I run software I wrote myself. All Java. Also IB TWS and DTN IQFeed (using Wine). There is no issue whatsoever with graphics performance - including running HDTV on one of the screens. The reality is that progress in computer hardware has outstripped the needs of many users - not all users of course.
That is right. It depends from what you need - I was talking about high end graphics. One advantage of Windows 7 Direct 2D and 3D is very powerful graphic capabilities. One of it is zoom. You can zoom very fast if using latest GPU. The new zoom capabilities allow new way to use charting. Zoom in to lowest level (intraday for example). Zoom out to highest - yearly for example. It is very quick. If you have 2 displays a fast GPU makes this really useful. There are other examples too. But the topic was about 3-4 screens. Definitely to use latest development I just described with so many screens you need much more powerful system. If we are talking about really cheap modern system (but with 1 screen) right now I got a Lenovo touchscreen Netbook with 64 bit CPU, Intel GPU supported from Windows 7. The zoom I a was talking about is very fast and works in tablet mode too. But I needed to reformat the hard drive (250GB) to be right aligned. The system is ~$300. That is cheap but a different form factor. Other system I use is 1999 computer ~$100 with Windows 7 too - the cheapest possible. Works as a server and can connect 1 or more monitors. But no zoom, high end graphics, just a server. Yes, it depends from what you need.
You are the programmer you can do everything. You have a full control. But not everybody can do that or has the time. That is right. The new GPU's need the current software to be rewritten from scratch to use their capabilities. From other side there are a lot of opportunities to improve the analysis with powerful charting or other capabilities.