[clug] Decent video cards

Rasjid Wilcox rasjidw at openminddev.net
Tue Sep 30 22:46:21 EST 2003


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On Tuesday 30 September 2003 20:27, Brad Hards wrote:
> I'm going to shell over some hard-earned to Cougar for a new workstation.
> I'm pretty happy with what I want, except I don't know how to choose a
> video card.
>
> Ideally I'd like a dual-head arrangement, DVI into a pair of LCD screens
> with Xinerama. Last time I used Xinerama, it disabled hardware acceleration
> (on a Matrox G400 analog card). I'd really like hardware acceleration to
> work across both heads. I'll take analog outputs if that is all that is
> available.
>
> I'd also like GPL'd drivers, but I'm willing to compromise for the sake of
> hardware acceleration.

- From lnx30notes.txt, the notes for the mga drivers from Matrox:

"This display driver supports the option of using your main and
secondary displays as if they were a single display ("merged"
displays) divided between your two monitors. If your system is
configured for 3D acceleration, this feature allows for 3D
acceleration on both your displays at the same time. To use this
feature you also need the latest version of Matrox PowerDesk."

I think the XFree configuration for "merged" displays is a new feature of 
XFree 4.3.0, and is not supported by all cards.  The G400 does _not_ support 
'merged' displays, but from memory (ie, posts I read somewhere) I think the 
G550 _does_.  Have you asked at the 'General Linux' forum at Matrox's website 
(http://forum.matrox.com/mga/index.php) - someone there should be able to 
tell you pretty quickly.

Unfortunately I can't speak about accelerated dual head from experience, since 
I'm still using a G400.  :)  

Cheers,

Rasjid.

- -- 
Rasjid Wilcox
Canberra, Australia (UTC +10 hrs)
http://www.openminddev.net
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