[Gllug] dual monitors?

[Mike Brodbelt]

On Tue, 2003-05-20 at 17:33, Tethys wrote:
> Peter Adamson writes:
> 
> >>what cards do you have?
> >>
> >none at the moment, this is a pre-emptive question. ;)
> 
> In which case, get a Matrox G550. It's a snap to set up, particularly
> with Matrox's mgapdesk software, which will generate a suitable 
> dual headed XF86Config for you. Plus, it's fast enough to give decent
> refresh rates in Unreal Tournament, too :-)

I've always liked Matrox cards, (got a G400 Max here, and a G550 at
work, and bought only Matrox graphics hardware since the original
Millenium was released), but Matrox have encapsulated a lot of the
driver functionality in their HALlib, which is binary only. The G400 was
the last Matrox card that didn't need this library for 3d.

While it's less intrusive than the nVidia stuff, as it's not a kernel
module, binary only stuff still carries disadvantages. Case in point
here is that the HALlib has known bugs. I believe that it's still
impossible to use the DVI output on a G550 and DRI simultaneously, as
the driver crashes nastily.

I've sadly decided not to buy from Matrox again unless they change their
approach, and concluded that my next card will be an ATI, as they seem
to offer the only decent cards for which there is open code to support
all the features. The Radeon 8500 and 9100 series cards are the best
supported at present, I believe.

Mike.



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