Many larger LCD's have a higher native resolution that that though Ex: Dell 2405FPW , 1920x1200 native resolution
Good point, I didn't read through the data sheet last night. This will still be great for a large number of people though, since that is the native res of 17" and 19" flat panels, which I suspect are what most would use for multi-monitor set-ups.
is there any difference between installing 2 video cards and having 1 dualhead card? i would think that having 2 individual cards (or more) would be better because they are independent processors each in their own slot where as a dualhead would be sharing one. is this right? the problem with that setup (i use multiple cards) is that it produces A LOT of heat and seems to be affecting the stability of my PC.
I'll answer your question in two parts. First, assuming that you want to run only two monitors, a single video card with dual video outs will serve you as equally well as running dual video cards with single video outs. As things stand today, 2D capability isn't an issue, so aside from image quality, any video card should suit your 2D needs. Regarding your heat issue, that is exactly one of the reasons that this card looks great. It is passively cooled, and it's not a 3D card (not really anyways), so one would not have to worry about the cooling fan eventually failing on it, as well as the fact that it likely doesn't generate much heat. Coincidentally, it's also the very first card of any type that I've seen that has been designed for an x1 (single lane) PCI Express slot. I used to work in the PC industry (local PC shop) a few years back prior to starting college/uni, and Matrox was always primarily well known for the high quality of the 2D video for their video cards.
No problem, I couldn't find any 19" LCD that has a higher native resolution then 1280x1024 so for most folks it should be fine. Kinda strange that it wont support anything higher, I wonder if that its really a hardware limit or something they can fix via firmware update later on.
Modern video cards support much higher resolutions, at least 1600x1200, over a single DVI link. It isn't part of the standard, but as long as the TDMS tranceiver has enough bandwidth it does work. Not all Matrox cards support 1920x1200, although newer NVidia and ATI cards generally do. Click "Monitor Learn More" from this page to see a list of current cards and the resolutions they support: http://www1.us.dell.com/content/top...rs/topics/en/monitor_feature?c=us&cs=RC956904 Martin
Some do and some don't over DVI. According to the specs - the Matrox card this thread refers to only supports 1280x1024 over DVI. http://www.matrox.com/mga/workstation/3dws/products/mill_gseries/g550_pcie.cfm Matrox has the P650 which supports up to 3 monitors, and if memory serves it can handle 1600x1200 over DVI (there are probably a few other Matrox cards that can handle this). I use a couple of Nvidia-chipset NVS 280 cards that support 1600x1200 over dual DVIs, but not all NVS280 makes (like from Leadtek and I believe PNY) support the same resolutions over DVI just to confuse matters a little more! Just something to be aware of if you are purchasing a card for multi monitor setups and your LCDs have a resolution higher that 1280x1024. You basically have to read the fine print on the manufaturer's website...
Matrox g450-mms card supports upto 4 monitors with 1600x1200. Any 20 inch LCD monitor is at 1600x1200. Dell 24 inch is at 1900x1200. Since Microsoft is coming up with longhorn OS fall 2006 and by then intel 64 bit machine is common place, I would not buy any agp cards now. Buy pci card and next year any new machine with pci-xpress card slot can still take old pci card if one does not want to buy new video card for longhorn os with 64-bit machine. Matrox p-650 supports dual 1900x1200, example dell 24 inch monitor. By the way dell 2405fp is on sale for 959 dollars. Hoping, by 2006 the price may come down to 600 dollars or less. Imagine in fall 2006, cool 64 bit machine with longhorn os and dell 24 inch monitors. Ok, now, how does one go by making money trading. That's the hard part. Thanks.
Yeah, actually I said the P650 - 3 displays, thats the P750. The p650 is 2 displays, but both can support high res DVI. http://www.matrox.com/mga/corp/enterprise/products/pseries.cfm The quad 450MMS however is still limited to 1280x1024 over DVI according to this... http://www.matrox.com/mga/corp/financial/products/g450mms.cfm higher resolutions only available over standard Analog VGA - or so it seems...