I'm also a Matrox user right now (G400 Max, AGP) and looking to buy a new PC. Which mainstream PCIe vidcard with Dual-Head capability (both DVI and VGA output) would you recommend if I'm looking for Matrox quality picture quality and sharp text? I'm into 2D performance: -Text/trading/surfing -Photoshop -Video editing -No gaming Any suggestions? Thanks!
The industry leader is Nvidia Quadro NVS... Matrox is 2nd. However, few of either of their cards have both VGA and DVI.
If one buys a computer direct from Dell (an XPS 410), I think they insist on providing some video card. So one option is to get the cheapest card they provide, scrap it, and replace with an NVS card. But there must be some newer non-NVS nVidia cards that have dual DVI &/or AGP output that Dell could supply instead? Should one of those be considered, or are they so unneccesarily more expensive to not be worth it. Any thoughts on the best choice for a newer nVidia dual output card? With reference to the first line above, I don't think integrated video (junk) is still an option, but if so is that easily disabled so a person wouldn't need to pay for the cheap card just to scrap it?
if you want to go budget, anyone of the dual dvi/vga combo would do. but if you are going to buy a new card, I would suggest you to get a quad head. They cost a lot more, but if you are into trading, sooner or later you will want to add more monitors. Besides, they are great with games.
As I started out with a similar question, I'll summarize what I've learned from the good folks here. I beleive the nVidia NVS 285 PCIe x16 card will do the trick. It seems the DMS-59 splitter cable is available for either two DVI or two VGA monitors. As the cable's DVI ends have the extra four holes around the 'blade pin', then with one DVI-VGA adapter I think you could run one DVI and one VGA monitor together, but if this is important you should confirm that. I'd be tempted to start with this, then add a dual PCI card if you want to run 4 monitors, then change that with a quad PCI card for 6 monitors (or a 2nd dual PCI card if you have the slot)