So I've been thinking to about finally doing a full-time switch to linux on my main rig (primarily used for gaming and content consumption) using the GPU-passthrough method to a virtual Windows installation @wendell described in a video a few months ago.
Theoretically, I've sorted it all out and I was really interested in finally doing it.
...until I realized that I am currently using 4 monitors simultaneously on my (would-then-be-passed-through-to-windows) graphics card and that I would need a graphics card that supports this number of simultaneous outputs for Linux.
Theoretically, this should be no problem, since most modern GPUs should be able to do this... My problem really is that I don't want to spend too much money on a graphics card that will only be used for non-graphic-intensive tasks.
I would prefer my switch to Linux to only cost around 60-70€ max, but I guess after doing some research I'm now just interested in what the cheapest graphics card with support for 4 monitors would be, regardless of the price.
Now, I only got three more things to add:
The graphics card should be able to drive a 4K display at 60hz, presumably through Displayport since I don't think there are any cheap cards with HDMI 2.0 support.
The graphics card should not use an active DP adapter, since this is going to raise the cost. I would only consider this if there's really no other solution.
Even if that was obvious, I'm only really considering used graphics cards, so if someone has any experience with older hardware and knows that it will work, this is probably what I'm looking for.
Thanks in advance. I'm just really curious what might be the best solution for this in your opinion.
The absolute cheapest you will ever achieve is by using a FireMV with two VHDCI to dual-DVI breakout adapters.
Problem is that the VHDCI adapters are rare, and often more expensive than the FireMVs themselves.
Wow, I didn't even know about the FireMV cards until now. Interesting idea actually, but doesn't seem to work for me since I'm unable to find a FireMV card on german eBay with two of these connectors, nevermind the aforementioned VHDCI four-port-DVI-adapter. Still, interesting.
@Cavemanthe0ne I also thought about some old Kepler-based cards including the 660, what kept me away from considering them was that I always thought Kepler-based cards wouldn't accept more than three outputs (even when they have four connectors) and also wouldn't accept DP-adapters, so I would be stuck with only 3 outputs.
(Same goes for most older Radeon cards, but some of them at least support DP-adapters to make the fourth port work.)
Maybe I'm wrong and they do support more outputs. In this case I would very much like to be wrong :D
OK, that Firepro W4100 for 130€ actually seemed to be the cheapest option (until @Cavemanthe0ne's last post ), given that a used R9 290 was the cheapest card with the confirmed ability to run 4 monitors simultaneously at least to my knowledge until now. Still, 130€ is pretty high for what I'm going to use it for :/
I've found some GPRO 4200 for around 150€ new, so the same goes for them. And yes, I was already waiting for the Matrox-joke :D
Fortunately if @Cavemanthe0ne is right (which I guess NVIDIAs website confirms), then this solved. Wow, really anticlimactic solution. I always thought the 660 wasn't able to do this. In this case, I guess nothing can beat the 660 when it comes to prices for used ones. I'm going to contact a friend of mine with a GTX 660 and test if it will work. Wow. If this works, this would have been an obvious solution if I'd have known it from the beginning. Well, at least I learned many things today :D
Thank you all.
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