Multi-monitor with Nvidia GeForce and Quadro

14.04.2020

A few weeks ago, we took a closer look at the handling of multi-monitoring with integrated graphics cards. Today, however, it’s all about the dedicated graphics cards GeForce and Quadro from Nvidia and what special features they have to offer.

Nvidia GeForce: Gaming cards for professional use

The GeForce series from Nvidia is actually made for the consumer sector. It is designed to provide the ultimate gaming experience on the PC. Thanks to the seamless playback of content in 4K or virtual reality applications, it is not only suitable for gaming, but also for professional use.

For both Quadro and GeForce cards, the Nview function is included as standard. This feature helps to make the screen more efficient and is therefore ideal for all those who work on their PC with several windows and a large amount of data at the same time. On the one hand, work can be distributed across several screens, but also across virtual desktops, which can be switched between at the touch of a button.

The Nvidia CUDA architecture is also standard in both graphics card series. This is used to increase the computing power for parallel calculations, for example in the area of image and video processing. We have summarized more about CUDA in this blog article.

Our range also includes a Mini PC with GeForce graphics card. The RUGGED GTX 1050 Ti is equipped with the eponymous GPU. This has 768 CUDA cores and can control up to seven screens simultaneously.

Nvidia Quadro for workstations thanks to MOSAIC

The name Quadro stands for desktop graphics cards developed by Nvidia for use in the creative and technical sectors. In addition to powerful graphics processors and a high storage capacity, they also offer 8K display outputs, among other things. In this way, they ensure that professional workflows are accelerated (source: nvidia).

The Nvidia Quadro cards come with a special feature called MOSAIC feature. It is designed to combine the connected monitors - up to 16 are possible - into a network so that they form one large screen. A major advantage of MOSAIC is that the displays can not only be switched next to each other, but also in a kind of grid. Depending on how many multimedia interfaces the graphics card used has, grids of 2x2 screens can be realized, for example. However, the most significant advantage of the feature is another: with MOSAIC it is possible to remove a monitor during the connection without the arrangement dissolving or changing.

There are two systems with a Quadro graphics card in the spo-comm Mini-PC range. The QUADRO P1000 is equipped as standard with the eponymous P1000 and therefore 640 CUDA cores, while the NOVA Q170 can be optionally equipped with a P2000 with 1024 CUDA cores.

Nvidia Turing™ for real-time ray tracing

Nvidia presented its "revolutionary" Turing™ architecture back in 2018. Together with the GeForce RTX™ graphics platform, these GPUs offer real-time ray tracing, artificial intelligence and new shading technologies. The razor-sharp, lifelike images and special effects are perfect for gaming, but can also be used in industrial digital signage applications.

Another feature of Turing GPUs, as with GTX graphics cards, is the Nview function. We have already explained these in the first paragraph "Nvidia GeForce: Gaming cards for professional use".

Our KUMO V, which was presented in February 2020, is equipped with an Nvidia RTX 2060. This comes with 6GB of integrated DDR6 memory and 1920 CUDA cores and thus ensures ultra-high performance for graphics applications and also in the field of virtual reality - all of this on four screens simultaneously with a resolution of 4K@60 Hz, of course.

GeForce, Quadro & Turing: Duplicate screen and extend desktop

Just as with integrated graphics cards, it is also possible to duplicate the screen or extend the desktop with dedicated graphics cards. As already mentioned in our first article in this series, this can be set via the screen resolution (Windows 7) or the display settings (Windows 10). However, where onboard cards only allow a maximum of 3 displays, up to 16 are possible with the GeForce and Quadro cards.

The individual steps for connecting an additional monitor under a GeForce card can be found here. Nvidia itself also offers a website that uses a simple configurator to show all the connection options for a GeForce graphics card.

Specific features such as MOSAIC are set via the graphics card driver and the associated management tool. At Nvidia, this is called the Nvidia Control Panel. Nvidia shows how MOSAIC can be configured with a Quadro graphics card on this knowledgebase.

All spo-comm Mini-PCs