Matrox TripleHead2Go

[Rob Williams]

We have all dealt with products that, on paper, are full of promise. These products generate a lot of hype and buzz but once they become hands on, the magic surrounding them seems to disappear. Today we are taking a look at a product that seems almost too good to be true.

Discuss Gregs review here! Or there will be consequences.

 

[Rob Williams]

This is a solution I would -love- for productivity. As you mentioned, a web browser on one screen, porn on the other, and MS Word on the other is a great solution. However, just HOW enjoyable is it for gaming? I noticed in the Cell Factor screenshots specifically, the UI in the 38*10 has intense stretchmarks. Even the AGEIA logo is streched. Does it look that bad when you are actually playing, or is it just badly reflected from a static shot on a single monitor?

 

[Greg King]

Cell Factor is a bad example.

It is more or less stretched, as you noticed, rather than evenly widened. Games such as HL2 and Rise of Legends are what I was more impressed with. There is no problems with these games as there was with Cell Factor.

But from a productivity stand point, anyone interested should get this. It is amazing. The initial cost of 3 monitors is steep but if you have one or two laying around, picking up one more might be a bit more stomachable. All in all, this is a great product and I am glad to have it as a part of my desk.

 

[RazorBack]

Sweet 8) I think I'll tell Dad to buy one of those.. he wants a flight sim multi monitor set up.

I used to want something like that... doubt it would work with 1 big monitor and 2 small ones though.

 

[Greg King]

No, this will only work with monitors of the same size...I think.

Flight Sims are where this really took off, pardon the pun. The gaming community has taken this and went crazy with it. Seriously, read up on

http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/forum/

They are the ones that hack the games to be able to play on this setup. Matrox does a lot of the games, these guys do more.

 

[BlackAndy]

just HOW enjoyable is it for gaming?

Rob,
I played Rise of Legends for the first time on this setup and was impressed. It took a few seconds to get used to it, but it was awesome seeing a massive battle across three screens when my forces were decimating the other players.
On a side note, that may be the cleanest I have ever seen Greg's desk...
BlackAndy

 

[HL]

Is there an option to rotate the screen? I mean can you set the monitors vertically? Resulting in a 3072x1200 resolution? That would be a 2.56:1 ratio and I think most widescreen movies are set at that.

 

[Greg King]

This will be looked into but as of now, I do not believe that this approach is supported. I will let you know as soon as I am told. Something that I would like to do, and this is available but not supported by Matrox, is take another 3 monitors and stack them on top of the three that I have now and use a 6x2 setup. Regardless, the Matrox TH2Go is an amazing product so if you can afford it, pick one up....it's that badass.

 

[Big Bear Dad]

KVM

Has anyone tried this with a KVMswitch in the mix? already have 3 19"s set up but two on one cpu and the other on another. Would love to loos one of the key boards!

 

[Greg King]

I have not but I can certainly try it out. My only concern would be that most KVMs supported resolution isnt as high as the TH2Go allows.

 

[Unregistered]

hi everyone, great job on the review!

i have some questions, i was wondering if this set up is possible with the th2g. is it compatible with touch screen lcd's, if so i wanted a 6 inch touch screen lcd next to my bed for a jukebox; my tv tuner hooked up to a 32" lcd; and a 17" lcd as a regular desktop, everything hooked up to one computer. if your just running applications and not synching all three, is it possible to set different resolution for the 3 lcd's? if this doesn't support it, do you think the matrox parhelia would do it? if not wat would be the best way to go about setting up something like this? thanks is advance

--toai

 

[Greg King]

The card might but the TH2Go will not do what you are wanting it to do. The TH2Go tricks your PC into thinking it has 1 large monitor instead of 3, requiring all resolutions to be the same on each monitor.

 

[Rory Buszka]

If you need to drive another (tiny) monitor, perhaps what you need is an old PCI video card from Ebay.

 

[Unregistered]

thats a good idea, i have a old pci video card laying around. i also have a radeon 9800 pro currently in my desktop. is there a video card besides the matrox that will let me dual monitor between a 32" lcd to watch tv, and 17" for regular desktop. imma need different resolution for each.

 

[Unregistered]

actually do you think my radeon 9800 pro will allow me to run my desktop and tv at different resolution?

 

[Unregistered]

I learned the hard way when rotating the LCD

Is there an option to rotate the screen? I mean can you set the monitors vertically? Resulting in a 3072x1200 resolution? That would be a 2.56:1 ratio and I think most widescreen movies are set at that.

Make sure there is adequate venting when rotated. My LCD had only top vents and when I had it rotated for over two hours, it overheated the left backlight bulb and I lost half the brightness on one side. I now have inexpensive Acer 19" widescreen monitors that having vents on three sides. They work great.

 

[Greg King]

Ventilation for a monitor isn't something that most people think about but it is clearly a necessity. Sorry to hear about your problems.

 

[Unregistered]

2nd thoughts

I've been a 2 monitor user for years and have avidly lusted after a 3-screen setup (Bill Gates reportedly has a 3 screen setup with work on the first 2 and email live on the 3rd). But now that it's practical (matrox digital plus drop in LCD prices), I'm hesitating. Although, for a non-gamer, there is an obvious advantage in having separate real estate for 3 applications, there is also the resolution issue to consider. In my current setup, I'm running two 20in flat screens at 1600x1200 res. That equates to 3200x1200. So, if I switch to 3 screens, I'm only getting a bounce to 3840x1024--that's essentially lower res. In my case, I'm doing word, excel and photoshop as my main tasks. I don't think the tradeoff gains me much if I end up working with smaller spreadsheets, shorter text and lower res photos.

Bottom line: I'm still waiting for the gpu muscle to support 4800x1200 on 3 screens. I need to explore the possibility of a non-matrox solution--installing an additional single graphics card-- but I don't know if Windows can readily integrate a 2 outlet + 1 outlet installation into a 3 screener.
--screen-loss in seattle...

 

[Greg King]

Todays 8800s can chew through a 30" and that's over 4 million pixels to render at a time so I don't think that it's under performing GPUs that are holding this progress back.. I understand what you are wanting to do and that would be great, it honestly would. Matrox just doesn't support that.

I know that the Digital TH2Go can support a pair of 24" monitors for a total resolution of 3840x1200. While nice, your still having to deal with the bezel in between the monitors. I am currently testing the Digital TH2Go and so far I am liking it.

Long story short, I know that what you want to do can be done, I just don't have the experience to point you in the right direction. Thanks for stopping in.

 

[Unregistered]

Multi TH2G

Is it possible, if you have a dual monitor set up, to use two of the TH2Gs (one for each output on the card?

Same thing for the DH2G

Has anyone tried / tested this?