nView vs Hydravision

[osmononame]

I need a new graphics card with dual head features. Which companies dual head implementation is better and why? Also im running win 2000 if that makes any difference.

thanks,

Osmononame

 

[Mavrick007]

Up until the GF4, ATI has supposedly been better, but with the GF4 it's still too early to tell(although they now have two 350Mhz ramdacs so hopefully tv-out and second monitor will work better).

What will you use your video card for mostly? Graphics? Games? If you aren't as big into games, then take a look at Matrox. They are still the champ in dual head tech so far, and their cards are much better priced. They are just not a very good gaming card. You can pick up a dual head Matrox G450 OEM off of pricewatch for under $100.

 

[osmononame]

Ill be using my pc to play games and to surf the web, mostly. I have a voodoo 5 just now so the 2d has to comparable to that. Thats the one thing im worried about, nvidias 2d quality. How does the abit and gainwards 2d stack up to the voodoo 5.

Thanks for any replies,

Osomoname

 

[bluemax]

Well, don't forget you can always KEEP your V5 and simply throw in a cheap PCI video card with good 2D (read: anything but old nVidia cards.) An ATI Rage Pro is fine for desktop stuff - or Matrox G200 or even an old MilenniumII.

Keep looking for reviews of the Geforce4's regarding its dual-monitor output. I was under the impression it improved but can't confirm that yet.

 

[ElFenix]

gainward might be good. i wouldn't expect abit to have good 2D. leadtek TDH models are the best.

 

[Mavrick007]

Gainward's 2d is very good, about the best in nVidias lineup, but ATI still has better 2d and dual monitor than nVidia.
If 2d is a big concern to you, how about buying a Radeon 8500 now cause they're a really good deal. If you do, go for the retail 8500 clocked at 275/275. I think you can find one of them on pricewatch for under $160 US.

 

[Rand]

<< I have a voodoo 5 just now so the 2d has to comparable to that. >>



Well neither ATi nor nVidia is quite able to match up to 3dfx in that regard, Matrox is superior to 3dfx in 2D visual quality but if you need more then bare bones gaming performance their hardly suitable.
Matrox and Appian clearly have the best dual monitor implementation, but as has been said their gaming performance is lacking.

Up until the incorporation of nView in their 27.XX series nVidia's dual monitor implementation has clearly been lacking, though it's improved considerably it's still debateable whether it's on-oar with ATi's implementation. I would tend toward ATi has they have proven excellent dual monitor capabilities.

VisionTek, Elsa, and Gainward tend to have the best 2D available from nVidia boards... with LeadTek's more recent cards following closely behind.
Their still not quite as good as ATi in terms of 2D visual quality though.

BlueMax's suggestion of keeping your V5 and throwing in a separate PCI card is of course always a viable option.

 

[AmdInside]

NVIDA hired the founders of Appian, makers of Hydravision to write nView for them. I actually like nView better than Hydravision although I haven't played around with it to much but thats my opinion so far.

 

[rockhard]

Dont forget you dont need to buy a new card to get nView - works with all current nV cards AFAICT

 

[SUOrangeman]

Six months or so ago, I went from a two-card dual-display setup to my Leadtek WinFast GeForce2 MX DH Pro. Note, this is one of the few non-mAtrox cards I'd seen that have two VGA connectors. All other versions had one VGA + one S-Video, one VGA + one DVI, or some other combination. So, be careful and take note of the card's output options.

I'm not big into gaming, but I went with my nVidia-based card in case I ever wanted to do anything requiring some 3D horsepower. TwinView (pre-27.xx drivers) was at least equivalent to having two cards in the same system, when it came to Win98/ME. The drivers allowed Windows to see each display individually and acted as if it is truly two separate cards. Win2K saw only one display, albeit with resolutions like 2048x768 or 1600x600 (twice the horizontal, with the monitors side-by-side). So, Win2K naturally maximazed across both displays and the taskbar covered both. nVidia tried to hack their drivers to make Win2K feel like it has two displays, but it was never there.

To date, I've only tried the 27.xx drivers on WinXP and its behavior is akin to that of Win98/ME. It does ad quite a few features that were not present in TwinView (multiple desktops, make "xyz" render faster, etc.). A definite improvement. I have not tried the new drivers yet on Win2K, as it is my primary and preferred-to-remain-stable environment.

-SUO

 

[osmononame]

So basically what im asking is that in windows 2000 using nView, i can view my moniter at 1600 x 1200 and watch a divx on my tv. Is this possible?