Back in February, Carolyn Koh brought us a review of the Matrox TripleHead2Go, a device that allowed users to use three monitors as one, elongated display. Today, Carolyn reviews the new kid on the block for Matrox: the Digital Edition of the TripleHead2Go.

I had reviewed the analog edition of the Matrox TripleHead2Go in February of this year and when asked to review the digital edition, my first thought was, "No problem!" However, it became more involved than I had originally guessed. The TripleHead2Go was, in my opinion, a fantastic eye-candy upgrade for any gamer. I enjoyed immensely having the "peripheral vision" that was missing before and it took me back into playing MMORPGs in first person view, improving the immersive aspect of a good role-playing game. How does one then review a new and improved version of the concept? What aspects of this eye-candy goodness could be improved? Would the speed difference from the analog to digital version even be noticeable visually? As it turns out, the improvements are to be found in more than one aspect of the package.

Testing Methodology

I started out being determined to review the digital edition in comparison with the analog. Did I have the wherewithal to do an A-B comparison - that is, compare the two of them together? Remember that we're not a hardware review place with an office that has a bunch of hardware laying around. We do this for the love of the work. I didn't know what I was letting myself in for when I agreed to review this device!

I determined after the first weekend that it would be easier to cart the computer to the office than to cart all the monitors I needed back to my house. After several weekends over the month of September and into October where I played with different monitors and analog/digital connectors to see if I could see any real discernable differences. I realized that to be able to do a proper A-B comparison, I would require two identical equipment configurations with the Matrox unit and drivers being the only difference, and perhaps one comparison using DX10 on the computer with the digital edition and DX9 on the computer with the analog edition. Something that would be possible for a hardware review site - not for us at MMORPG.com (apart from MMORPGs not supporting DX10 yet).

Read it all here.

Packaged with the box are one each of a USB cable, a DVI cable and a VGA cable. All cables have EMI/RFI (Electro-Magnetic Interference / Radio Frequency Interference) filtering on both ends and the

and the what?

The paragraph above the picture of the cd ends abruptly.

 Looks like a nice device if you have spare monitors laying around.

i have three 19 inch monitors from my old pcs :\  >.< man i want one for xmas now!

I have the original triplehead and have to say that playing a game like EVE with 3 monitors is so much better than one. You can lay all your chat out nicely so you can keep a proper eye on local etc. In most MMOs it's nice to have all that space to play with.

I use TH2GoD.  Love it!  I can't imaging playing games on a single screen now.  The only thing that I see that is useless is the SGU software. You really don't need to install it.  You can pick the resolutions you want in the game's menu mostly.

What if you have a 22" wide and two 19" monitors?

I did.  In one of my setups, I actually used a 22" & 2 x 17" screens because I was testing digital vs analog inputs & the 22" had a dual input, while the 17" were analog.

What happens is that you need to set the "tallest" screen in the center.  The side screens will then crop a little of the top and bottom.

If their heights are all the same, then you don't lose anything.  You see, the resolution you select is fixed and it doesn't matter if it is divided exactly between 3 monitors or not.

*grins*

I didn't take photographs of my test set-ups but I had a whole lotta ugly mis-matched monitor setups.

For those new to this awesome product, I think link to Matrox website is needed (loads of photos showing it in action)

www.matrox.com/graphics/en/gxm/news/artwork/th2go/home.php

So I am assuming that if you have a dual head DVI output on your GRFX card you could attach the TripleHead on one DVI port to get 3 monitor support.  Now.. can you use a 4th monitor or yet (sick idea but I like it) add another TripleHead for a whopping 4 to 6 monitor output?

Some how I think using a DLP projector or a 42"+ display maybe more practical.

Lightning I don't see why not be able to considering the device makes windows think you're operating only one insanely proportioned monitor. Except that Windows (not to mention your graphics card) would be working at its maximum supported resolution. Also I don't think you could possibly build a computer powerful enough to run any current games with 6 monitors on any decent settings in any playable state.

I can say I've been looking into widescreen gaming a lot since reading this review, and I think this has inspired my next PC build (next couple months, my old AGP system is way outdated and my video card just went out on it). Gonna have some big holiday commission checks rolling in in the next couple months and I'm thinking to spend about $4k on a ridiculously good system build.

You know I took a deep look in getting one of these since my last post.  They pretty much go for $300 and if you wanted to throw another 19" into the mess so you could have 3 matched monitors... well that would be another $200.  So I already have the 2 so that cost me around $400 a few months back. 

$400 Spent on Monitors

$200 on yet another monitor

$300 to be able to do all 3

= $900

I think I could have got a 32" - 36" LCD in that much.

Originally posted by Sylvene

I did.  In one of my setups, I actually used a 22" & 2 x 17" screens because I was testing digital vs analog inputs & the 22" had a dual input, while the 17" were analog.

What happens is that you need to set the "tallest" screen in the center.  The side screens will then crop a little of the top and bottom.

If their heights are all the same, then you don't lose anything.  You see, the resolution you select is fixed and it doesn't matter if it is divided exactly between 3 monitors or not.

*grins*

I didn't take photographs of my test set-ups but I had a whole lotta ugly mis-matched monitor setups.

 

Just so I understand this, when you put the tallest screen in the center, that is the one that crops top and bottom to match the 17 inch screens, correct? If thats true then if you had the opposite and your side screens were larger than they would crop top and bottom to match center.  Reason I'm trying to get that straight,  I'm looking to do this with a 24" center  and  two 19". I've been looking at different monitors to find the closest match on height.

No, what happened was that the side "shorter" ones were "cropped" top and bottom by the physical height area of the monitors.  There weren't any black bands top and bottom if that's what you are asking.

The thing that is the real issue is how they physically line up height & tilt-wise - some monitors do not have tilt and/or height adjustment.

Monitors with built in speakers will be problematic for wide-screen gaming if the speakers are on the sides, creating 2" or wider bezels.  That's quite a bit game to be missing.

hello everyone;

       I have tried to find some more info on this device and graphic cards. What i'm interested in if you are using a sli card setup why would you need this device if at all?     looking at a new build and want to know more about this so i can setup a 3 monitor system.  But keeping the cost down as much as possible.

i'm looking at a dual ati hd3870 cards. i might go with the triple nvidia 9800gts sli. so both of these setups say they can handle 4 monitors.  so what the dilli-o daddy-o.