DH Review: Matrox Triplehead 2GO

Zardon · Apr 12, 2006, 10:33 PM

Read the review here
___________________________

Two monitors not enough for you? Then we have a treat for you today with the release of a new product from matrox which will work with your existing ATI or Nvidia hardware and bring the joys of gaming to three screens!

James has put it through its paces:

"Those of you who remember back to the time of the Geforce 3 and Radeon 8500 may remember the Matrox Parhelia which allowed users to connect three displays while the competition were only offering dualhead. Now Matrox have come up with a clever way of utilizing a similar technology for the gaming community who use non Matrox graphics cards. That product is the Triplehead2Go and recently Matrox sent us over a sample."

bananaman · Apr 12, 2006, 10:35 PM

that's an insane piece of kit,

imagine that with 3 x 24" widescreen!

lol

Zardon · Apr 12, 2006, 10:40 PM

or 3 x 30 inch dell's !

Sandok · Apr 12, 2006, 10:47 PM

Bezels would bother me too much for me to enjoy it but HOLY CRAP can you get huge screens

Hey, would 3 projectors work?

No bezels that way

***Veridian3*** · Apr 12, 2006, 10:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sandok

Bezels would bother me too much for me to enjoy it but HOLY CRAP can you get huge screens

Hey, would 3 projectors work?

No bezels that way

interesting idea...

bananaman · Apr 12, 2006, 11:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zardon

or 3 x 30 inch dell's !

Judas · Apr 13, 2006, 02:57 AM

now if they could make a DVI variation..

And yes.... i've already tried 3 30inch lcds

.. (course only for about 2 hours

)

This is EXACTLY what i'm trying to do with a crossfire setup, crossfire running on the center monitor and the other 2 ran running on each card seperately..

to bad CCC ignores other adapters.. (even with crossfire disabled)

in any case.. with work i've gotten the following to somewhat work..

This is actually 3840x1024 at work across a crossfire setup.. but due to the CCC i can't get the third monitor to produce full 3D Acceleration....

I'm still tweaking things.. but it's STELLER.. and i really wish ATI would fix the CCC cause it has super potential!

Also look here, questions and whatnot all related to the Tri monitor problems on ATI i asked at least a week ago..

http://www.hardwareheaven.com/windows-xp-radeon-display-drivers/103061-catalyst-maker-can-i.html

pr0digal jenius · Apr 13, 2006, 05:08 AM

why bother with it if the 3rd monitor isn't fully accellerated...that'd be like "peripheral tearing"

Nifty idea to be sure, but I'm not seeing it being anything more then a niche/cult item [flight simmers will eat it up]

Judas · Apr 13, 2006, 04:43 PM

that's the thing..... ATI needs to fix that issue..... works perfectly on nvidia hardware so wtf..

Until your try it.. and with the prices of monitor being WAY damn low on CRTs (alot of people still have them and use them and want them).... hell you could probably get 3 identical CRTs for 100-200 bucks...17 inchers to...

playing across 3 monitors... not flight sims... but racing games... first person shooters, RPG.. MMORPGs... arcade..... whatever..... nearly ever game works quite well and look amazing and give one hell of a feeling of being in the game with a full 3 monitors.... like playing a completely different game.

Zardon · Apr 13, 2006, 04:51 PM

judas that is a stock photo with images placed on the screen via photoshop, are you saying thats your setup??

Chaos · Apr 13, 2006, 06:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bananaman

that's an insane piece of kit,

imagine that with 3 x 24" widescreen!

lol

you must have read my mind

pr0digal jenius · Apr 13, 2006, 07:17 PM

Somehow I doubt this little thing would like 3 widescreens at all, actually....and all 21+ Inch LCDs I know of are WS, so looks like 20.1[and a few 21.3] inch will be the tops for the time being

Judas · Apr 13, 2006, 10:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zardon

judas that is a stock photo with images placed on the screen via photoshop, are you saying thats your setup??

that isn't a picture of my current system... but that is an image of pretty much exactly what i'm running, those exact monitors.. in that exact orientation, and those images placed on those screens is exactly what i'm seeing (i've the 3840x1024 screenies)

it's steller in real life... just images of what it would look like doesn't do it justice imo.

Zardon · Apr 13, 2006, 11:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Judas

t's steller in real life... just images of what it would look like doesn't do it justice imo.

take a picture, id like to see it.

