Handling 8 video outputs with 1 computer / Best practices ?

Julien Bayle's icon

Hi there,

I didn't do that before and I'd need to know if Max could handle the Matrox m9188 PCIe 16x (http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/graphics_cards/m_series/m9188pciex16/)

I'd aim at a (BIG) computer with i7 minimum, 16G RAM, probably that Matrox card inside PCIe 16x port.

But would Max would recognize this ?
I won't display the same thing on each video output, obviously.

Any help with that would be appreciated.

Tobias Rosenberger's icon

i have made excellent experiences with ati eyefinity graphiccards (Vram 3GB) with display port outputs and multiple matrox triplehead2go (DP Edition) attached to it, controlling up to 15 video outputs with one computer (via 5 matrox tripleheads)

Rob Ramirez's icon

ati or nvidia gpu with matrox triplehead or similar adapter is the recommended way to support multiple displays.

those matrox cards are not recommended.

Julien Bayle's icon

Hi Tobias and Rob, thanks a lot for your answers !

I'll aim at using multiple matrox triplehead.
Hesitating between 6 or 8 displays, I'll use 2 or 3.

THANKS again for your support :)

Julien Bayle's icon

Matrox Triplehead seems to come with display port input or DVI.

What would you use ? A PC with multiple DVI output, and one matrox triplehead on each PC's DVI port ?

Julien Bayle's icon

A friend just told me about the face Mac Pro Quadcore handles 6 display (DP)
https://www.apple.com/fr/mac-pro/specs

Would it make the job ? I mean, would jitter work fine on this and correctly use these 6 displays ?

It is COSTY but finally, a big machine + a couple of matrox triplehead are too and only one machine would simplify things a lot.

Tobias Rosenberger's icon

sure should work. by the way, the computer running this installation https://vimeo.com/101154549 on four hd-projectors was only 800 euro including everything (ati eyefinity 6 graphicscard with 6 displayport outputs and eyefinity friendly adapters from didplayport to vga)...

INTEL I7 3770
GIGABYTE Z77P-D3
KINGSTON 16GB DDR3 1600 8GB*2
kingston 60gb ssd
DATALAND HD7850 E6 6DP PROTS 2GB
ATX CASE NORMAL
500W ATX POWERSUPPLY

it runs absolutely stable since 4 weeks, i am sure there would be no performance problems with a six screen setup as well....

Wetterberg's icon

I would actually avoid the mac, and go for a "gaming pc" style setup.

The cream of the crop right now is the gtx 780 (ti or non-ti) and it should be able to handle more or less whatever you can throw at it.

http://www.geforce.com/hardware/desktop-gpus/geforce-gtx-780/specifications
it supports up to 4 displays natively, so you can easily add tripleheads to those outs.

dtr's icon

What Wetterberg said. Home-built gaming spec PC, hackintosh it if needing OSX. Big GTX card in it. I have an I7 2600k with GTX670 for this kinda stuff. I hooked up 3 tripleheads for 10 displays (3x triplehead + 1xHDMI) once for the fun of it. Maximum tripleheads I used in an actual project is 2 for 6 projectors.

dtr's icon

I use the DVI+VGA triplehead version. It's called Digital Edition if I remember correctly. This version doesn't work correctly on some Mac laptops.

Julien Bayle's icon

hi there and thanks for your answers and advices.

I'll go with a ---BIG--- PC + GTX + Matrox triplehead digital edition, probably.
You meant: I connect the matrox input to DVI output of GTX or like, right?

I'll need also video signal repeater I guess, considering distances involved (not a lot but probably more than 10m).

MrMaarten's icon

Hi Julien,

Not to be rude, but I have a TripleHead2Go Digital Edition that I have only used once for a small project, and since never used again. If you are interested, I would be glad to sell it....

best,

Maarten

Julien Bayle's icon

@MRMAARTEN, thanks for your proposition, but I'll buy new equipment for that commissioned project.

I checked GTX 780 SPECS.. omg. wow. I'm also interested by CUDA for another installation.

jeffersonwf's icon
Julien Bayle's icon

@jeffersonwf, except that this one is just a duplicator...
I need 6 different video matrices.

MrMaarten's icon

@Julien: I totally understand, good luck with your project!

dtr's icon

10m is fine with quality cable. I'm using 17m Kramer VGA cables.

Julien Bayle's icon

re-upping this one.
finally, this project won't happen but another one :)

Did someone already use Max with a Mac Mini with 2 Matrox TripleHead connected at the same time in order to have 6 screens ?

Indeed, the new Mac Mini provides 2 Thunderbolt port, https://www.apple.com/fr/mac-mini/specs ..

alain's icon

Hello,
I'm joining this topic several months later...

I think I have an issue on my GPU :
https://cycling74.com/forums/big-jit-window-4-beamers-nvidia-driver-error/
So I'm looking for a tool to replace it.

I red Tobias advise about ATI Radeon Eyefinity 6.
So, one year later, is it always a trusted tool ?

Thanks,
Alain

dtr's icon

As said up here, I 've had 2 and 3 tripleheads connected to a Nvidia GTX 670 for 6 or 9 projector outputs. You then still have outputs on the graphics card for a monitor display. Whether you get a decent frame rate depends on your computer hardware, the content you want to display/render and your Max patching skills...

alain's icon

Ok, I'll try it.
Thanks