Advice on a dual display adapter...

[noblethrasher]

Hey Friends,

I’m seeking advice on selecting a video card for a new system I’m building. I need a dual display solution (VGA + TV). Right now, I am considering either the Matrox G450 w/ Dual Head (mainly for the Linux drivers) or the Asus V7100/TV w/ Twin View on an Abit KT7A (sans RAID) running Win 2K, 9x/ME and Red Hat 7.0

Thanks in advance for any assistance…

[mosquito]

I'm running dual display with a 3dfx Voodoo 3 3500 and a Voodoo Banshee PCI. Works very good in Win2K.

But I think the Matrox G450 w/ Dual Head is your best option.

[res07tg2]

this is probably a dumb question but why dual display???

[mosquito]

If you only play games it's useless (unless you are into flight simulators)

But when you are a developer, you can't have enough desktop space. (I have 2 times 1200 x 1600 and I still find it cramped.)

[Edited by mosquito on 03-23-2001 at 04:35 AM]

[saya_frank]

I am also cosidering to get matrox g450 dual stufff
to out put some of my short animations .
and I put the question about that card to one forum and i 've received the reply saying they r ok for 2d but not so good for a 3d is it true?

thanks

[mosquito]

yes, 3D is not on par with the other manufacturers. 2D quality is top notch on the other hand.

[noblethrasher]

Thanks for the response friends… Just a couple of questions though. Is the 3D quality on a Matrox G450 appreciably lacking? I've been using a 16MB Diamond Viper 550 for the last 3 years so is it safe to assume that I'll have at least a little better quality with the G450? It's not that big of a deal since I will mostly be doing development, but i am curious...

[res07tg2]

how exactly do u do that do u just put in to vid cards

[noblethrasher]

You can put in two video cards and Win98 or Win2k will allow multi display automatically, but cards with Dual Head or Twin View allow you to do it from one card...

[Michael]

If it's quality 2d you're mainly interested in but still want half way decent gaming go for the ATI Radeon VE. It has dual head support, 32mb's DDR memory, and is around $89 after rebate. The drivers are buggy as heck though....for some people they run fine straight out of the box, others though are sifting through the myriad of drivers available on the web and still finding glitches (granted, alot of the complaints are from tweakers who are rarely satisfied anyway....myself included). My ran fine except when I wanted to play an MPEG (total lockup). I tried many other drivers that only made things worse. Finally, after getting windows protection errors at bootup I returned the Radeon. If ATI gets their driver issues worked out then I'll buy another. For now I use 2 ATI expert 98's and an old Virge S3 to run my 3 monitors. The ATI 2d is extraordinary. Very crisp and clear. BTW, the Radeons really need a rather fast puter to perform as intended. My K6-3 @500 on a SS7 MB might be the problem more than the drivers. I like ATI, but they really need to work on driver support, this is one area that they are notoriously lagging in. My Experts work great though and my games (the few I have) run pretty good for my purposes.

[Michael]

BTW, the Radeon totally kicked the G-450's booty in 3d performance. Check out the reviews on the web (do a search....they're quite a few articles on the new dual head cards and how they compare to the Matrox). Be aware though that the Radeon VE is a watered down Radeon. It has many fewer hardware features than it's big brother. It's NOT a high performance gaming card, but will suit those who want dual heads, excellent 2d, and acceptable frame rates-- but not blazingly so.

[mosquito]

I found a review on Anandtech.
http://www2.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1423

[noblethrasher]

Thanks for the article mosquito, it was quite informative. I already went ahead with the Matrox G450 but the article did help to reinforce my confidence in that decision.

[saya_frank]

well it is a intresting article, i am looking for a 3d perfomance for my cad and 3d applications,what about nvidia quadro 2 mxr (elsa synergy 3 )twin view thing ? r they ok because they r quite expensive and according to their web site they r made for those applications.Could anybody give me any suggestion?

thanks

[mosquito]

That looks like a VERY nice board. Here's the link http://www.elsa.com/international/eu...n/synergy3.htm

[saya_frank]

yes it might be very nice and quite tempting too.
but the thing is price will cost me a fortune.
Is it possible to get a synergy 2 pci one(because i've already got the nvidia agp )and combine to use as dual
display ?Is it only work under w2k?

thanks

[mosquito]

The dual display will work under win98 and Win2K. But if you are in graphic stuff I recommend Win2K over 98 anyway. The memory management is much better in WinK.