rec.autos.simulators

by **Tony Rickar** » Mon, 29 May 2006 08:12:48

Mine arrived yesterday.

It is designed with 3 standard monitors in mind but I am using it with a
widescreen centre monitor which scales quite acceptably at 1280x1024
giving a total res of 3840x1024. With 2x 7800GTs in SLI GTL copes
remarkably well, as does NKPro. It will also run at 3072x768 and
2400x600 though my widescreen centre monitor looks a bit jaggy at 800x600.

I have always liked 3 screen setups and now it is possible with a single
PC with any high end graphics card config.

Works great for racing sims IMHO.

http://www.racesimcentral.net/

Cheers
Tony

by **Bob Lobla** » Mon, 29 May 2006 13:09:36

Where did you buy yours from? I'm thinking of doing a setup with my 21
inches CRT monitor in the center and i would buy two 19 inches lcds for the
sides. The only problem is my graphic card. I only have a 6800XT at the
moment and i would need at least to buy another one to SLI them. Or i could
just buy a 50" DLP television and connect my computer to it...

by **Andrew MacPhers** » Mon, 29 May 2006 14:46:00

> I have always liked 3 screen setups and now it is possible with a
> single PC with any high end graphics card config.

I was very e***d by this at first... finally an excuse to buy an SLI
setup capable of driving lots of pixels. Then I saw the price of the
triplehead and woke up. :-)

I guess it's not too bad compared to the price of 3 monitors and a (pair
of) really fast vid card(s), but I just can't swallow that price.
Hopefully it'll inspire some cheaper competition though.

Andrew McP

by **Tony Rickar** » Mon, 29 May 2006 17:05:30

>> I have always liked 3 screen setups and now it is possible with a
>> single PC with any high end graphics card config.

> I was very e***d by this at first... finally an excuse to buy an SLI
> setup capable of driving lots of pixels. Then I saw the price of the
> triplehead and woke up. :-)

The only previous alternative was multi PCs or a triplehead card like
the Parhelia (still at premium prices). What this does is mate to your
nvidia or ATI card so you are not locked into a specialist card that
isn't ideal for ***.

Compared with a 30" widescreen it isn't a bad solution :)

Cheers
Tony

by **Tony Rickar** » Mon, 29 May 2006 17:16:17

>> http://www.baldrick.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/images/gtl_screen1.jpg
> Where did you buy yours from? I'm thinking of doing a setup with my 21
> inches CRT monitor in the center and i would buy two 19 inches lcds for the
> sides. The only problem is my graphic card. I only have a 6800XT at the
> moment and i would need at least to buy another one to SLI them. Or i could
> just buy a 50" DLP television and connect my computer to it...

Direct from the Matrox online shop.

Sounds a perfect setup. The centre screen can be set to be your windows
desktop and the outer screens set to lose the top and bottom cm or two
to match up with the bigger centre monitor. Then you won't have to mess
with setting it up for Windows and sim racing every time.

It will be a lot cheaper than a 50" TV although you might just want one
of those anyway :) The TV won't give you 3840 x 1024 though.

Cheers
Tony

by **Andrew MacPhers** » Tue, 30 May 2006 14:18:00

> What this does is mate to your
> nvidia or ATI card

You've reminded me of the other problem. I prefer to buy ATI these days
(a more political than practical decision, I admit) and the Triplehead
has some *** limitations with ATI cards for some reason.

Andrew McP

by **Tony Rickar** » Wed, 07 Jun 2006 03:02:23

> Yes, ATI seems limited to 2400x800 with the Th2go (I think it is because
> the X1xxxx cards are limited to 2560x1600 and the TH2Go works on
> combinations of 800x600, 1024x768 and 1280x1200). Plus no support
> currently for Crossfire

> So nvidia cards are better supported as they can go right up to 3840x1200.

> Still a huge improvement over the Parhelia but you are right, ATI owners
> should take note and look at the compatibility table here before deciding:

> http://www.matrox.com/graphics/offhome/support/th2go/compatibility.cfm

Anyone else using this? I really am very impressed and considering that
19" CRTs are being dumped by corporates a cheaper alternative than
large widescreen LCDs.

Cheers
Tony

by **bmillar..** » Wed, 14 Jun 2006 20:19:50

I am thinking of getting the TripleHead also. What fps are you getting
in GTL at what in-game details settings? Do you use rfactor - if so,
what fps are you getting there at what in-game details settings? What
is the speed of your processor? Thanks!

> Mine arrived yesterday.

> It is designed with 3 standard monitors in mind but I am using it with a
> widescreen centre monitor which scales quite acceptably at 1280x1024
> giving a total res of 3840x1024. With 2x 7800GTs in SLI GTL copes
> remarkably well, as does NKPro. It will also run at 3072x768 and
> 2400x600 though my widescreen centre monitor looks a bit jaggy at 800x600.

> I have always liked 3 screen setups and now it is possible with a single
> PC with any high end graphics card config.

> Works great for racing sims IMHO.

> http://www.baldrick.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/images/gtl_screen1.jpg

> http://www.baldrick.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/images/gtl_screen2.jpg

> http://www.baldrick.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/images/gtl_screen3.jpg

> http://www.baldrick.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/images/gtl_screen4.jpg

> http://www.baldrick.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/images/nkpro_screen1.jpg

> Cheers
> Tony

by **Tony Rickar** » Thu, 15 Jun 2006 02:31:52

> I am thinking of getting the TripleHead also. What fps are you getting
> in GTL at what in-game details settings? Do you use rfactor - if so,
> what fps are you getting there at what in-game details settings? What
> is the speed of your processor? Thanks!

AMD64 4000 with 1Gb RAM.

