quad sli = how many video ports? matrox dual head2go x 2?

Does anyone know with a quad sli setup, how many video ports this
enables.. ie: with regular sli.. you only end up with 2 DVI out of 4..
so do you end up with 4 on a quad sli setup and how do you know which
ports are active?

Also.. has anyone tried the dual or tri matrox2go setups.. if i'm
running 1900x1080 (1080p) on a 24".. would i be able to hook one of
these to a single DVI port and then have two LCDS at the same
resolution each (or one LCD and an HDTV via the HDMI port)?

Any thoughts?

Thanks

* markm75:

Does anyone know with a quad sli setup, how many video ports this
enables.. ie: with regular sli.. you only end up with 2 DVI out of 4..
so do you end up with 4 on a quad sli setup and how do you know which
ports are active?

SLI - several GPUs share the workload of a single gfx pipe, so no
matter how much cards are involved SLI is always single output.

Also.. has anyone tried the dual or tri matrox2go setups.. if i'm
running 1900x1080 (1080p) on a 24"

What 24"? 1080p is a TV resolution, there are no computer monitors that
have 1900x1080 as native resolution. And every resolution other than the
native one looks more or less like ****.

.. would i be able to hook one of
these to a single DVI port and then have two LCDS at the same
resolution each (or one LCD and an HDTV via the HDMI port)?

Any thoughts?

Yes. I'm not sure what you want o achieve. Do you want to hook up two TV
sets via Matrox dualhead2go/tripplehead2go on a quad SLI setup? What for?

Benjamin

On Feb 9, 6:27*am, Benjamin Gawert wrote:
* markm75:

Does anyone know with a quad sli setup, how many video ports this
enables.. ie: with regular sli.. you only end up with 2 DVI out of 4..
so do you end up with 4 on a quad sli setup and how do you know which
ports are active?

SLI - several GPUs share the workload of a single gfx pipe, so no
matter how much cards are involved SLI is always single output.

Also.. has anyone tried the dual or tri matrox2go setups.. if i'm
running 1900x1080 (1080p) on a 24"

What 24"? 1080p is a TV resolution, there are no computer monitors that
have 1900x1080 as native resolution. And every resolution other than the
native one looks more or less like ****.

.. would i be able to hook one of
these to a single DVI port and then have two LCDS at the same
resolution each (or one LCD and an HDTV via the HDMI port)?

Any thoughts?

Yes. I'm not sure what you want o achieve. Do you want to hook up two TV
sets via Matrox dualhead2go/tripplehead2go on a quad SLI setup? What for?

Benjamin

So with a dual video card (sli) setup.. you are saying that even
though there are 4 DVI ports.. only 1 is active.. or are you saying 2
are active (one card)...

The answer to the dual head idea depends on what actually is possible
in sli mode.. i have a rather messy setup going on...

On Feb 9, 6:27*am, Benjamin Gawert wrote:
running 1900x1080 (1080p) on a 24"

What 24"? 1080p is a TV resolution, there are no computer monitors that
have 1900x1080 as native resolution. And every resolution other than the
native one looks more or less like ****.


yea my Westinghouse L2410NM is 1920 x 1200 native

* markm75:

So with a dual video card (sli) setup.. you are saying that even
though there are 4 DVI ports.. only 1 is active.. or are you saying 2
are active (one card)...

*ONE* port. No matter how much cards are involved.

Benjamin

markm75 wrote:
On Feb 9, 6:27 am, Benjamin Gawert wrote:
running 1900x1080 (1080p) on a 24"
What 24"? 1080p is a TV resolution, there are no computer monitors that
have 1900x1080 as native resolution. And every resolution other than the
native one looks more or less like ****.


yea my Westinghouse L2410NM is 1920 x 1200 native

This table suggests you may be able to drive two 1920 x 1200 devices
via DualHead2Go Digital. Can both your monitors run at 1920 x 1200 ?

http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/co...esolutions.php

Paul

On Feb 9, 4:18*pm, Paul wrote:
markm75 wrote:
On Feb 9, 6:27 am, Benjamin Gawert wrote:
running 1900x1080 (1080p) on a 24"
What 24"? 1080p is a TV resolution, there are no computer monitors that
have 1900x1080 as native resolution. And every resolution other than the
native one looks more or less like ****.

yea my Westinghouse L2410NM *is 1920 x 1200 native

This table suggests you may be able to drive two 1920 x 1200 devices
via DualHead2Go Digital. Can both your monitors run at 1920 x 1200 ?

http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/co...bility/resolut...

