After the AVSIM 2006 convention where I was totally blown away by the Matrox Triplehead2go and triple monitors with the Level-D 767, I am researching the possibility of getting the Triplehead2go for my DELL XPS system. The MATROX forum just told me that they expect to have compatibility for my existing ATI Radeon X850 XT PE card soon, but they say it will run at the following with Triplehead2go:3D resolution = max 1920x480 2D resolution = max 3840x1024Presumably, this means that the virtual cockpit rendition will be pretty awful if I have a triple 19" LCD set-up? I am just guessing and wonder if anybody knows exactly?But if this is so, what would be a good card to get to run Triplehead2go in all its wonder? Appreciate any guidance on this, thanks!JS

I originally had mine running on the x800xt at 2040x768 and not as quoted by Matrox. It is not brilliant because the the TFT's are not runnung at their native resolution. I currently run it on a 7900gtx because only nvidia cards have a driver that will allow 3840x1024 in 3d.Matrox seem to expect ATI to mod their drivers to allow similar 3d but who knows when.A 7900GT will also do well or any better nvidia card but do a good search here and on google before buying a 7900gt. There has been a lot of RMA on them due to overheating voltage regulators and memory problems. If you can get the latest Evga version fitted with Infineon memory it should be okay. They are also very good on RMA. Check that the model number ends in AR and not AX (I think).

Thanks for your helpful post with this handy info. I have been researching the various 7900 cards from cheapest to most costly. I am wondering whether a 7900GT will provide a quality of display that is as good as the X850 which has been superlative with heavy aniso and FSAA. Are you very happy or more than that with your gtx card? This is from NewEgg: Does it look appropriate?:eVGA 512-P2-N572-AR Geforce 7900GTX 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail Cheers,JS

Same as mine. I don't think the GTX has had problems.

Sounds good to me! Thanks.JS

Good to know you got yours running on an x800xt. I was going to give it a go but Matrox didn't list the board as compatible, so I decided to pick up a 2405 monitor instead. Anyone ever try the DualHeadToGO with dual 2405's @ their native 1920x1200? Kinda wished I had gone the TripleHead route now instead..... KendallDell 8400 3.2 GHZ H.T.800 FSB/2MB L22 GB 533 DDR2X800XT 256MB/Cat.5.13's6x Adaptive AA/16x HQ A/FIntegrated SoundDual Monitor: Dell 2405/1905CH Yoke/Pedals

I don't think you can run any of the MATROX Head2go stuff on our 2405 panels (I have the same two DELL monitors as you). The max res under nVidia cards is only 3840x1024 or 2560x1024. So FS9 would look absolutely horrible on two 2405 panels, I imagine.My agony is trying to figure out how to do any of this stuff without going broke and also because my current system really is fantastic (yours must be too, no?). But...not as fantastic as it could look with 3x19" SAMSUNG LCDs at 3ms apiece! Really, once you've seen triplehead2go in action, everything else does look stunted and rather inadequate.Oy, the things we do for FS....!JS

Is Matrox DualHead2go really needed to run two 2405 panels? Can't you just span the two displays at native res using your video driver and have one big screen?Gary

Excellent question--really! Don't really know....Guessing: prolly would overstretch the capabilities of the video card,or at least, my ATI 850XT card. Would it not mean that you are doubling the video processing requirement in such a case rather than just splitting the one signal as the Triplehead or DualHead does for MATROX?Shall I spend another $800 and try it out ? (!!!)JS

I shall do a "chat" with DELL support and ask them this question. Will report the results.JS

Should be the same impact on video card capabilities, since your video card has to be driving each pixel coming out of the dual/triplehead, even if it is through Matrox driver trickery.I'm interested in this too, since I've just purchased 2 x 22" Acer widescreen LCDs (1680x1050) and I was hoping to run FS in one big widescreen across the two using span mode. I should get the displays later next week, so I'll report back then.Gary

My understanding is that the Triplehead has zero impact on frames as opposed to stretching the image across two or three screens which would have some impact. Anyway, your dual display experiment sounds very interesting since it could turn out to be brilliant. Please do report back if you get a chance because if it works, I might just get another 2405FP myself and save a heck of a lot of bother (and some $).JS

With ATI at least you can definitely stretch across two monitors using the options in the Catalyst Control Centre. Connect one montor to each card output. Do a search here and I explained how to do it a while backThe main disadvantage is the join between the two screens lines up with the runway or anything else center screen - hence the move to triple head. Even so, two screens are much better than one.

What I am proposing will only work for two monitors I believe, as there are only two video outputs per video card. You may need the triplehead2go, or perhaps dualhead2go and the spanned output of two monitors to get it setup with three monitors.BTW, I'm having a bit of trouble finding where to turn on span mode with both my ATI desktop system and nVidia notebook. On the former I have CCC uninstalled and I think it's somewhere in there. On the latter I don't see span as an option if I run the display wizard, even though I have confirmed span is definately supported on notebookforums. I'll just have to keep playing and maybe try some different video drivers.Gary

I have used only the DELL packaged ATI drivers for my card and don't think it has a Catalyst Control Center. Anyway, I'll explore further.Yeah, the centering would be an issue, I guess. I also am wondering whether there is simply greater physical and also visual flexibility with three monitors because you can then simulate peripheral vision somewhat better than with two monitors.Tough stuff to reflect on this Friday !JS