Judas · Apr 14, 2006, 06:22 PM

if i had a camera...

pr0digal jenius · Apr 15, 2006, 05:42 AM

camera phone?

Also...what does a 3.75 aspect ratio do to FOV? Wouldn't that fisheye like mad and make you seasick [didn't HL2 have the problem with FOV back at launch?]

Dark Lord · Apr 15, 2006, 05:55 AM

every single full blow picture ive seen of setups like these, they are all fish eyed. would drive me absolutly insane.

hell, just look at the HL2 picture in the review. you can clearly, and easily see that it has a fish eye view going on with it.

Zardon · Apr 15, 2006, 09:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dark Lord

every single full blow picture ive seen of setups like these, they are all fish eyed. would drive me absolutly insane.

hell, just look at the HL2 picture in the review. you can clearly, and easily see that it has a fish eye view going on with it.

it was mentioned. however unless the resolution was something like 3000x in width + this was obviously going to happen. Although I havent seen it in the flesh myself this will work on the theory of peripheral vision and the fact it wont be that noticeable as you will be looking directly ahead. it is meant to expand the overall view radius you arent meant to focus on the right or left screen.

Judas · Apr 15, 2006, 04:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zardon

it was mentioned. however unless the resolution was something like 3000x in width + this was obviously going to happen. Although I havent seen it in the flesh myself this will work on the theory of peripheral vision and the fact it wont be that noticeable as you will be looking directly ahead. it is meant to expand the overall view radius you arent meant to focus on the right or left screen.

exactly.

When in tri monitor setup.. and the FOV and hud scales set properly.... (3840x1024), if you sit and stare on the right or left monitor.. you would go nutz. It's completely fisheyed in an FPS.

But that's not what your saposed to be looking at, no one intense into a game like a good FPS where your consentration is down the barrel of a gun through the crosshair... your not sitting there looking over both your shoulders all the time.

in any case your center monitor retains most of all of it's orginal FOV.... mostly.... your gotta adjust the FOV to suite your standards though.. i mean if someone really wants to.... let them set it to 270 fov... lol.... but i'm still fiddling with it....

pr0digal jenius · Apr 16, 2006, 06:47 AM

I still want a game where you can get the game in the middle, map on one side, and menus and chat boxes on the other

Judas · Apr 16, 2006, 07:11 PM

lineage2...

it works not perfectly setup the way you want mind you... but... it similare..

yes, i'd like to see more complicated available games (multi monitor)... it would be steller having the ability to move around various things that you'd like to see quick without constantly bring up invetory and crap covering up your main gameplay area)

btw.. zardon.. here's a quick snap..

http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/2726/s30000094xj.jpg

Sandok · Apr 16, 2006, 07:13 PM

The bezel... Honestly dude, you should buy 3 projectors and hook em up with the matrox triple head and enjoy the biggest image ever

Judas · Apr 16, 2006, 07:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sandok

The bezel... Honestly dude, you should buy 3 projectors and hook em up with the matrox triple head and enjoy the biggest image ever

did that with 2 projectors.... it's nice... neato.. but it just doesn't have much of a pazas imo.... it's a pain the ass to keep the 2 projectors exactly lvl and perfect.

And don't worry about the bezel, until you sti down and fire up a game that could actually use it, you'll never ever ever notice. Your not saposed to be looking across the screens, just focus on the center.. let your eyes capture what's being shown on the other screens without actually looking directly at them, you'll be both quite impressed (enless you can't see them).... and have quite a riot kicking ass in say ut2004 or counterstrike... non of this come up from nearly behind you or from the side.. you can peak around corners without actually having to fully go out and look.. it's handy as hell.. realistic.

Sandok · Apr 16, 2006, 07:23 PM

Hahaha well Judas, send me a check with enough money to buy a few TFTs and I'll tell ya if I agree with you

Judas · Apr 16, 2006, 07:25 PM

...... perhaps if you make a trip to saskatchewan.. you could stop by..... possibly..... no?

tell you waht sandok.. when i win over 10 mil on a lotto.. i'll send you a check for 100,000 (or perhaps provide you cash? )...

sound good?

Sandok · Apr 16, 2006, 07:36 PM

Prefect mate!

Hahahaha PM me the moment that happens

g35x · Apr 19, 2006, 03:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Judas

that's the thing..... ATI needs to fix that issue..... works perfectly on nvidia hardware so wtf..

