Can you? sure, there are plenty of GPUs that would enable this.
BUT... why? 4 monitors is overkill for what you list above [upon first glance]
I run a HoW OBS setup with 2 monitors (a 27" 1440p, and a 24" 1080p). For reference, these are both DisplayPort, with the 27" having DP MST, so they keyboard, mouse and monitor are up in pipe organ/choir loft, with a single 50ft fiber DP cable connected to 27" monitor, and a 6ft DP cable daisy-chaining Monitor #2 off #1. And then a high-quality 50FT USB cable. Why have Monitors remote to PC? so OBS PC could be locked in closet for security, short USB connection from OBS PC to Presonus mixer, Tower UPS, etc
As for what is on the displays
#1
- OBS
- Chrome Incognito session to act as Digital Usher to monitor stream and comments
- PowerPoint (in a vertical oriented Windowed Slide Show for Service Bulletin content),
- largely hidden behind browser livestream monitoring window which works fine as I can advance PPTx slides without making PPT the active window.. works great
- side note - Monitor 1 needed to be MORE than 1080p so that I could run PowerPoint in a Window whose content was 1080p tall (meaning window is > 1080p. 1200p or higher would work in my use case, so I don't have to re-scale PPTx content.
#2
- PTZ control software
- future - Presonus Studio One DAW so we can control livestream mic level/mute from OBS PC (vs sound closet downstairs that is NOT manned). Having both on same screen would be fine as single keyboard/mouse so only interacting with one at a time regardless
and that is plenty
Notes:
- I don't usually have a need to use OBS in Studio Mode, so we don't [minimizing the size of the OBS App window in Monitor 1, to about 1/2 monitor width]
- On the rare occasion when I've needed command line, or other (ex Task Mgr to kill/restart frozen VirtualUSB driver for NDI PTZ camera), that runs on monitor 1 and that is fine for the brief time that is required. I did run Task Mgr all the time initially, but no longer do as new PC has plenty of resources
- As I'd prefer to avoid the pitch-fork crowd, we have NO monitors in Sanctuary, cry-room, Parish Hall, etc. ;^) [depends on tradition/style. in my case, a large screen in the Sanctuary would be considered near heresy]
So... yes, lots of GPUs can drive 4 monitors.. but seriously... ask yourself if that is really necessary, and if you truly have space for that. Mabe 2 or 3 larger monitors instead? Or are you trying to make due with older/smaller monitors?
- The general (strong) recommendation is to get a nVidia Turing or Ampere GPU and use its NVENC capability to offload video encoding from the CPU. With GPU prices falling back into non-scalper prices, and RTX 4xxx series due in a few months, if price is a strong driver (as often is for HoW), then a RTX 2060 would be fine. For a few dollars more, I prefer to get something that will last longer, so RTX 3060 or better would be my recommendation... which is complete overkill for 1080p livestreaming.... but .. will this PC also be used for video editing (clips for marketing, baptism/wedding for family involved, etc? And chance in 4-5 years that > 1080p livestreaming becomes common... just thinking ahead)
- As referenced, consider DisplayPort if using MST and daisy-chaining monitors, vs HDMI impacts # of GPU output ports required
- Also, if planning for attendee watching of output, instead of using a physical output from GPU, you could use a NDI output (over Ethernet) and get flexibility on cable distance, etc
And realize all of that screen content has to be rendered, so depending on exactly what else running, will determine CPU requirement
Bad news - Latest Intel 12 gen CPUs have a CPU scheduling optimization native to Windows 11, which is not ready for Prime Time in my opinion (and consistent with Microsoft every other OS release going back 20+ years). I bought an Intel i7-10700 almost 2 years, as that was what was available. I do NOT like the poor Intel CPUs from 11th generation back a number of years [I'll skip the technical rant on Intel's lack of security, power efficiency, broken promises, etc. but things are better with 12th gen CPUs]. But with all that, the i7-10700 is plenty (with OS and OBS recording to NVMe SSD, 16GB RAM, and WIn10). Getting an Intel 12th Gen CPU most likely means getting Win11, so expect a little teething pain in that regard.
anyway.. lots of misc thoughts.
