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6 monitors on a Mac Pro 4,1 > 5,1

brand

brand

Suspended
Original poster
Oct 3, 2006
4,390
456
127.0.0.1
I am considering swapping my two Dell UltraSharp U2713H monitors for six Dell UltraSharp U2414H monitors. The monitors will be in a 2 x 3 layout with the top row rotated 180º so that the ultra slim bezel will be on the inside edges.

Currently I have a 5780 video card in my Mac Pro 4,1 flashed to a 5,1. In the other PCIe slots I have a Sonnet Tempo SSD Pro with 2 x Samsung 840 Evo 1TB drives in a RAID0 and a USB 3.0 card.

What would be the best video card(s) to drive the six monitors with? I do not want to loose my boot screen.
 
if you moved up the the usb card to slot 4 and the tempo to slot 3 you could add something like the 5770 in slot 2 assuming that the 5870 is a 2 slot card in slot 1 and power both with the 6 pin splitter cable. as for 1 single card to drive 6 screens with boot screens theres not going to be much. Im not sure theres a rom for something like the 7970 lighting and asus matrix cards that support 6 displays. and i don't think the sapphire 7950 mac edition allows the 6 displays 2-dvi, 1-hdmi, and 3 with a display-port hub like the new 280x and 290x do. The 680 pc and mac edition definitely does not support 6 displays as well as 780 or titan with an efi rom. the nvidia 600-700 series cards only support 4 displays.
 
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The 7870 eyefinity 6 has 6 mDP ports and only requires 2x6 pin power, but you will not have boot screens. No card out there exists to support 6 with boot screens.
 
It doesn't have a be driven by a single video card. Additionally I am open to replacing the 5780 with two cards that would provide the necessary functionality.
 
brand said:
It doesn't have a be driven by a single video card. Additionally I am open to replacing the 5780 with two cards that would provide the necessary functionality.
Click to expand...

How are you going to power 2 decent cards, you also need to run extra power, too
 
brand said:
I don't game so the cards do not have to be super powerful. Really I just want the best cards that would power 6 monitors.
Click to expand...

You can use 2 Radeon 5770. The 5770 only need one 6+Pin (so you can use two) and every card supports 3 monitors.

BUT: With 2 GPUs you have only room for 3 PCIe cards in your Mac Pro.
 
Lucas Godfrey said:
Correction, 2.
Click to expand...

2. is wrong because the 5770 has a double high profile and a second 5770 is blocking PCIe-Slot 3

Here is a picture form the MacRumors User Spacedust
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/a/img36/149/cfxk.jpg

Next problem is that the 5870 need two 6-Pin cables.

If you need USB and PCI SSD you can use a low profile GPU, but the most low profile GPUs dont have enought monitor connectors.

i see two options: eyefinity if works or kick one PCIe card.

EDIT: about eyefinity
http://forum.netkas.org/index.php?topic=735.0
 
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jenzjen said:
The 7870 eyefinity 6 has 6 mDP ports and only requires 2x6 pin power, but you will not have boot screens. No card out there exists to support 6 with boot screens.
Click to expand...

You could combine this and a GT120 (single slot, no need for power feed) for boot screen.
 
you are right,Really I just want the best cards that would power 6 monitors.
4vl2
 
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