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I have a Dell Precision 3630 desktop. It comes with 2 DisplayPorts. I need 4 monitors. Is there a way to make it support 4 monitors?

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Giacomo1968
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peterB
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    Not without a graphics card – Rohit Gupta Feb 05 '23 at 05:37
  • You need to get a PCI graphics card. They are fairly cheap if all you want is basic HDMI output; spend more if you wish. But many exist that have two HDMI ports on them. So buy one and you should be able to hook up two additional HDMI displays. – Giacomo1968 Feb 05 '23 at 05:40
  • Or you might be able to use something like [this thing](https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=21974): It splits a single DisplayPort connector into two HDMI outputs. – Giacomo1968 Feb 05 '23 at 05:50
  • PCIe - not PCI, if I may be pedantic – Journeyman Geek Feb 05 '23 at 06:24
  • @Giacomo1968 which way is better, graphics card or DisplayPort split hub? For the split hub, I also need DisplayPort female to HDMI male adaptors, like this: https://www.amazon.com/HDMI-DisplayPort-FERRISA-Cable-Display1-4/dp/B09PQQHPCX/ref=sr_1_4?keywords=displayport+female+to+hdmi+male&qid=1675632129&sr=8-4? – peterB Feb 05 '23 at 21:27
  • @peterB I don’t know which way is better since I do have a setup like this. But to me, a PCI graphics card is better since it is not splitting output of a port. Looking at the specs for the splitter, it seems like two HDMI outputs would be at 30hz per display which is harder on your eyes than 60hz. So based on that, I would go with the PCI graphics card. – Giacomo1968 Feb 05 '23 at 22:08
  • @Giacomo1968 Thank you for your help. Do I need to add the same graphic card? My Precision 3630 has a Quadro P620 card right now. do you have any recommendations? – peterB Feb 06 '23 at 01:25
  • Nope. I don’t buy whatever you wish. – Giacomo1968 Feb 06 '23 at 01:47

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You clearly have space for expansion - you use the PCIe slot to add a video card, even a cheap one and it'll get you the ports you need. I think even a single slot one should support 2 monitors and likely be better than the onboard one. Most modern systems will let you use 'both'. Its worth remembering unless set explicitly, an application will run on the card that the display is on

The other option, if supported is to see if your GPU supports MST (or multi stream transport). Some monitors will let you daisy chain, or there could be dongles that support this. The trade off is your 'maximum' resolution or refresh rate may be limited - for example if you can power one UHD/60HZ display normally - you can split that to 2 UHD/30 or (assuming your hardware supports it) - 2-4 1080p 60 displays. You can't however run 'more' than the maximum resolution/refresh rate combination your video output supports.

Journeyman Geek
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  • I'm not sure whether it would be stated in the system specifications, but the DP ports needs to be formfactor 1.2 or higher to support daisy chaining. – Arctiic Feb 05 '23 at 08:38