* * Paul

Nice.. yeah they can run at that.. But would this provide for the
typical 2 LCD setup where your taskbar is on one, the other desktop on
the other (extended view, not spread out over 2 view)...

I also found a nvidia script that can be run (vbs script) to turn sli
on or off on the fly, so that the other ports can be used when not
gaming..

I'm mainly focusing on Flight Sims.. where, without using a triplehead
solution if i got a 3rd monitor.. i could actually just spread the
window out between all 2 or 3 screens.. actually, if doing SLI.. i
guess I'd have no choice but to get the triplehead2go setup, as i'd
only have one viable port otherwise.. the problem becomes how to rig
it so that when i run the vbs script i get video on the lcds and when
i disable the script.. it switches to the triplehead2go.. sounds like
i'd need a dvi or hdmi switch to make that happen as well.

*Has anyone tested 3dmark06 values with two 8600GT's together (vista
x86?).. i'm curious what sortof jump in values i would expect to see
if i sli them.. right now i'm around 4300 3dmark's.. and would this
translate to only a 10-15fps increase as i've heard, if so this may
not justify going sli, i'll just wait a little longer and get an
8800GTX...

markm75 wrote:
On Feb 9, 4:18 pm, Paul wrote:
markm75 wrote:
On Feb 9, 6:27 am, Benjamin Gawert wrote:
running 1900x1080 (1080p) on a 24"
What 24"? 1080p is a TV resolution, there are no computer monitors that
have 1900x1080 as native resolution. And every resolution other than the
native one looks more or less like ****.
yea my Westinghouse L2410NM is 1920 x 1200 native
This table suggests you may be able to drive two 1920 x 1200 devices
via DualHead2Go Digital. Can both your monitors run at 1920 x 1200 ?

http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/co...bility/resolut...

Paul

Nice.. yeah they can run at that.. But would this provide for the
typical 2 LCD setup where your taskbar is on one, the other desktop on
the other (extended view, not spread out over 2 view)...

I also found a nvidia script that can be run (vbs script) to turn sli
on or off on the fly, so that the other ports can be used when not
gaming..

I'm mainly focusing on Flight Sims.. where, without using a triplehead
solution if i got a 3rd monitor.. i could actually just spread the
window out between all 2 or 3 screens.. actually, if doing SLI.. i
guess I'd have no choice but to get the triplehead2go setup, as i'd
only have one viable port otherwise.. the problem becomes how to rig
it so that when i run the vbs script i get video on the lcds and when
i disable the script.. it switches to the triplehead2go.. sounds like
i'd need a dvi or hdmi switch to make that happen as well.

*Has anyone tested 3dmark06 values with two 8600GT's together (vista
x86?).. i'm curious what sortof jump in values i would expect to see
if i sli them.. right now i'm around 4300 3dmark's.. and would this
translate to only a 10-15fps increase as i've heard, if so this may
not justify going sli, i'll just wait a little longer and get an
8800GTX...


If you use the DualHead2Go, and connect it to the one working monitor connector
on an SLI setup, the computer thinks it has one monitor, but a wide
monitor. The DualHead2Go splits the collection of pixels between
the two output connectors.

Tomshardware has some benchmarks here. The first set of charts has
SLI configurations. A dual 8800GT OC (SLI) gets 21.9 FPS at 1920 x 1200.

http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphi...=819&chart=353

In the single card charts, the same card, a single card this time, gets
21.9 FPS at 1920 x 1200.

http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphi...5 3&chart=293

Working down to non-demanding resolutions, is still getting numbers
in the same ballpark (22.7 FPS).

It makes you wonder whether -

1) They used the SP1 (or even SP2) service pack for FSX.
2) They're using a good processor (overclocked quad or dual)
3) They've set affinity properly (see next link).

http://www.simhq.com/forum/ubbthread...Number=2408072

There is probably lots of little tidbits around on the enthusiast
sites, about setting up FSX.

It seems the frame rate never really goes very high.

http://blogs.msdn.com/ptaylor/archiv...n-and-sp2.aspx

One of the problems with games and quads, is the usage isn't spread
very well over cores. From the end of the previous blog page.

