First let me qualify this by saying I am a big fan of Matrox products. I
have owned other cards including Nvidia but for reliability and problem
free operation it is hard to beat Matrox.  I own a number of Matrox PCI and
AGP video cards including a  G450 dual head. I love my G450.In the last six
months PCMAG had a consumer game card runoff you might want to look up. The
G450 was dead last for 3D and games but tied for first place when it came
to 2D and desktop performance. I spend 99 percent of my time in 2D and only
occasionally play a 3D game like Quake or Unreal.

Nobody provides support and divers as well as Matrox does.
http://www.matrox.com/mga/support/drivers/latest/home.cfm A couple of
months ago they posted new drivers for the G200 which has been out of
production for two years. These drivers were for ALL operating systems
including Linux.When is the last time you have seen  ATI or Nvidia post new
drivers for a wide range of  operating systems, for a two year old legacy
product?

Matrox drivers come with Powerdesk.  This is a wonderful set of utilities
that run in the tray. You can switch resolution with a hot key or one click
of the mouse. You can pan  zoom and a lot more with just an assigned
hotkey. I have trouble now working without these utilities particularly on
a large 19plus monitor. Powerdesk also comes with a virtual desktop and a
MultiDesk display that is similar to what you get in a Linux Xwindow
display. Powerdesk is so feature rich, trouble free and useful I would pay
money for it if they didn't give it to you! Matrox constantly updates
Powerdesk with their drivers.

The dual card drivers are full featured and easy to use however a single
chip dual view setup in Windows 2000 is different then in Windows 9X. This
has to do with the limitation of the operating system and not the video
card. Up until recently, when using Windows 2000 with a dual monitor single
chip setup it was necessary to run both monitors at the same resolution and
color setting. This could be a problem it you wanted to run a 22inch
monitor at 1600X1200 and a 17 at 800X600. Matrox dealt with this by
stretching the big view across two monitors rather then having a single
view on each monitor.

  However Matrox has just come out with new drivers that allow you to have
a two separate monitor view if you prefer. This is the view you would get
if you had two video cards. I don't know if any other dual head video cards
have this yet but I would want to know before I purchased one. Matrox also
has a special dual monitor web browser enhancement utility for their dual
head cards...for free. The G450 fully supports TV OUT and come with DVD
software. In fact you can have your computer on one monitor and the movie
on another....DVD performance is great.

Matrox also provides support forums for all their products ..and you get an
answer within hours after posting during business hours.

If you are not a gamer or a high end graphics artist or someone who works
with something that requires really great 3D video performance than it is
hard to beat Matrox for great 2D performance, software DVD, reliability,
drivers and long term support. I have been using Matrox cards for five
years and I have never had driver issue in any OS....or any other problems
for that matter.

  But don't take my word for take a look at the List archives.....how many
complaints or problems do you find about Matrox cards...Nada! However there
is one post after another from subscribers trying to get cutting edge
Nvidia cards working correctly. My display doesn't look right, my computer
locks up, the game won't play etc etc etc.

Mark Rode
The NOSPIN Group


>Jun Qian
>I agree but aren't ATI drivers poor, especially regarding Win2000 support?
>I have been looking around and the Matrox G450 still looks good in the $110
>range for dual monitor use....
>
>Also, the eVGA makes a well-reviewed card, the e-GeForce2 MX TwinView Plus
>AGP  (cf: http://www.evga.com). But I haven't talked to anyone who has used
>this card or this company's products...
>
>Anyone have any comments on eVGA products?  TIA.
>John Chin
>
>At 11:12 PM 04/06/2001 +1000, you wrote:
> >If gaming is not required, why not get a dual-head display card. Currently,
> >ATi offers best dual-head solutions, it will be great to work on two
> >monitors with publishing/photoshop/ and the like.
> >
> >Jun Qian
> >
> >I have a friend who is looking for a new computer.  One of his requirements
> >is a "good" video subsystem.  Not a great subsystem, he will not be doing
> >much in the was of gamming but he does do a lot in desktop publishing -
> >Photoshop and the like.

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