I work in a Microsoft heavy environment (Visual Studio, MSSQL, many other random resource heavy technologies). I was wondering if having a GPU that pushes to three monitors makes a huge different compared to running all those monitors off the integrated graphics in a CPU.
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I game on an APU but in your case I would throw in a dGPU, you can get a very powerful GPU for a hundred bucks today.
Mine is a toy I play with, since your livelihood is on yours I would not skimp.
Having a dGPU frees up some RAM, depending on how close you are to maxing out, it may help with your work.
I would recommend the Radeon Pro WX 3200 (or its predecessor WX3100) as it simply gives you 4 miniDP outputs.
Or (if you don’t mind 3 different outputs), the RX 550
rx550 can have hdmi/dp and 2x dp(mini or full)
Being a BI Developer using VS & SQL Server, i can plainly say if there is a performance gain with a proper video card, it’ll be negligible. The only 3d graphics you’re using would be the windows desktop render.
Granted if your BI work uses the GPU to do anything, then by all means, get one!
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If you already have an APU I don’t think it would make a meaningful difference using a descerete GPU. But, if you’re planning to build a Ryzen system for example, a dedicated GPU can allow you to get a much more powerful CPU than what an APU might have. Also I don’t think there are any motherboard has three display outputs.
This is not related to SW development. but rather using a workstation - you want a GPU with decent opengl and directX support and minimal performance.
The latest version from intel is good enough. Ivy Bridge and older is not perfect as you will see tearing with window render on workstation minimal load.
Almost any recent NV/AMD GPU will be enough as well