"1.4GB of memory used, core 1 shoots up to 100%+ - core 2 @ very little,
with cores 3 + 4 at about 25%. CPU usage is shown as 25%."

With the poor utilization of the cores, it would almost be
worthwhile to overclock an E8500 to over 4GHz and use that
instead. At least when one core goes to 100%, you're getting
something from it.

(AFAIK, not shipping yet in USA. Available in Europe and Asia. $530 or so.)
http://processorfinder.intel.com/det...px?sSpec=SLAPK

E8500 5Ghz with exotic cooling. Also, an E8400 at 4.5GHz at 1.4V, on air cooling.
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...d.php?t=175185

With regard to SLI, one of the concerns I'd have, is how the
mapping of the memory on the SLI cards, eats into the available
address space left for system memory. If the cards purchased
had large texture memories, then there is less room in a
32 bit OS, for system memory. (On the A8N-SLI with a couple
good cards in it, that is why you'd install 4GB of RAM, and
only get to see 2.5GB in a 32 bit Windows OS.) I don't know
if the solution is a 64 bit OS or not.

I expect a person could make a full time job, trying to optimize
the thing. Even reading the enthusiast threads could take a
lifetime.

Paul

Paul wrote:
markm75 wrote:
On Feb 9, 4:18 pm, Paul wrote:
markm75 wrote:
On Feb 9, 6:27 am, Benjamin Gawert wrote:
running 1900x1080 (1080p) on a 24"
What 24"? 1080p is a TV resolution, there are no computer monitors
that
have 1900x1080 as native resolution. And every resolution other
than the
native one looks more or less like ****.
yea my Westinghouse L2410NM is 1920 x 1200 native
This table suggests you may be able to drive two 1920 x 1200 devices
via DualHead2Go Digital. Can both your monitors run at 1920 x 1200 ?

http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/co...bility/resolut...

Paul

Nice.. yeah they can run at that.. But would this provide for the
typical 2 LCD setup where your taskbar is on one, the other desktop on
the other (extended view, not spread out over 2 view)...

I also found a nvidia script that can be run (vbs script) to turn sli
on or off on the fly, so that the other ports can be used when not
gaming..

I'm mainly focusing on Flight Sims.. where, without using a triplehead
solution if i got a 3rd monitor.. i could actually just spread the
window out between all 2 or 3 screens.. actually, if doing SLI.. i
guess I'd have no choice but to get the triplehead2go setup, as i'd
only have one viable port otherwise.. the problem becomes how to rig
it so that when i run the vbs script i get video on the lcds and when
i disable the script.. it switches to the triplehead2go.. sounds like
i'd need a dvi or hdmi switch to make that happen as well.

*Has anyone tested 3dmark06 values with two 8600GT's together (vista
x86?).. i'm curious what sortof jump in values i would expect to see
if i sli them.. right now i'm around 4300 3dmark's.. and would this
translate to only a 10-15fps increase as i've heard, if so this may
not justify going sli, i'll just wait a little longer and get an
8800GTX...




(AFAIK, not shipping yet in USA. Available in Europe and Asia. $530 or so.)
http://processorfinder.intel.com/det...px?sSpec=SLAPK


I think I got the price mixed up there. The price list shows $266 for
the dual core E8500. $530 is for one of the other 45nm processors.

http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_..._1ku_Price.pdf

The reason for using a dual, is the ability to overclock higher than perhaps
a quad can be pushed. The idea being, that one core goes to 100% for
sure, so the more clock rate you can manage, the better the results.

Paul

Paul wrote:

With regard to SLI, one of the concerns I'd have, is how the
mapping of the memory on the SLI cards, eats into the available
address space left for system memory.

Eh? You think SLI negatively impacts system memory availability?

If the cards purchased
had large texture memories, then there is less room in a
32 bit OS, for system memory. (On the A8N-SLI with a couple
good cards in it, that is why you'd install 4GB of RAM, and
only get to see 2.5GB in a 32 bit Windows OS.) I don't know
if the solution is a 64 bit OS or not.

Ah you think that video memory and system memory combined have to be
less than 3.5GB in Windows XP and this is why video cards have less than
1G of video memory?

You really twisted yourself up in a logic knot with that one: so that
means any Windows XP (32bit) system with 4G of system memory with a 1G
video card means there is -1.5G of system Ram available? And 2G of
system ram plus a 1G SLI = .5G available?

bonk head on desk