How big a bottle neck is the processor when using the new Multi-output cards?

[HenryV]

Hello,

 

I am putting together a some specs for our new Watchout machines that will use the new multi-output capabilities of the AMD cards to power 3+ screen of HD video from one machine. I know that Watchout is not RAM constrained and we already plan on using SSD Drives (in a RAID configuration if read speed become a problem) but I am not sure how much the processor plays into the equation.

 

The workstation I have been looking at all use Xeon processors and I am not sure how multi-threaded Watchout is. Is it better to get a Quad processor running at a higher speed or a Hex processor that is slower?

 

As far a video cards go, we were planning on using the AMD Radeon HD 6950 unless there is a good reason to move up to the FirePro series, I am not sure what we get for the extra expense using a FirePro over a Radeon at a similar level.

 

Any help would be appreciated.

 

Thanks,

 

Craig