Dual Displays

[Shuten]

Trying to put together a system and was wondering what cards are out there
that offer dual displays at a decent price and performance. Not looking to spend
more than $150 bucks but wasnt sure if to go with a matrox450 or a gforce 2 mx.
or a 7500? Any ideas and or places that offer them cheap would be great.

I know that there has been other posts on this topic so please dont flame me
too much.


Shuten

 

[Rand]

Depends what it's going to be used for.
Do you need gaming performance?
Linux compatibility?
Do you expect to run them at 1280x1024 or higher?

Matrox has a better dual monitor implementation then either nVidia or ATi, and it's more versatile and has more features..... but without knowing what the card is going to be used for beyond that you need dual monitor output it's almost impossible to recommend any given card.

 

[xomisfit]

I'm in the same boat. Looking for a good, dual head, video card that I can use for home digital CD movie creation as well as quality gaming. I've seen the Matrox 400(?) dual head card at work - it will do the job, but I'd like better visual on the gaming side. I'm looking at both the Radeon and Nvidea boards now. I don't want to spend the kind of money needed to buy the TI 500 card -- $400+ is way outside my price range. I'd like to be under the $200 limit. 32MB DDR seems to be a good mix of economy and performance. The buzz around Radeon sounds like the new boards (7500 & 8500) are capable of giving nVidia a run for the money. Thoughts?

XOmisfit

 

[Walruslord]

Um, it isnt even a freaking question.

Get a Radeon 8500 if you want dual displays and gaming performance.

OEM one is like 180 at newegg.com

Shell out the 30 bucks more. Matrox wont give you decent gaming save for Half life.
GF2MX 2d quality is certified crap.

Jeesh.

 

[Superwormy]

I agree with above, Radeon 8500, Matrox really sucks for games, but rocks for dual-monitor support, ATI comes in a second, its really just driver issues that hold it's dual monitor support back.

 

[Shuten]

I am planning on having a dual boot system: linux and windows 98.
Probably be running 1280x1024 exactly.. Will be used almost entirely
for programming but would be nice if it wasnt awful for 3d stuff as well.
But for the most part it would be strictly for the programming as i just dont
get the time to do much else.

Thanks for your help

 

[Rand]

<< I am planning on having a dual boot system: linux and windows 98.
Probably be running 1280x1024 exactly.. Will be used almost entirely
for programming but would be nice if it wasnt awful for 3d stuff as well.
But for the most part it would be strictly for the programming as i just dont
get the time to do much else.

Thanks for your help >>



If you just need basic 3D compatibility and won't be doing any real gaming then the Matrox G450 sounds ideal for you.
If however your looking to play the occasional game along with your programming then the Radeon 7500 is a far better choice.

 

[Daovonnaex]

If you want 3D performance, get the Radeon. Otherwise, buy the Matrox card.

 

[Shuten]

Going to take everyones advice and go with the 7500 but was wondering one
more thing. Is there any difference between the 108 dollar ones and the 200 dollar ones?
Newegg has a 115 dollar and then a 180 one. Is there different releases?

 

[Rand]

<< Going to take everyones advice and go with the 7500 but was wondering one
more thing. Is there any difference between the 108 dollar ones and the 200 dollar ones?
Newegg has a 115 dollar and then a 180 one. Is there different releases? >>



Looking here at NewEgg, I see a $115 and $153 R7500. Only difference between those is that one is Retail Boxed, and comes with the manual, software, fancy box etc.
and the other one is OEM, which is just the card and driver CD. The Retail R7500 is clocked slightly higher then the OEM R7500, so it will be a small bit faster in games.

As it doesnt seem like you'll be doing very much gaming, you may as well go with the OEM R7500.

 

[Shuten]

Does anyone know if the 7500 will work well with linux
specifically either slackware or mandrake? If it works well
with other distros that would help too..

Thanks all..


Shuten