Sijun Forums :: View topic

AliasMoze · Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2001 10:30 pm

Hello,
On my workstation I'm currently running a Matrox G400 Max, which gives me dual monitor support. It works great, but it isn't the swiftest card. Anyone know of a better card out there and one that supports Open GL in dual mode? Thanks.

Freddio · Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2001 11:03 pm

gf2 mx...

Rinaldo · Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2001 11:33 pm

depnds on how much you want to fork out.
The diamond fireGL3 sounds pretty good. although its more of a high end workstation card.
http://www1.bethecreator.com/html/products/firegl3.html

quaternius · Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2001 2:38 pm

You do 3D animation, right? Or mostly traditional 2D animation? If 2D animation, I thought the Matrox G450 Max (one up from G400) was one of the fastest 2D cards out there??? For OpenGL - besides the cards mentioned already - take a good look at the 3Dlabs oxygen cards, espe. the GVX210 and GVX420 dual-screens - great 2d performance as well. 3DLabs power threads and openGL drivers are second to none. They're fav's at several game companies I know. http://www.3dlabs.com/product/card/oxygen_overview.htm

You didn't specify budget - these are generally more than the nvidia-based gamer cards. No slam to the nvidia cards, I'm an owner of one and a big fan, but the 3DLabs drivers for NT4 and W2000 are substantially better than most of the competition.

Q

AliasMoze · Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2001 6:58 pm

Actually, I do 2D primarily, but I'm slowly inching into 3D. I'm running the G400 Max, which works pretty well. From the responses it's sounds like I'm running the right card for my needs.

Thanks a million for the replies

Loki · Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2001 10:32 pm

Frost: you sound like you're working for Matrox, mwa ha!

Frost · Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2001 12:04 am

OpenGL in multi-mon? What do you mean precisely? Running OpenGL apps while running DualHead, or running OpenGL apps spanning over 2 monitors? No matter the case, I doubt anyone out there does a better job of single-board multi-monitor than Matrox as they pioneered it. The g400's OpenGL support can be shaky under certain apps and it's far from being the fastest, but I do run MAX3 in dual head using OpenGL at work (on a W2K OS).

If you give me more details of what you want precisely, I'll look into it for you.

Frost · Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2001 9:10 am

Loki

Aliasmoze: Of course, another solution is to have two video cards, that's the better alternative.

Loki · Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2001 1:06 pm

Quaternius: I'm using a GForce 4XAGP and a Voodoo 3000 PCI card and it works just fine. Just make sure you do all the massive work (painting) on the AGP side and you should be fine.
That's also a thing I noticed and hated when I was working with a Matrox Dualhead: you can't blast full res on both monitors - which I kinda like. Other than that, the card was rock solid!
I'd go with two cards though.

AliasMoze · Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2001 7:16 pm

You guys are making me think...which I hate. Hmm, yes, I've thought of using two cards before. I actually don't play any kinds of games or anything on my workstation, so I think I'm just going to hang with the Matrox. Good ideas, though. I which I had to AGP slots, though.

quaternius · Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2001 12:58 am

The secondary RAMDAC on the Matrox dual-head systems does take a performace hit - usually down to 250MHz from the primary 360MHz...

But what's the performance hit from AGP to PCI with a secondary card????

Q

quaternius · Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2001 9:13 am

Thanks Loki -
Looks like I'll be moving to two cards this year!

Q

------------------
-Quaternius
http://www.geocities.com/cubic44