what is the best card for splitting video between several monitors?

[Dubatuba]

I am looking to place several monitors in a configuration to mock-up the view
through an airplane cockpit. I have an ati AIW card and thought it would do the
trick. Any suggestions?

 

[J.Clarke]

On Sun, 21 Dec 2003 16:07:22 GMT

I am looking to place several monitors in a configuration to mock-up
the view through an airplane cockpit. I have an ati AIW card and
thought it would do the trick. Any suggestions?

AIW isn't really a good choice for that kind of thing--it gives you one
TV-out and one VGA or DVI out, except the new 9600AIW, that has two VGA
outputs. Any of the current non-AIW ATI boards should give you dual
display, most of them 1 VGA and one DVI. The ATI workstation boards
(FireGL) can provide dual DVI.

Best bet if you don't don't need DirectX acceleration or high
performance 3D would be the Matrox boards--the Parhelia gives you
decent but not outstanding 3D and supports two DVI and one VGA monitor,
while the MMS 200 and 450 give you 4 VGA or DVI per board without much
in the way of 3d acceleration. The 450 supports TV displays as well as
VGA and DVI. Multiple MMS boards can be used to give you up to 10
displays with 2K or XP and up to 16 with NT.

 

[Kev]

I am looking to place several monitors in a configuration to mock-up the view
through an airplane cockpit. I have an ati AIW card and thought it would do the
trick. Any suggestions?

i think matrox has a 3 monitor card if it does not matter who makes the
card

 

[Hammer Toe]

i think matrox has a 3 monitor card if it does not matter who makes the
card

That is correct. I'm running a Matrox P750 on my main 'work' (as
opposed to 'gaming') computer driving two 19"ers at 1600x1200@32bit
color.

I also tried 3-19"ers at 3072x1024 and that works very well as well.
(Though it is a bit tough to get used to a 3072 pizel wide task bar,
and wallpaper is also a problem. One CAN 'work around' both, however).

I can't COMPARE ATI and Matrox Multi-Monitor support though since
I've never tried that with the former BUT I can say that Matrox does
Multi-Monitor VERY WELL though - good, STABLE drivers and very well
thought out, functional desktop/multi-monitor management software and
configurations,

I suggest that you check out Matrox's P750 if you need 3 monitor
support; the P650 if you don't (ie. need only two).

 

[Kev]

Matrox made it to 2004, incredible.

 

[John Schuler]

From best to worst:

1. Matrox
2. Nvicia
3. ATI