Matrox Soups Up TripleHead2Go Digital Edition: Up to 3x1680x1050!
Matrox Soups Up TripleHead2Go Digital Edition: Up to 3x1680x1050!
Posted 08/07/2008 at 7:35pm
| by Mark Edward Soper
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Matrox's TripleHead2Go Digital Edition, which enables you to drive up to three digital monitors from a single DVI port, has just received a significant upgrade.
We last encountered TripleHead2Go Digital Edition in our January 2008 review of the Hypersonic Sonic Boom OCX flight simulator PC. Hypersonic used it to drive three 1280x1024 digital monitors for a 3840x1024 panoramic view of the wild blue virtual yonder.
So, what's new with TripleHead2Go Digital Edition? Now, you can run up to three widescreen displays at 1680x1050 or 1440x900 resolutions. 3x1680x150 gives you an eye-popping 5040x1050 desktop, while 3x1440x900 provides a slightly less stunning 4320x900 desktop (and, it also supports WXGA's 1366x768 resolution).
And, the best news is that you don't need to buy a new version of the external box: if your graphics card has an ATI or NVIDIA DirectX 10 GPU with the latest graphics driver and a dual-link DVI connector running on Windows XP or Vista, all you need to do is:
- Upgrade your TripleHead2Go Digital Edition's firmware to version 6.52 or later
- Install the GXM software suite 2.03.02 or later
- Choose your monitors' resolution from the display.
If you're not sure you're ready for the upgrade, the upgrade page also offers a link to the GXM System Compatibility Tool.
Unlike Matrox's graphics cards, which aren't designed for gaming, TripleHead2Go works with your existing graphics card to provide a wider desktop for gaming or other tasks. If you're already using one, or think you'd like to give one a try, tell us what you think.
Update 8-08-08: A hat tip to reader spaced_out_monkey, a user of TripleHead2Go, for pointing us to the Matrox Surround Graphics website. It offers a list of over 250 games that work with TripleHead2Go, downloads, wallpapers, tech tips, and more.
Product image courtesy Matrox Graphics
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AndyYankee17
August 07, 2008 at 7:58pm
those always seemed cool to me, but how many games support those resolutions?
spaced_out_monkey
August 07, 2008 at 9:11pm
The TripleHead2Go supports over 250
games and also comes with software to optimize games for the wide
resolutions. They have supported games listed A-Z with screen shots
of some on there website:
http://www.matrox.com/graphics/surroundgaming/en/games/I have one and it has made many of my games even more enjoyable to
play. TripleHead2Go and surround sound is the way to go for gaming
immersion. TripleHead2Go F.T.W.
my rig: AMD Athlon 64 4400x2 (939), Asus A8R32-MVP, 2Gb ddr pc 3200
corsair, 4 x 80Gb western digital hdd (raid 0), 2 x hd 2900GT
(crossfire), Matrox TripleHeadToGo (digital edition), 3 samsung 731b LCDs, Creative sound blaster Audigy 2, Logitech 5.1
Marcus_Soperus
August 08, 2008 at 7:10am
It's amazing how illogical a business built on binary logic can be.
AndyYankee17
August 15, 2008 at 5:25pm
yeah looked at thier site, but one question, why can't games just support multimonitors out of the box?
spaced_out_monkey
August 19, 2008 at 9:50pm
For the most part its not the games
that don't support multi-monitors but the hardware and drivers that
don't. When you play most 3d games the whole level or area is
rendered. what you can see is only limited by the resolution of the
monitor and view distance in the game. Most video cards with dual dvi
support stretch desktop Windows XP (vista not supported). This allows
you to play games across two monitors. Most video card don't have
more than two dvi outputs except for a few. The only way to get more
than two video outputs is to have multiple video cards and even then
drivers don't currently support stretch desktop across more than two
monitors, it sees the monitors as separate desktops. Thats where
Matrox came in with the TripleHead2Go. The job of the TripleHead2Go
is to “trick” the PC into thinking the three monitors are one
continuous display.P.S. - if your worried about high FPS
while driving ultra-wide resolution you can scale multiple video cads
nvidia sli or ati crossfire and use the tripleHead2Go.
my rig: AMD Athlon 64 4400x2 (939), Asus A8R32-MVP, 2Gb ddr pc 3200
corsair, 4 x 80Gb western digital hdd (raid 0), 2 x hd 2900GT
(crossfire), Matrox TripleHeadToGo (digital edition), 3 samsung 731b LCDs (2ms response), Creative sound blaster Audigy 2, logitech 5.1
Marcus_Soperus
August 20, 2008 at 9:52am
Your willingness to share your real-world experience with TripleHead2Go is much appreciated. Ever considered asking Matrox if they need a TripleHead2Go 'evangelist'? Thanks again!
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It's amazing how illogical a business built on binary logic can be.
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