quad video card versus 2 dual cards

I can buy a used matrox quad video card with 32MB for the same price I can buy a two 128MB cards that support dual monitors. Assuming I have two slots available, what are the advantages/disadvantages of going with either solution. Also, I am considering running these on the low end Dell E310. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance, Jeff

 

Redundancy is a factor. Depending on the quad board design a failure could cause the loss of all four screens. With two cards the probability of losing all four monitors simultaneously goes way down.

I'm sure someone else will chime in on the performance issues, if any, for trading.


Jack

 

Loss of all 4 screens is a biggie here imo.

 

Thanks....thats what I thought as well....any thoughts on the Dell E310 with 4 monitors and 2 cards? IS it powerful enough?

Thanks,

Jeff

 

I would go with the 2 dual cards any day. You will have more memory and the cards can be swapped out to another system individually if you decide to upgrade later. Also, having the additional RAM on the duals for later is a plus. I completely agree with JackR on his comments.

 

I have to jump in here with a few questions:

What if I have a Matrox dual card in the "AGP" slot. Can I add another dual card to a spare PCI slot? Or do both cards need to be PCI?

If I want 3 monitors can I have a dual matrox AGP card and then a generic PCI card for the 3rd monitor?


Thanks.

 

Generally, yes. Just add another PCI card to the one in the AGP slot. Matrox is very accommodating as to what it will work with, however best to verify first. Personally, I would not use a 3rd-party card from ATI or Nvidia, but the "genuine" ones should be just fine. Or, you can get a Matrox PCI dualhead... you wouldn't be required to connect both ports to monitors.

I use ATI Xpert128s with my G450. Perhaps a few other users will chime in with what cards they use with their Matrox....

 

Probably, so long as you can get the cards working in the extended desktop. Trading charts don't require much graphics or CPU horsepower. However, you may be running an app that could use more power... you'll have to determine that.

 

Also make sure your drivers are compatible with your hardware and operating system.

 

I bought that exact system from Dell a few weeks ago. I upgraded it a little and it works fine. Check out this thread for what not to do with graphics cards:

http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=64137&perpage=6&pagenumber=3


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