Matrox TripleHead 2 Go Digital Edition (DVI) review - 1 - A Threeway introduction

Matrox TripleHead 2 Go Digital Edition

Matrox TripleHead 2 Go Digital Edition (DVI)
Info: Matrox
Price: 329 USD

You guys still remember Matrox right ? At one point in time Matrox actually was pretty big player in the consumer graphics card industry, their last 3D gaming card was actually the Matrox Parhelia, I remember it well as the foundation of that card was pretty interesting. Unfortunately the stringent and harsh market made them move out of that segment of the industry, followed by a large reorganization.

They are still a large company yet their focused has changed completely. Predominantly you as a consumer will not be able to buy a large amount of their products as the target right now is the professional market. Though every now and then they release a product that does penetrate that consumer market.

Exactly two years ago we reviewed the analog (VGA) Matrox Triplehead to go. And although a little rough around the edges when it came to graphics card support, times have changed for the better. In fact last year they released a digital (DVI interface) version of the product and we figured it was about time to check out how this small box of magic has developed, and we where pleasantly surprised I might add.

But let's start with a simple explanation first, to answer the question .. what exactly is the a TripleHead2Go device ?

A common question that we receive a lot is this one: "I have two monitors, can I play my games on both screens ?". Unfortunately the reality somehow is like opening a can of worms. Only very few games have good support for this. The one that does come to mind is Microsoft Flight Simulator.

Wouldn't it be fun to utilize all that 3D rendering power by using not two .. but even three monitors at once with broad support at a Windows XP/Vista platform like a surround gaming experience just like multi channel sound ?

Matrox came to the rescue with their TripleHead2Go. Marketed more towards the gaming community, this small unit acts as an intermediary between your video card and the flat panels. The Matrox PowerDesk and Surround Gaming Utility applications allow you to change your resolution to three times the normal horizontal width at which point the TH2G hardware then takes that signal and splits it between three flat panels thus giving your system three times the horizontal width using only one output from your video card. In very simple wording, this device makes your VGA card think it's one monitor .. yet the device will output your desktop and gaming environment over three monitors.

So have a peek at the device after which we'll dive into the review.