Well, if you want gaming on your trader, you're doing the right thing. However, workstation cards are very much cheaper than high-powered gaming cards. And if you buy them used off of ebay, you can get *great* ones for $10+ shipping.
$10! okay, perhaps you guys can prevent me from doing something stupid. I was looking at the matrix quad (because I want four monitors) I think it was msrp for about $699. why would I buy this card instead of 2 $10 cards. obiously there must be some difference but is it enough to warrant the price. The matrox cards seem geared towards financial professionals, but all I want is an extremely fast card that works on 4 seperate screens and does't slow my quoting software. am I better to get 2 video cards like the thread author is doing, or am I better going big with the matrox quad? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Matrox Millennium is not "extremely fast", but no video card will slow your quotes. The graphics power required for trading is minimal. Quads are expensive, but you can get used Matrox quads for around $100-120 on eBay. Personally, I prefer not to use them. Good workstation card choices for an AGP board include: Matrox G450 Matrox G550 Nvidia Quadro NVS 280 Nvidia Quadro NVS 280/285 for PCIE FWIW... I use NVS 280 AGP + 2, ATI XPert128 PCI single heads to run 4, 19" LCDs.
I do not think there is any difference in display quality between two cards using dvi no matter the cost (for 2-d applications). If I am wrong, someone please correct me.
Cool, thanx for the info do you know why anyone would pay $600-$800 for a matrox? It must do something good, other than just 4 screens? As well, would you happen to know what would make my quotes faster, and perhaps stop my esignal from freezing, like raiding a bunch of 10000 rpm raptors, or switching to ddr2, etc. The IT guy setting up my new cpu is very knowledgeable about computers, but not so much about trading. Thanx.
Why would anybody pay top dollar for a Matrox quad?.... No good reason unless they ony have one PCI slot available and no other alternative. I think quads are ridiculously priced. And, if there's a problem with the card, you may lose all 4 displays. Seems to me the new Nvidia quad for PCIE x1 is only about $169. ?? (I formerly used Matrox G450, but it would not run my cool Marine Aquarium screen saver. So, I switched to Nvidia Quadro NVS 280. Both have excellent 2D display. Another benefit of the NVS 280 is that the Windows PnP library has a driver which is perfect so that I don't have to install and/or update any video drivers for my rig... that's a good thing.) It's highly probably that your troubles are software related. Such problems are almost never due to hardware.
So if you can't buy a card that's made directly made Nvidia, which 3rd party manufacturer are you supposed to buy from?
Why can't you buy a genuine Nvidia card? They're all over the place. 3rd party card makers always have some change to the hardware or driver. That's where the problem lies. Using 3rd party cards in a multi-card machine is usually trouble due to driver conflict. However if you're using only one card, 3rd party cards will be OK.
Quote from gnome: Why can't you buy a genuine Nvidia card? They're all over the place. 3rd party card makers always have some change to the hardware or driver. That's where the problem lies. Using 3rd party cards in a multi-card machine is usually trouble due to driver conflict. However if you're using only one card, 3rd party cards will be OK. Hi gnome I'm looking at assembling a quad system and am taking another look at nVidea Quadro NVS 280/285 based on your recommendations. However I am puzzled by your post. I thought NVIDIA provides graphics processors to the computer industry's leading add-in card manufacturers and PC OEMs., and only drive support from their website to the general public. I know chip mfgs like ATI, MATROX, 3DLABS, XGI make and sell their own video cards, but not nVidea. I include a link to nVideas site page where they provide a list of "vendors" like IBM, DELL, Alienware, as well as a long list of other names I have never heard of. http://www.nvidia.com/content/wheretobuy/consumer_ns.asp They appear to have one thing in common they do not sell a nVidea video card made by nVidea. They offer products which integrate/ add on the nVidea chipset! Anyhow, I should be grateful, as I am sure Toonces will, if you could point me to a retailer who actually sells a non channel partner or non 3rd party OEM mfg, made by nVidea card. I'm interested. In answer to your question Toonces, if gnome can provide a made by nVidea video card retailer (you can't buy one from nVidea) then that's the way to go. On the other hand of the channel partners that do mfg nVidea video cards it depends on the application, like ASUS is by a head the choice of gamers, but for the card gnome recommeds your choice is limited to PNY. Not everyone carries the the PNY line, but you should have no problem locating one.
re my post above my mistake the general public cannot download drivers off nVidea's site - you have to be a certified busiess partner - like Dell, or a software mfg of games, or 3d rendering , etc etc You have to go back to the card channel partner for the download. hence, the problem when trying to mix cards like a Dell add on and say a BFG card - as gnome points out they might not get on well together! Of course one card like for a quad system solves the conflicts - like MATROX. now when running 2 ATI video cards (made by ATI) naturally no conflict (at leat less chance of) . However, in quite a number of apps nVidea is the recommended grapic processor (like my 3d rendering program).