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As an update, I just tested a 12-monitor setup on my existing desktop.
One RTX 4090 internal, + 2 of the Wavlink external boxes I mentioned above.
One Wavlink on the motherboard 3.2 USB bus. The other Wavlink on a Thunderbolt4 card I installed. (Intel Maple Ridge by Gigabyte)
Each video device handles 4 x 4k, 60hz, just fine.
I've just accomplished the most basic plugging in. I don't yet have the mounts or space to use this yet. I just wanted to determine if it would work.
I don't know that I even have a reasonable amount of space for 12 monitors, but we'll see. My desk is 6' x 3', & my wife will have many words to say about it all.
Doubtful that I'll have any kind of picture to share before month end.
Actually manages with no issues in Win11 Pro. 6, 8, 10, 12 monitors......they all show up & I can move them to any location.
This PC has evolved over the past 1.5 yrs, but is the most stable PC I've ever built. I've built hundreds in my day, both personally & professionally.
ThreadRipper 3960X, 256gb RAM, various AMD RAID volumes on fast NVMe sticks, video devices listed above, + Thunderbolt 4 card. EVGA 1000w PS.
Mother board is Gigabyte AORUS WiFi v1.2, TRX40 Circuit breaker to my office has to be 20A. I doubt that all of this would run on only a 15A breaker.
Next small project will be to upgrade one trading PC in the basement to i9-14900KS.
A couple of them have i9-13900K's now. I don't know that this will amount to much performance gain, but it somehow makes me sleep better at night.
Since we're talking specs, I'll give mine for an additional data point, and some thoughts on "battlestations" in general.
For me, 6 screens is the ideal setup. They're 27", 4k@60 (except one of them which is 4k@30). My execution is centered in the lower center screen, and all screens are visible within about a 70 degree field of view. This means with minimal head turning I can see everything. For more than 6 screens I would struggle with the discomfort of physically seeing everything within a reasonable field of view, though I could certainly fill them up with stuff. I did have 8 screens several years ago at a prop firm, but most everyone had 6-8 then so it was standard.
Ryzen 9 7900X, 64GB RAM, on an ASUS board (I want to say it's an x670 but I could be wrong).
2 RTX 3060s from different manufacturers because inside the rack mount case (an ATX), width is an issue for one of the cards. I think one of them has two fans, and the other has one, and I think they have 8GB RAM each. The main issue with the system is that when using two PCIe cards as I'm doing, the PCI lanes are not fully utilized and so one or both of the cards suffer. This could be solved with a much beefier motherboard, but honestly it has not presented an issue.
CPU is cooled with a Noctua (fan). Power is delivered via a 1000 watt Corsair RM1000x (probably overkill, as a 750 might do it).
2 main SSDs, one dedicated to trading. I back up my data to the cloud once a month.
In ceiling speakers driven by a standard off the shelf receiver
The nice thing about having good GPUs is that I record every trading session with zero (effective) impact to the machine's performance (that is, recording doesn't utilize any CPU really). I use OBS, and take my main execution windows and record it in 4k@30fps. Every week I go back and create a highlight reel (Lance B's idea) of notable moments in either my execution or market activity, for cataloging and later reference. I've set it up so that I can switch virtual desktops and the like, and the recording is not bothered. I also record real time news feed audio with no interference from other audio sources (like if I want to listen to music or something, it doesn't get recorded). The recording starts and stops automatically so I never have to do anything. These are little details but they are important to me as it's just mental overhead to have to manually do those kinds of things every day.
I back up my data regularly and have a restore procedure in the event I need to recover from a crash. This includes every little application I have installed, from OBS to Autohotkey and everything in between. I'd recommend having a trading business plan, and making this part of it. A real business has procedures in the event of emergencies, and you are running a business when you trade, even if you don't do it full time.
I don't recall the cost of this setup, but I'd estimate it was around $2500, all in. This does NOT include cables, peripherals, and most importantly screens. They were about $300-350 each and I've acquired them over the years. They are LG 27" and have served me well, I think the oldest is from 2017 or 2018.
The desk itself is from two separate birch butcher blocks from Lowe's, cut and sanded and minimally finished. The sit/stand desk is an Uplift "corner" setup (three legs instead of two). The wood was probably $300-400 total, and the desk was maybe $600-700? I had it for a while but upgraded to the 3-leg version separately so I don't recall.
With everything all in, desk, screens, cables, computer, yeah I guess you're looking at about $6K or so.
So, you've read this thread and are dismayed that you only have one or two screens. Don't be. Adding more screens does not mean you'll be an amazing trader. I've made plenty of stupid trades with a lot of screens. And some of my best trades have been in a single window, with a single candle chart, just focused on that. Due to a change in my life late last year, I've kind of "started over" anyway and am trying some new things and taking it very slow. Having too many screens can lead to analysis paralysis and can distract from what's really important: cultivating a provable edge, matching that edge with market opportunity, and executing. More screens do not remove fear or allow you to relax while holding a position. All of that is work and must be done away from all your screens.
So focus on trading well. Cultivate your edge, your mind, and slowly build up your setup to line up with the way you trade, or, don't build it up at all. It's up to you. It's your setup, and the only thing that matters is how well it works for you.
Assigning monitors to video cards makes a difference
Josh, regarding the number of screens, I have found that how they are assigned to a GPU made a huge difference in reducing data lag.
I usually trade 3 instruments in NinjaTrader, and run 9 monitors in four columns (2 for NQ on the left, 3 for ES in the middle, and 3 for CL on my right, plus 1 vertical monitor to my far right for Apex account data). The columns are each dedicated to a single instrument so I can easily refer to all my charts for that instrument by glancing up and down the column. I have also found that dedicating all the charts for an instrument to one of my two GPU's has reduced data lag. I run a footprint chart for each instrument and was running into extreme data lag (3-5 minutes) during NY open or other high volume times. When I changed the monitor assignments, these lags have disappeared.
One of my GPU's is an AMD Radeon RX 7600, which is now connected to the left and central monitor columns. The right column is connected to an older and less powerful AMD Radeon RX 780. The vertical monitor (the ninth, allowing me to break the 8-monitor barrier mentioned by Josh) to my far right is connected to the motherboard video. I have found this motherboard video will not support any NinjaTrader charts, all of which have lagged, even under light volume times of day.
Your data lag likely has nothing to do with monitor setup. If you are connected to Prop sim based accounts via Rithmic, it is generally a server side issue (especially at open or during news events and double especially if you are executing an order during those times). This same behavior is minimal on a real funded account. The Rithmic sim accounts do not mimic reality during high volume times. Ninja is just the slave in this process and the order status handling and threading model are the limiting factor.
Also, you should never see 3-5 min of delay. In that case, an indicator is likely the culprit.
Aslan, thank you for your reply. However, you have introduced variables not present in this situation. The data lag was occurring on CQG data when i had an NQ chart attached to the RX 7600 and another NQ chart attached to the RX 780. After attaching all NQ charts to the RX 7600 there has been no lag with CQG or Rithmic. My theory is that since Ninja dedicates a single thread to each instrument, if there is more than one GPU processing an instrument and one of the GPU's is slower, this might cause data to lag on all charts for that instrument. Regardless, if you are experiencing lag, I recommend connecting each instrument to only one GPU.
