I don't think for what most of us do day to day, we need one of the high performance cards which seem aimed squarely at gamers.

My old PC had a dual head Radeon 9700(128mb), which (Ithink) cost me @£120, 10 years ago.

It ran my 2 screens very ably.

It seems that some mid range cards now come with a 3 output and (I think), as long as 1 is DisplayPort' will run 3 monitors.

I have a 1GB Radeon 7570 with 2 outputs - again it seems more than upto the job of running graphically, typical software - CMC,IG,HL etc.

Both options in post 10115 seem to be about the same cost wise, either using a USB to VGA/DVI/HDMI lead and software or a run of the mill card such as this.

Hils, I know that you have been a Matrox Quad fan for years - which one do you use? as there seem to be some on ebay for a similar price to the Invidia above.

Skinny, I'm just about to install an NVidia 285 quadro twin screen card (with VGA or DVI cables) on my Win7 machine. Think I paid no more than £20 on ebay for it. I'll let you know how it goes.

I think that's the one, skinners.

My Matrox QuickDesks on my current machine says it's a Matrox G200 Multi-Monitor. The spare card I've got says MGI G2 +/QUAD-PL/TVE.

I think the TVE bit is something to do with being able to watch TV, but I've had the card for so long now that I honestly can't remember what it's meant to do.

If you do go for a Matrox quad card, be sure it includes the splitter cables. There are two outputs on the card itself which get split again in the cable.

Seymour / Hils - thanks for the info - it looks like whichever option I take, it will be less than £35.

Seymour - ls that to be a 2nd card?

On edit - Hils, does the Matrox need/have its own fan?

Skinny,
I've got Matrox g550(dual) on two computers .No fan needed.
Be sure to check the type of available expansion slot in the computer
concerned before buying.

No fan, skinners, but the cards do have several little black prickly things that my son informs me are called heat sinks or summat.

Many thanks for all the input etc.

One last Question about the G200 - do you know what the power consumption is?

I can't seem to find it easily.

No idea, skinners, but I can let you have 50p for the meter if it's a problem. :o)

Thanks Hils :-)

Just checking I don't get too near the Power supply limit.

Well, fwiw, I don't think they consume much power at all.

Does this link help? It refers to the G200A using 4 watts.

That's almost an arm full!

I guessed it would be less than 20w by the spec - lack of fan etc.

My head hurts.

Sorry, been out. Skinny, it's going to be the two main displays, replacing the motherboard graphics. My main aim was for low power demand & whilst I can't remember the consumption, it wasn't much - no fan on this either. The quad output card is the Quadro 4 NVS 400.

Reminds me of the Irishmen in the Audi Quattro joke. I'm sure you know it.

Thanks Seymour - the nVidia Quadro NVS 295 256Mb looks to be about 23w.

I'm not sure that Hils card has drivers for W8? Drivers for older/legacy Matrox products

Quite a useful site for all drivers here is the page for Hilary's card.

This is what you need Skinny:



From here:

Two graphics cards in a gaming PC

The only observation I would make, skinners, is that I hadn't realised until today that my own cards were over 10 years old (G200s were retired in 2003) and I don't know how much life they've got left.

Sure, they're quality cards, and mine have gone from machine to machine and have outlived the machines themselves. The spare card I've got only came out of its box for the first time today, and I figure I probably bought it 8 or 9 years ago, but you might not get so lucky buying a G200 nowadays. It might be more prudent to look at something a bit newer.

Re the drivers, I seem to remember I downloaded mine directly from the Matrox website.

edit: I also recall that Boyse used to extol the virtues of Parhelia and there was a thread on the go on the pay per view. Dunno if you can search/locate it?

Yes I remember Boyse and his - WHAT is PARHELIA thread.


From the wiki definition.

"Background

The Parhelia series was Matrox's attempt to return to the market after a long hiatus, their first significant effort since the G200 and G400 lines had become uncompetitive. Their other post-G400 products, G450 and G550, were cost-reduced revisions of G400 technology and were not competitive with ATI's Radeon or NVIDIA's GeForce lines with regards to 3D computer graphics."


On edit :- some familiar names from the past on Boyse's thread!

My old Matrox quad gave up the ghost when I went to W7 some time ago.It is easier to stick in a couple of duals

Windows Blue release date, news and rumors

Microsoft has revealed more details about its Windows Blue project, which promises to bring a big update to Windows 8.

The new features for Windows 8.1 look likely to hit public preview at Microsoft's Build developer conference in June - quite how that will work in practice remains to be seen, but it's likely you won't be able to plug it into an existing Windows 8 install.