Matrox Dual Monitor Cards

[Splurge]

I need advice.

I am currently needing to invest in a new multi monitor card as since my upgrade to Windows XP, my current multi monitor card is no longer supported.

I am looking at purchasing a matrox dual monitor card, either the G450 or G550. This is my question.

The matrox card can be purchased in PCI format. Does this mean that I can use it alongside my Geforce graphics card which is fitted in the AGP slot giving me use of 3 monitors.

Also, does anyone have experience of either card and do they have any comments to add on their performance.

 

[ChartMan]

Performance is not an issue here. What is, is wether XP supports multi monitor, and more specifically, with these cards. If W2K is anything to go by, You'll be out of luck...I suggest you look at Microsoft's knowledge base....

 

[Sharky]

Hi Splurge,

I'm using a G450 powering twin ViewSonic TFT Screens on Win 2K and it works a treat. And you're right if you get the PCI version then you could use the AGP gfx card to power a 3rd monitor. Not sure about XP, but Win 2K supposedly supports something like 10 or 15 monitors, though I can't see how unless you got a PCI version of the dual head and put one in every PCI slot.

Martin have you had problems withe these cards in win2k, because I've got mine working fine.

They're good cards Splurge, Matrox do some of the best drivers which let you tweak all sorts of display properties. They're not as fast for 3d as say the geforce cards, but with a fast enough CPU they can still kick ass in Deus Ex... and that's all that matters really!

Sharky.

 

[Trader333]

The Matrox G450 card works fine with Windows XP as I use it. Also I would advise buying it from Dabs.com as this was the cheapest place I could find when I bought mine. Just as a general note Windows XP supports dual graphics cards independently of specifically buying a card to use

 

[NickW]

Hi,

To use dual monitors on XP do I have to buy a dual monitor card or can I just install another graphics card in a vacant PCI slot - I currently have a card in the AGP slot? If so does it have to even be the same make & type as my AGP card?

Cheers, Nick

 

[Henry]

Splurge, be careful - I bought a G450 expecting to do exactly the same thing as I had a GeForce AGP card already in the PC. However, after many MANY hours of trying, I have never been able to get the two cards to work together, so I ended up having to remove the GeForce and run only two monitors on the slower Matrox card.

I did find other people running similar combinations without problems, so it's possibly a BIOS issue - I have a Dell, and I've heard of at least one other Dell user with the same problem

A good resource for checking what cards work with each other : http://www.realtimesoft.com/multimon/db.asp

H.

 

[sean77]

I need a bit of advice on dual monitor set ups. Does anyone know if the Matrox G550 Dual-DVI will run one CRT monitor and one TFT with DVI? It's advertised as running two analog/ two DVI, and nowhere can I find out if it will run any combination of the two. It's very likely that it does, but I'm not buying until certain.

Thanks for any help.

 

[Henry]

Sean, do a search on that multimonitor database I posted the link to above - you can search on the card in question and you'll see loads of combinations of cards / pc's / operatings systems / monitor types etc that people are using.

H.

 

[dingers]

For any info on Matrox go to http://matrox .com and then locate the support - technical support forum.

I run a 450 card on each of 2 pcs they work OK. I tried a 550 card in its early days and returned it. Matrox did finally announce it had a problem with its 550 software but only after it seemed a large number of people complained.

 

[sean77]

Thanks a lot for replies. Decided to go one better and just buy two TFT's.