Until your try it.. and with the prices of monitor being WAY damn low on CRTs (alot of people still have them and use them and want them).... hell you could probably get 3 identical CRTs for 100-200 bucks...17 inchers to...

playing across 3 monitors... not flight sims... but racing games... first person shooters, RPG.. MMORPGs... arcade..... whatever..... nearly ever game works quite well and look amazing and give one hell of a feeling of being in the game with a full 3 monitors.... like playing a completely different game.

but CRTs usually have big....i dont know what to call it...."borders"? the area around the screen....LCDs dont have them as bad

Judas · Apr 19, 2006, 04:24 PM

yes they do... but.... once again, you do not look at either of the 2 screens directly....

Apr 12, 2006, 10:33 PM	#1
Zardon DriverHeaven Founder Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 32,480 Rep Power: 179	DH Review: Matrox Triplehead 2GO Read the review here ___________________________ Two monitors not enough for you? Then we have a treat for you today with the release of a new product from matrox which will work with your existing ATI or Nvidia hardware and bring the joys of gaming to three screens! James has put it through its paces: "Those of you who remember back to the time of the Geforce 3 and Radeon 8500 may remember the Matrox Parhelia which allowed users to connect three displays while the competition were only offering dualhead. Now Matrox have come up with a clever way of utilizing a similar technology for the gaming community who use non Matrox graphics cards. That product is the Triplehead2Go and recently Matrox sent us over a sample."

Apr 12, 2006, 10:35 PM	#2
bananaman banana muncher Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: London Posts: 1,254 Rep Power: 64	that's an insane piece of kit, imagine that with 3 x 24" widescreen! lol __________________

Apr 15, 2006, 05:55 AM	#17
Dark Lord HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Grand Rapids, MI Posts: 5,945 Rep Power: 125 System Specs	every single full blow picture ive seen of setups like these, they are all fish eyed. would drive me absolutly insane. hell, just look at the HL2 picture in the review. you can clearly, and easily see that it has a fish eye view going on with it. __________________

Apr 12, 2006, 10:40 PM	Thread Starter #3
Zardon DriverHeaven Founder Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 32,480 Rep Power: 179	or 3 x 30 inch dell's !

Apr 12, 2006, 10:47 PM	#4
Sandok DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 9,472 Rep Power: 0	Bezels would bother me too much for me to enjoy it but HOLY CRAP can you get huge screens Hey, would 3 projectors work? No bezels that way

Apr 13, 2006, 05:08 AM	#8
pr0digal jenius Delete Me Join Date: Mar 2004 Posts: 14,648 Rep Power: 0	why bother with it if the 3rd monitor isn't fully accellerated...that'd be like "peripheral tearing" Nifty idea to be sure, but I'm not seeing it being anything more then a niche/cult item [flight simmers will eat it up]

Apr 13, 2006, 04:51 PM	Thread Starter #10
Zardon DriverHeaven Founder Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 32,480 Rep Power: 179	judas that is a stock photo with images placed on the screen via photoshop, are you saying thats your setup??

Apr 13, 2006, 07:17 PM	#12
pr0digal jenius Delete Me Join Date: Mar 2004 Posts: 14,648 Rep Power: 0	Somehow I doubt this little thing would like 3 widescreens at all, actually....and all 21+ Inch LCDs I know of are WS, so looks like 20.1[and a few 21.3] inch will be the tops for the time being

Apr 15, 2006, 05:42 AM	#16
pr0digal jenius Delete Me Join Date: Mar 2004 Posts: 14,648 Rep Power: 0	camera phone? Also...what does a 3.75 aspect ratio do to FOV? Wouldn't that fisheye like mad and make you seasick [didn't HL2 have the problem with FOV back at launch?]

Apr 16, 2006, 06:47 AM	#20
pr0digal jenius Delete Me Join Date: Mar 2004 Posts: 14,648 Rep Power: 0	I still want a game where you can get the game in the middle, map on one side, and menus and chat boxes on the other

Apr 16, 2006, 07:13 PM	#22
Sandok DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 9,472 Rep Power: 0	The bezel... Honestly dude, you should buy 3 projectors and hook em up with the matrox triple head and enjoy the biggest image ever

Apr 16, 2006, 07:23 PM	#24
Sandok DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 9,472 Rep Power: 0	Hahaha well Judas, send me a check with enough money to buy a few TFTs and I'll tell ya if I agree with you

Apr 16, 2006, 07:36 PM	#26
Sandok DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Posts: 9,472 Rep Power: 0	Prefect mate! Hahahaha PM me the moment that happens