Matrox Graphics eXpansion Module (GXM) supports the use of multiple

monitors Monitor or monitor may refer to: Places * Monitor, Alberta * Monitor, Indiana, town in the United States * Monitor, Kentucky * Monitor, Oregon, unincorporated community in the United States * Monitor, Washington * Monitor, Logan County, West Vir ...

over a single

video Video is an Electronics, electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving picture, moving image, visual Media (communication), media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, whi ...

source by splitting the output of a video source, providing an enlarged

workspace Workspace is a term used in various branches of engineering and economic development. Business development Workspace refers to small premises provided, often by local authorities or economic development agencies, to help new businesses to estab ...

or gaming environment. GXM is not a

graphics card A graphics card (also called a video card, display card, graphics adapter, VGA card/VGA, video adapter, display adapter, or mistakenly GPU) is an expansion card which generates a feed of output images to a display device, such as a computer mo ...

itself, and in fact requires a fairly powerful graphics card for playing games on multiple monitors. While most modern graphics cards have support for dual monitors and can expand a desktop across three screens, 3D games are generally limited to a single monitor. The GXM uses the standard

Extended Display Identification Data Extended Display Identification Data (EDID) and Enhanced EDID (E-EDID) are metadata formats for display devices to describe their capabilities to a video source (e.g. graphics card or set-top box). The data format is defined by a standard publishe ...

(EDID) structure to communicate its capabilities to the graphics card just as a monitor does. However, the GXM's

resolution Resolution(s) may refer to: Common meanings * Resolution (debate), the statement which is debated in policy debate * Resolution (law), a written motion adopted by a deliberative body * New Year's resolution, a commitment that an individual ma ...

includes all

pixel In digital imaging, a pixel (abbreviated px), pel, or picture element is the smallest addressable element in a raster image, or the smallest point in an all points addressable display device. In most digital display devices, pixels are the s ...

s in the three monitors. If the TripleHead2Go were hooked up to three monitors with 800×600 resolution, the TripleHead2Go would report itself as a single monitor with 2400×600 resolution. The graphics card then sends out a 2400×600 signal which the TripleHead2Go divides and distributes to the appropriate monitors.

TripleHead2Go

The TripleHead2Go supports 3 displays at the output, and has maximum resolution of 3840×1024@60 Hz (1280×1024 each). The low 60 Hz refresh rate is used in all except 3072x768 resolution which makes it unsuitable for

CRT CRT or Crt may refer to: Science, technology, and mathematics Medicine and biology * Calreticulin, a protein *Capillary refill time, for blood to refill capillaries *Cardiac resynchronization therapy and CRT defibrillator (CRT-D) * Catheter-re ...

monitors (however, the severity of flickering perceived by viewers depend on other factors).

TripleHead2Go Digital Edition

The TripleHead2Go

Digital Edition A digital edition is an online magazine or online newspaper delivered in electronic form which is formatted identically to the print version. Digital editions are often called digital facsimiles to underline the likeness to the print version. Dig ...

supports

DVI-I Digital Visual Interface (DVI) is a video display interface developed by the Digital Display Working Group (DDWG). The digital interface is used to connect a video source, such as a video display controller, to a display device, such as a comp ...

output. The maximum resolution was originally 3840×1024@60 Hz (1280×1024 each), but on August 5, 2008 Matrox announced the support for new

widescreen Widescreen images are displayed within a set of aspect ratios (relationship of image width to height) used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ratio greater than t ...

resolution, with a maximum resolution of 5040×1050@57 Hz (1680×1050 each).

DualHead2Go

It is similar to TripleHead2Go, except it supports only 2 displays. When setting output to 1024x768 per display, the

refresh rate The refresh rate (or "vertical refresh rate", "vertical scan rate", terminology originating with the cathode ray tubes) is the number of times per second that a raster-based display device displays a new image. This is independent from frame ra ...

can be set up to 85 Hz. It has maximum resolution of 2560×1024@60 Hz (1280×1024 each). It was later renamed to ''DualHead2Go Analog Edition''.

DualHead2Go Digital Edition

Compared to original DualHead2Go, this one supports DVI-I output by converting input signal to

digital Digital usually refers to something using discrete digits, often binary digits. Technology and computing Hardware *Digital electronics, electronic circuits which operate using digital signals **Digital camera, which captures and stores digital i ...

, but it still supports

analog Analog or analogue may refer to: Computing and electronics * Analog signal, in which information is encoded in a continuous variable ** Analog device, an apparatus that operates on analog signals *** Analog electronics, circuits which use analo ...

output. It has maximum resolution of 3840×1200@60 Hz (1920×1200 each).

Gaming

At this writing (2006) the Matrox TripleHead2Go was the only consumer level device which allows 3D gaming across three monitors with an expanded

field of view The field of view (FoV) is the extent of the observable world that is seen at any given moment. In the case of optical instruments or sensors it is a solid angle through which a detector is sensitive to electromagnetic radiation. Humans a ...

(FOV). Very few games directly support playing at these large resolutions, although many can be tweaked to run on the TripleHead2Go. Matrox maintains a

compatibility Compatibility may refer to: Computing * Backward compatibility, in which newer devices can understand data generated by older devices * Compatibility card, an expansion card for hardware emulation of another device * Compatibility layer, compon ...

list of games and provides a Surround Gaming Utility to automatically adjust the game settings to run on three monitors. Some problems remain with distortions to the

user interface In the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, a user interface (UI) is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine f ...

and geometric distortions at the edges of the display since the games weren't written with such a wide FOV in mind. In 2009, AMD/ATI released its

Radeon HD 5000 Series The Evergreen series is a family of GPUs developed by Advanced Micro Devices for its Radeon line under the ATI brand name. It was employed in Radeon HD 5000 graphics card series and competed directly with Nvidia's GeForce 400 Series. Release ...

which included an

AMD Eyefinity AMD Eyefinity is a brand name for AMD video card products that support multi-monitor setups by integrating multiple (up to six) display controllers on one GPU. AMD Eyefinity was introduced with the Radeon HD 5000 Series "Evergreen" in September ...

-branded

display controller A video display controller or VDC (also called a display engine or display interface) is an integrated circuit which is the main component in a video-signal generator, a device responsible for the production of a TV video signal in a computin ...

s. These display controllers allow users to use 3 or more monitors on a single video card, using at least one

display port DisplayPort (DP) is a digital display interface developed by a consortium of PC and chip manufacturers and standardized by the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA). It is primarily used to connect a video source to a display device s ...

on the back of the card.

External links

Matrox TripleHead2GoMatrox Graphics unveils DualHead2Go Digital Edition—external multi-display upgrade for notebook and desktop computersMatrox Graphics announces new triple widescreen modes for the TripleHead2Go Digital EditionVideowall Display, Software & Accessories Solution
{{Matrox Graphics Cards Graphics cards Multi-monitor