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Question

Using two 4K UHD TV's for desktop

Mar 1, 2016 2:18PM PST

Need expert advice - I want to upgrade from two old 19" (4:3) and one 22" (wide) monitors to a pair of 32" 4K UHD TV's. My work is proprietary software plus I will have at least 9 up to 15 or so browser (Chrome) sites open at any one time. Desktop is Core i7 950 with 16G RAM & 2 1.5 TB HD with 2 Nvidia GeForce 9500 GT graphics cards & W7 Pro. I know I would need to have HDMI 2.0 from card (s?) and to TV's. A good cost-efficient card? These will be on desk with about a 2.5' viewing distance. No gaming involved but some video editing. I need the real estate so I won't be minimizing/maximizing as much as I do now plus I need it to be big enough for these old eyes to read. I would sincerely appreciate any advice.

Discussion is locked

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Answer
I didn't think the 9500 did 4K.
Mar 2, 2016 7:22AM PST

So here's the thing. To get full 4K HD play at 60 Frames a second it going to take a lot of GPU horsepower today. Figure the top end video cards for today. I'd look at one 980 Nvidia or Titan per display.

Also, you only get 30Hz over HDMI 1.4x so you have to know your HDMI ports, cards and connections.

Most folk are sticking with 1080p until the GPUs catch up and come down in price but if you are going to do this, you are looking at a few thousand buck upgrade.

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It doesn't.
Mar 2, 2016 2:40PM PST

I know those9500's I have don't get anywhere near 4k UHD. I realise the HDMI 2.0 vs. 1.4 and I know about adapters to go from DisplayPort 1.2 to HDMI 2.0. I was looking for advice on a card or cards to use. I was given two 4k UHD TV's and they have HDMI 2.0 inputes. I want to use these for my desktop for my work and I don't want it blurry as I enlarge the different windows I may have open. I do not do gaming nor are they for watching movies. Only for work but I want to be able to see the forms and data on the different pages I might be using. I want the Real Estate to spread out on. Can one DisplayPort adapted to HDMI 2.0 out handle 2 non-daisy chained monitors/TVs or would I have to get 2 cards with a DisplayPort on each?

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And....
Mar 2, 2016 2:51PM PST

Would I be overdoing it all going at 60Hz? Would HDMI 1.4 be adequate for what I want to do? It seems everywhere I look all I see is setup discussions for gaming and movies on 40"+.
TV's. Thanks.

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For me, 30Hz is not acceptable.
Mar 2, 2016 3:00PM PST

While most sets have a panel rate of 60 and up, it's not for me. 4K is still quite a load for a single GPU that you shop for a dual GPU card of the 4K class or just get two single GPU cards.

Video editing 4K is quite the load too but you have a good start for that. The i7 is dated but not enough to stop 4K play if the GPUs are current.

Are you really sure you need to do this? 4K PC technology is moving fast here.

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Thanks
Mar 2, 2016 4:57PM PST

Well, I'll do some more research. Thank you for your time.

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4K monitor
Mar 3, 2016 6:50AM PST
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They mentioned video editing.
Mar 3, 2016 9:06AM PST

So to get 60FPS that's a lot of horsepower today.

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That's a clinker
Mar 3, 2016 9:27AM PST

The op can make a choice as to how important this is and how many bucks they want to spend.