The other day I made a post here asking for input on a video card to upgrade my aging Matrox G400. I think I am going to stick with Matrox because I like their Dual Head technology and the ability to stretch my desktop over two monitors (including the task bar).
Today, there is news of Matrox releasing a new PCI Express card dubbed the Millenium.
Pitched at content creators, the card provides a pair of 10-bit, 400MHz RAMDACs feeding twin DVI ports and dual RGB outputs. With 128MB of RAM on board, the card can drive two screens at resolutions of up to 1920 x 1440, Matrox said, or 1920 x 1220 for digital flat panels.
That is some powerful stuff there. In addition to all that horsepower, the card is going to have some great display features built-in.
The P650 PCIe 128 also features advanced image quality and video settings, including Matrox’s UltraSharp Display Output technology, independent gamma correction support for both displays and adjustable proc-amp controls for hue, saturation, contrast and brightness.
The card is expected to be released in April and sell for about $250.
Beware of the Matrox Hype! Their cards are always much better performers on paper…
And just about every mid-range and above nVidia or ATI card will also do twinhead/dualhead/whatever etc etc.
Thanks Kent.
I have been happy with the Matrox card I have been running for about 5 years and have seen good reviews of the Parhelia.
Will the nVidia/ATI/whatever cards do true dual head, where they stretch the toolbar to the second window? I have seen some cards that will support dual monitor, but the second monitor is basically a big blank area.
Actually, I think there were two G400s… the millenium, and the non-millenium. Neither is a consumer card, but the millenium is a much less powerful workstation card that uses only one GPU to run both displays, where the G400 (non-millenium) has multiple GPUs, could handle 2-4 displays, and sold for about 600-700 bucks
I think you are right JC. The article did say that this card was aimed at content creators, which I would assume is a different category than designers.
I think they were trying to push the Parhelia on gamers because it would support up to 3 monitors for “immersive gameplay”.