40+ FPS in GTL with pretty much everything maxed except shadows at
medium & 3840x1024. I will check with rfactor.

I was surprised as the jump from 1920x1200 to 3840x1024 had a relatively
small impact on FPS, knocking shadows down from high to medium and
reducing the AI from 20 to 12 seems to have got me back to close to the
FPS I was getting. SLI doesn't seem to do much for GTL at more normal
resolutions but I believe is helping out a lot at the higher ones. Not
tried disabling a card to find out yet.

Cheers
Tony

by **Mitch_** » Thu, 15 Jun 2006 06:27:35

Does it make you faster with a wide angle? Do you have a TrackIR with that
setup?

Mitch

>> I am thinking of getting the TripleHead also. What fps are you getting
>> in GTL at what in-game details settings? Do you use rfactor - if so,
>> what fps are you getting there at what in-game details settings? What
>> is the speed of your processor? Thanks!

> AMD64 4000 with 1Gb RAM.

> 40+ FPS in GTL with pretty much everything maxed except shadows at medium
> & 3840x1024. I will check with rfactor.

> I was surprised as the jump from 1920x1200 to 3840x1024 had a relatively
> small impact on FPS, knocking shadows down from high to medium and
> reducing the AI from 20 to 12 seems to have got me back to close to the
> FPS I was getting. SLI doesn't seem to do much for GTL at more normal
> resolutions but I believe is helping out a lot at the higher ones. Not
> tried disabling a card to find out yet.

> Cheers
> Tony

by **Tony Rickar** » Thu, 15 Jun 2006 08:05:33

> Does it make you faster with a wide angle? Do you have a TrackIR with
> that setup?

Not faster but safer side by side :)

http://www.baldrick.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/images/TonyBazKeith.jpg

I was on the left - we never touched, honest guv :)

I don't think I could cope with TrackIR - I can't cope with look left &
right buttons - I need to have a straight ahead view available to me at
all time methinks

Cheers
Tony

by **Tony Rickar** » Sat, 17 Jun 2006 07:15:32

>> I am thinking of getting the TripleHead also. What fps are you getting
>> in GTL at what in-game details settings? Do you use rfactor - if so,
>> what fps are you getting there at what in-game details settings? What
>> is the speed of your processor? Thanks!

> AMD64 4000 with 1Gb RAM.

> 40+ FPS in GTL with pretty much everything maxed except shadows at
> medium & 3840x1024. I will check with rfactor.

> I was surprised as the jump from 1920x1200 to 3840x1024 had a relatively
> small impact on FPS, knocking shadows down from high to medium and
> reducing the AI from 20 to 12 seems to have got me back to close to the
> FPS I was getting. SLI doesn't seem to do much for GTL at more normal
> resolutions but I believe is helping out a lot at the higher ones. Not
> tried disabling a card to find out yet.

I take it back a bit - just checked & I am running GTL at 3072 x 768 to
get these frame rates. Upping to 3840x1024 and it does significantly
drop - guess I must have fiddled around with different settings I forgot
what I ended up with!

rFactor menus are a slide show but again running at 3072x1024 the racing
is in the 40s, though it feels a bit slower than GTL (usually the other
way around) - could be I haven't got the optimum SLI profile as I
haven't played rFactor since swapping graphics cards.

Cheers
Tony

by **Mitch_** » Sat, 17 Jun 2006 08:27:07

Im jealous :)

I was just throwing around some numbers and I have another question Tony.
Im considering a Dell 24" 16X10 ($610) and 2 19" NECs 4:3.($120ea) This for
less than I purchased my first 20" CRT for back in 92'. Anyway I was
curious if the Triplehead will be able to pump so many pixels at 5120X1200

great) but unless that Matrox can pump some major pixels I may rethink the
whole deal and consider an intel Core Duo and the Dell 24"er first then go
the Triplehead/Nec's route later, if at all...

Mitch
--
"Don't pee on my leg then tell me it's raining"

> rFactor menus are a slide show but again running at 3072x1024 the racing
> is in the 40s, though it feels a bit slower than GTL (usually the other
> way around) - could be I haven't got the optimum SLI profile as I haven't
> played rFactor since swapping graphics cards.

> Cheers
> Tony

by **Tony Rickar** » Sat, 17 Jun 2006 15:59:29

> Im jealous :)

> I was just throwing around some numbers and I have another question
> Tony. Im considering a Dell 24" 16X10 ($610) and 2 19" NECs
> 4:3.($120ea) This for less than I purchased my first 20" CRT for back
> in 92'. Anyway I was curious if the Triplehead will be able to pump so
> many pixels at 5120X1200 res? I'd hoped to get by for a bit longer with

> major pixels I may rethink the whole deal and consider an intel Core Duo
> and the Dell 24"er first then go the Triplehead/Nec's route later, if at
> all...

No the max is 3840x1024 with nvidia, less with ATI as the limitation is
what the graphics card(s) can chuck out - have a look here:

http://www.matrox.com/graphics/offhome/support/th2go/compatibility.cfm

However, there are some more wide screen resolutions added - 3840x720
and 3840x768 which may better suit the aspect ratio you are looking for.

http://www.matrox.com/graphics/offhome/support/th2go/tmet.cfm

Hope this helps

Cheers
Tony

rec.autos.simulators

Matrox Triplehead2go

Matrox Triplehead2go

Matrox Triplehead2go

Matrox Triplehead2go

Matrox Triplehead2go

Matrox Triplehead2go

Matrox Triplehead2go

Matrox Triplehead2go

Matrox Triplehead2go

Matrox Triplehead2go

Matrox Triplehead2go

Matrox Triplehead2go

Matrox Triplehead2go

Matrox Triplehead2go

Matrox Triplehead2go