**********Multiple Monitor Graphics Cards
We have talked about these in the very early posts of this thread.
For new commers, you may like to read my very first post on this
thread for an introduction to multiple monitors in DAYTRADING,
and others that follow.
Here is a review from DIRK HENTE from another thread.
From: +Dirk Hente
Saturday, Jan 24 1998 4:03AM EST
Reply # of 2425
[multiple monitor]
The following points are some criteria to look for:
1. number of available PCI slots
special graphic cards allow you to run mulpiple minitors, while
standard graphic cards in a multiple monitor configuration need one
PCI slot for one monitor. this is a big plus for special graphic cards .
2. Window splitting/spanning
when you use multiple monitors your desktop area is spanned over all
monitors. when you work with your software, usually pop-up menus
open in the middle of your desktop area. in a multiple monitor
configuration your menus become splitted and are hard to read. same
applies, when you enlarge a window. when it pops up it shouldnt span
over more than 1 monitor. the point here is, vendors of special
hardware deliver special driver software preventing these negative
side effects.
3. Monitor arrangement/Desktop layout
let me give an example:
if you have 4 monitors, these can be arranged e.g.: 2 x 2 or 4 in a row.
lets say you run a resolution of 1024x768 on each monitor, you get a
desktop size of 2048x1536 for the first case, and a size of 4096x768 for
the second. the point here is, you are not free to arrange your
monitors. it all depends on your card driver software.
4. support of different resolution/frequencies on different monitors
usually you are allowed to run different types of monitors at different
frequencies (horizontal and vertical). BUT, you may not be allowed to
choose different resolutions.
5.WINDOWS 95/NT/98
windows 95 doesnt support multiple grahic cards. the only way to go is
to use special graphic cards with special driver software.
windows NT 'allows' multiple graphic cards
windows 98 support multiple grahic cards (varibale physical
arrangement of monitors, different resolutions & frequencies on each
monitor, prevents 'window spanning' and 'window splitting')
talking about PC's/Windows95/NT, there are basically 3 solutions for a
multiple monitor setup:
1. special hardware
(i dont like this solution)
companies like Appian (http://www.appiantech.com/home.htm) and
Colorgraphic(http://www.colorgfx.com/)
offer graphic cards (and special driver software) for multiple monitor
configurations.
greatest advantage is,one single card can support multiple monitors
(other solutions need one card for one monitor, so you may run into
trouble with your PCI slots).
next big advantage is, this solutions is applicable for WIN95.
another plus is, special driver software is coming with these cards,
which makes working in a multiple monitor environment a bit easier
(e.g. no splitting of windows, windows are not popped up across
multiple monitors).
another point is, the physical arrangement of your monitors. e.g. 4
monitors can be aranged 2x2 or 4 in a row. with special graphic cards
you are generally free to arrange your monitors.
main draw back, you dont know what you get for your money, if you
havent seen (used) these graphic cards. its hard to find tests about this
stuff. resolution and bandwidth is not all. the analog part of your card
(e.g. DACs) and the design of the card itself is important as well
(usually not tested by pc magazines). Another influencing factor is the
quality of your graphic card driver software (try it out with your
standard card, compare the display quality when you switch between a
microsoft driver and your vendors driver softwar; i did this with my old
s3 (trio 64) graphic card, the ELSA s3 driver produced a much more
sharper display than the micrsoft s3 driver)
2. multiple standard graphic cards & Windows NT
there are several graphics cards available eg. MATROX/STB which can
run under Windows NT in a multiple card configuration.
if you read the description of the MATROX NT driver carefully you find
out that, you can use MATROX MILLENIUM I & II and MATROX
MYSTIQUE in a multiple monitor arrangement. MATROX allows up to 4
monitors in a 2x2 arrangement.
Unfortunately, the WIN NT font quality of the Matrox cards is worse
compared to WIN 95 (may be it has something to do with the Win NT
fonts, i dont know).
3. Windows 98
i guess this is the solution to go for.
main advantage is, you can use quite cheap graphic cards, eg S3 Trio
64V+, Virge (you dont need high end CAD graphic cards for your
trading software)
this solutin is available immediately if you are a beta tester. Windows
98 Beta 3 supports muliple graphic cards ( S3, ATI, Cirrus).
at home, i am using 2 computers connected via ethernet and Wingate
as my proxy server, with an ISDN connection to my ISP. one pc has a
dual monitor set up with 2 matrox millennium cards running under win
NT. my primary pc has a 133 pentium /Asus t2p4 mobo, overclocked to
166MHz/83 Mhz bus clock. |
