I'm in the process of upgrading my whole system. which would you recommend? higher the better i suppose but is 256mb an overkill? is 128 more than sufficient for trading? i'm planning to run 4 monitors using 2 dual dvi pci-16x cards and eventually/possibly add 2 more monitors down the road w/ an add'l pci card. i'll have about 5-6 charts on each monitor...
128 will easily handle what you want to do. There is an argument that can be made for overkill and there are those who will gladly make it. But for trading purposes 128 will be plenty.
If you are going to run windows vista aero glass then you may need more than 256,b on your graphics card.
WARNING!!!!! - - Under no circumstances should you use Vista (which was Longhorn) for at least six months. That is unless you wish to be a volunteer Microsoft beta test site. I usually tell most of my clients to give it at least a year for the initial bugs to appear and some drivers to be added. Let this OS be worked with a bit before you jump onboard.
As a matter of interest, DonCorleone, would you use a motherboard with two PCIe x16 slots and two display cards (each with 2 DVI outputs)? I wonder if fellow forum members have any experience with single display cards supporting four DVI displays, eg, NVIDIA Quadro NVS 440 (256MB RAM) http://www.leadtek.com.tw/eng/workstation_graphics/overview.asp?lineid=2&pronameid=248 This card is only PCIe x1. Does it mean that if it's used with a PCIe x16 slot as the only display card for a PC, the full benefits of x16 would not be gained and therefore it may not be a good choice? In other words, to support four digital panels, is it better to use two PCIe x16 cards instead of one PCIe x1card?
2 dual cards are cheaper than one quad card. i checked the price on this quad card and it's mid $400? i can get 2 dual for half of that. plus, as many mentioned on this board, it'll be better in case a card goes dead. at least you'll still have 2 monitors working if one goes kaputt, whereas if a quad dies you got nothing. i'm not sure how pciex1 will work in pcie16x slot. perhaps gnome can help you on this one? my question is why would you put it in a 16x slot when most mb's have a dedicated 1x slot?
PCI x16 is all about gaming. For trading, any card you can get working in any slot will be OK. A PCIE x1 card running in a x16 slot will work... and for a trading application, perhaps just as fast as a x16 card, as the graphics demands of trading are light. However if you had a x1 card in a x16 slot and ran *lots* of data through it as you might in gaming, obviously the x1 card would not work as well as the x16.
Thanks, gnome and DonCorleone. DonCorleone, which motherboard do you plan on getting? Just curious... gnome, if one gets a motherboard with two PCIe x16 slots so as to install two dual-DVI display cards to hook up four digital panels for trading use, one can ignore all this SLI configuration stuff. Correct? In other words, on a motherboard with two PCIe x16 slots supporting SLI, an SLI configuration is optional, strictly for gaming. Right? Also, gnome, would you care to recommend a motherboard with two PCIe x16 slots for non-gaming use? Thanks again!
I'm debating between: EVGA nForce4 SLI Chipset SATA RAID Dual PCI-E Mainboard w/GbLAN,USB2.0,&7.1Audio and ASUS A8N-SLI nForce4 SLI Chipset SATA RAID Dual PCIE MB w/Gb-LAN,USB2.0,IEEE-1394,&7.1Audio I think the only difference is $50, Asus being more expensive. I have an Asus mb on my current comp and have had zero prob, so I might stick w/ it despite higher sticker price. If anyone's familiar w/ these mb's, I'd appreciate your feedback/advice.