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Multimonitor graphics shootout at TR
Posted by: JohNEE on: 11/07/2002 08:39 AM [ Print | 10 comment(s) ]
2 are better than one - that's what we believe - and that goes for displays too. The Tech Report takes a good look at the various setups and manufacturers involved from Matrox to nVidia.
I suppose it's only natural that, with PCs growing ever more powerful and capable of performing multiple tasks at once, we'd put them to use doing just that. And the more tasks you have going on at once, the more constrained you'll be by the limited desktop area provided by even a screen capable of resolutions as high as 1600x1200. The next logical step is adding a second monitor, or perhaps a third, but what's going to drive those extra monitors? You could go with an AGP card plus an additional PCI card to drive that auxiliary display, but PCI graphics cards aren't easy to find, especially if you want something with good video signal quality. Why not just run two or more displays with a single graphics card?Go read here.
« Mr. Scott, I need more power! · Multimonitor graphics shootout at TR
· Iwill P4HT »
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rmn oh my, it's huge! Posts: 6013 Joined: 2002-01-26 |
#19656 Posted on: 11/07/2002 04:15 PM
Hm... when I try to come to this thread directly from the main page I get "not authorized", but it works fine if I open the forum and then select this thread. Weird. Anyway, about the article, two complaints and one mystery: First, they didn't test any 3Dlabs cards. I'm curious about how good their multi-desktop management software currently is. Second, they didn't compare single-monitor performance with dual (or triple) monitor performance. It would be interesting to see how much the extra monitors hit performance. Fianlly, it's strange that the Radeon 9x00 doesn't support OpenGL across two monitors because the 8500 did (at least in 3DS MAX). RMN ~~~ |
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Arafel65 SMP Convert Posts: 39 Joined: 2002-04-20 |
#19657 Posted on: 11/07/2002 08:34 PM
same here :confused: |
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todder Unregistered User Posts: 2063 Joined: 2002-01-30 |
#19658 Posted on: 11/07/2002 11:05 PM
very interesting read. I would like some of the 3dlabs cards also especialy sence they are coming down in price. [COLOR="Blue"]". . . I think a general Government [is] necessary for us, and there is no form of government but what may be a blessing to the people, if well administered; and I believe, farther, that this [The Constitution] is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government, being incapable of any other. " -Benjamin Franklin [/COLOR] |
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Xplora SMP Newbie Posts: 42 Joined: 2002-10-15 |
#19659 Posted on: 11/07/2002 11:06 PM
Yeah same for me. But I got here so sneh 
3Dlabs card would have been useful, but its intended as a mainstream product comparison. You can get the singlehead stats from other reviews I'm sure. The thing that confused me what the fact that despite the nV card spanking the Matrox and the ATI solutions over and over and over again, at the end of the review, they give the crown to Matrox? Sure Matrox's feature set is superior, but I only want to stretch my desktop for dualhead, not perform complex manipulations of my second monitor constantly, so I think for simple usage they should have been a bit smarter about the recommendations. You can't have benchmarks and then completely ignore them at the end of the review. IMHO nV should have been given a big thumbs up as well as the fastest card for more basic operations, which is what most dualheaders will be concerned with IMHO. |
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rmn oh my, it's huge! Posts: 6013 Joined: 2002-01-26 |
#19660 Posted on: 11/07/2002 11:19 PM
I think the problem is the link on the main page is to "newthread" instead of "showthread". You just can't get quality news posters these days... :rolleyes: 
I really don't think you can compare benchmarks on different systems, with different driver versions, and possibly using different maps. Adding single-monitor values would have taken less than 20 minutes. And you have 3Dlabs cards under 300 $ / |
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todder Unregistered User Posts: 2063 Joined: 2002-01-30 |
#19661 Posted on: 11/07/2002 11:37 PM
I hope your joking.
The Matrox had it all. 3 displays. All games were more than playable with it. It had more features. and I think that most people with dual head dont just want to strech the desktop cus there are alot of hassels with that. On photoshop I can run 1600x1200 on all of the pictures and 1024x768 on my lcd with all of the text. I have run dual head with a Radeon VE, TI4400 and my current G550. Of course the TI4400 ran games better but I hatted the fact that I could only strech my desktop. Contrary to the review I did run independent res with my ATI and Hydrovision. but for dual display my G550 rules the roost. I even had 2 at a time until I stepped on one  [COLOR="Blue"]". . . I think a general Government [is] necessary for us, and there is no form of government but what may be a blessing to the people, if well administered; and I believe, farther, that this [The Constitution] is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government, being incapable of any other. " -Benjamin Franklin [/COLOR] |
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JohNEE <font color="#E22000"><b>News Monkey</b></font> Posts: 361 Joined: 2000-05-10 |
#19662 Posted on: 11/08/2002 12:33 AM
Apologies over the broken link - it's now fixed. J. The Toaster Dual PIII 800E, T100, Win2k, 512MB Crucial, 2940U2W + 2x 18.4 Gb 10k II's, GF2 Ultra, TBSC, Pioneer DVD-ROM, Plextor 24/10/40A, 3com NIC - in a modded Aopen HX08. |
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Xplora SMP Newbie Posts: 42 Joined: 2002-10-15 |
#19663 Posted on: 11/08/2002 05:47 AM
See I wouldn't run a phat CRT screen and an LCD at the same time, I'd go two LCDs. And I have no interest in photoshop in a serious sense (just want to be able to make righteous dual screen wallpapers hehehe). By the sounds of it, different usage should have been addressed more. Obviously we have very different ideas of what should be happening. The only time when I think features would be a problem is perhaps running Quake and having ICQ etc on the second monitor, just to watch for msgs; but I assume that the nV solution could do that, couldn't it? (me needs to read that article again :rolleyes: ) |
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proffesso Winner of the Internet Posts: 1532 Joined: 2001-06-25 |
#19664 Posted on: 11/08/2002 05:52 AM
some of the earlier wildcats, like the 4210 had wierd bugs where dropdowns on one monitor would show up on the other. i assume they have fixed those however. ive only used single mon workstations with the newer wildcats however. chasing tokyo girls |
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rmn oh my, it's huge! Posts: 6013 Joined: 2002-01-26 |
#19665 Posted on: 11/08/2002 06:07 AM
Bugs? No, no, no. when you pay that much for a graphics card, they're not called bugs, they're called "slight eccentricites", or possibly even "psico-aesthetic features". Another thing I'd like to see is support for an overlay across both screens. I know the latest Radeon drivers (for the 8500, at least) let you have an overlay on each screen, but it can't be half on one and half on the other. I noticed 3Dlabs mentions "advanced video overlay capabilities" or something like that on the VPs, but so does everyone else, so my hopes aren't too high. RMN ~~~ |