haswell Graphics will have Displayport 1.2 will suport 4kx2k @ 60 Hz over 1 cable

Nvidia graphics

Nvidia GeForce 7000 series attach to dual-link DVI add Nvidia card with 1xDL-DVI add Nvidia card 2 display controllers

Nvidia GeForce 8000 series attach to dual-link DVI attach to dual-link DVI add Nvidia card 2 display controllers 8400 GS 1x single-link DVI 8500 GT (1x Dual-Link DVI, 1x Single-link DVI) 8600 GT (2x Dual-Link DVI)

Nvidia Geforce 9000 series attach to dual-link DVI attach to dual-link DVI add Nvidia card 2 display controllers with 1x Single-link DVI 9300 1x dual-link DVI 9400 GT 1x dual-link DVI 9600 GT (2x Dual-Link DVI) - also as passive card

Nvidia GeForce 100 series

Nvidia GeForce 200 Series attach to DL-DVI or DP add Nvidia card with 1xDL-DVI add Nvidia card 2 display controllers

Nvidia GeForce 300 Series

Nvidia GeForce 400 series (Fermi) attach to DL-DVI or DP attach to DL-DVI or DP add Nvidia card 2 display controllers

GT 430 2x dual-link DVI (for example Zotac)

Nvidia GeForce 500 series (Fermi) attach to DL-DVI or DP add Nvidia card with 1xDL-DVI add Nvidia card 2 display controllers

Nvidia GeForce 600 series (Kepler) Nvidia 600 series attach to DL-DVI or DP attach to DL-DVI and DP 4 display controllers

Nvidia GTX 500 series attach to DL-DVI or DP attach to DL-DVI and DP

Nvidia GTX 600 series attach to DL-DVI or DP attach to DL-DVI and DP

ATI/AMD graphics

ATI Radeon HD 2000 series ATI Radeon HD 3000 series ATI Radeon HD 4000 series AMD has limited support starting with 2012

                               only 1x DVI-Dual-Link	(incl. HD-4650)

ATI Radeon HD 5000 series support for Displayport 1.1, max 2560x1600 per monitor HDMI with up to 165 MHz

                               only 1x DVI-Dual-Link	(incl. HD-5450, HD-5650)

AMD Radeon HD 6000 series support for Displayport 1.2 HBR2, BUT (!!!) max 2560x1600 per monitor

HDMI 1.4a with dual-link support over a single cable 1920 x 1080 @ 120 Hz (3D mode for Full HD)

                               3840 x 1920 @ 30 Hz (4k resolution with reduced frame rate)

over HDMI 340 MHz - as equivalent for Dual-Link DVI - only very few monitors support this over Dual-Link DVI

                               only 1x DVI-Dual-Link	(incl. HD-6650)

AMD Radeon HD 7000 series support for Displayport 1.2 HBR2, max 4kx2k@60Hz per monitor

AMD Radeon HD 8000 series

Professional Graphics

AMD FireGL, ATI/AMD FirePro Nvidia Quadro, Nvidia Quadro NVS

Mobile Graphics

ATI Mobility Radeon ATI-Mobility-Radeon-X2-Serie ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-2000-Serie ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-3000-Serie ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-4000-Serie ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-5000-Serie

AMD-Radeon-HD-6000M-Serie AMD-Radeon-HD-7000M-Serie AMD-Radeon-HD-8000M-Serie

Nvidia GeForce Go - until 2006

Geforce M - starting 2006

The future

4k displays, today typically: 2x DVI-D Dual-Link interface, 2x DVI Dual-Link cables OR 2x Displayport 1.1 OR 1x Displayport 1.2 HBR2

HDMI 1.4a 340MHz -> 4kx2k @ 30 Hz (!) only future HDMI 2.0 will suport 4k @ 60 Hz via a single cable

HDMI with 4k support over a single cable

Displayport 1.2 with 4k support @ 60 Hz over a single cable this will be the most promising solution normal Displayport 1.1 cables with up to 3m length are supported

Thunderbolt/MiniDisplayport chaining supported

Graphics over USB 3.0 (chips by DisplayLink) adapters yet to be released, will work with some compression on high-resolution images to keep within 5 GBit/s limit

Links:

http://www.amd.com/us/products/technologies/amd-eyefinity-technology/how-to/Pages/set-up.aspx http://www.amd.com/us/products/technologies/amd-eyefinity-technology/how-to/Pages/faqs.aspx