Dual head and Radeon VE WARNING

[workingkat]

I bought a Radeon VE for my Windows2000 system. I wanted more screen realestate and as a cheap path decided to use the VE with two Optiquest 19 V95 monitors. Here is what I found:

1) The dual monitor facility is probably UNUSABLE. The reason for this is the maximum refresh rate if you want to pair two monitors each working at 1280 by 1024. The best refresh rate the Radeon offers is 60Hz! This is completely unacceptable unless you enjoy migraine headaches. (The V95's can support 85Hz at this resolution)

1) The ONLY drivers which worked for dual monitor were those which shipped with the card. The updated and beta drivers had to be backed out. In multimonitor mode there is some kind of problem between the Hydravision program and the updated drivers.

2) The DVD player provided by Radeon is unstable in Windows2000 however just about any other DVD player software works fine.

For me the killer issue is refresh rate. I would be interested to hear from anyone who can achieve a higher frame refresh rate because I am completely stumped. But if there is no solution for this, my advice for dual head's is to stay clear of the Radeon VE

 

[Tonec]

http://radeonle.homestead.com/Refresh.htmlhttp://radeonle.homestead.com/powertrip.html
Have you tried these methods yet

 

[workingkat]

Thanks for the reply - I have now tried this approach. Immediately the monitor goes into multi-monitor mode at 2560 by 1024 the refresh rate on the monitor drops back to 60Hz.

The native Radeon driver simply doesn't appear to support two, 1280 by 1024 displays running in multi-monitor mode. I also tried several tweak programs including modemaker.

Overall I have now spent more time on this than it's worth. I am now trying to figure out if the MX or G450 dual heads might work better. As a desperate measure, I am also considering installation of an old Voodoo2000 PCI!!!!!!!!

But thanks again, and any other suggestions I will try for the rest of today. After which I'm trying the older but more trusted dual-card approach.

 

[TechieJ]

The G400Max and G450 dual head solutions are extremely advanced and easy to set up for dual monitor situations. I've tried a dual monitor solution with two 22" monitors on my G400Max and the quality was absolutely stunning. Check out Matrox's site for more info on their patented E-Dualhead technology.

 

[ADxS]

Hmmm... You know if you have a Voodoo3 2000 PCI card, you really ought to install it - the hardware is far, *far* superior to the second monitor support in any of the "dual" monitor cards, and you'll no longer be dependent on proprietary software.

 

[Superwormy]

Interesting, I agree the drivers suck, but I am running the latest BETA drivers and they seem to work fine, in fact much better than the originals. Try installing the drivers and then Hydravision afterwards.

Also, Hydravision when working is WAY better than Matrox or any other dual monitor software.

 

[Superwormy]

Oh, and I never had any problems with the DVD player either... wierd.

 

[Hawk]

actually after you've installed hydravision, you can double click and change the refresh rates (the picture with two monitors, says 1 and 2, sorry, don't remember exactly where it is in the display properties). Mine use to run at 60 Hz 1024 on both, but now both are running at 75 Hz.

 

[workingkat]

Thanks to everyone who replied on this thread. In the end I put my Voodoo2000 into PCI slot 2 and Windows2000 picked it up instantly. With hydravision un-installed this setup worked perfectly at 85Hz at 2560 by 1024 in 32 bit color.

Only drawback is because the refresh rates are not perfectly in-sync I have to keep the cheapo monitors about a foot apart to avoid walking bands (not helped by the Radeon's choice of refresh - 85.6Hz against the 85Hz of the Voodoo)

Incidentally, in dual monitor mode the DVD performance of the Radeon simply went to pieces - until I turned off hardware acceleration!

Now I have everything I want, except I still cannot recommend the Radeon VE to anyone for anything. Except it does work and gaming (ironically) proved surprisingly adequate. Just the one thing I didn't need!

 

[carlosgp]

I've just bought a Radeon VE and encountered same problems under Windows 2000 PLUS poor quality video through DVI-VGA adaptor. Anybody found this problem? Any new solution?