No reason to get a Matrox now?

Post by **suiken_2mieu** » 23 Sep 2009, 19:58

They were selling the new released of my 37" for like $500 on buy.com last month. Westinghouse makes a great panel for cheap because its a monitor not a HDTV and the quality is up there with any of the expensive brands.

I still have my user review of this panel here on the user review forum section. If the bezel was not so big I would just go 3x37" Westys :D :D

Hell if I see them for $500 again I may do that anyways the bezel wont matter when the side screens are just fov and immersion.

what resolution is that screen?

Post by **Paradigm Shifter** » 23 Sep 2009, 21:01

Westinghouse 37" is 1080p. So 1920x1080. :)

Magic Man · Post by **Magic Man** » 23 Sep 2009, 23:52

With many seeming to be selling their TH2Go's to switch over to a 5870, it actually looks like now may be a very good time to pick up a TH2Go (or another...) for a good price.

I'm looking to drive quite a few screens so the more options the merrier! :D

Post by **Mach1.9pants** » 24 Sep 2009, 01:52

Yeah I will be keeping mine cos:
1. More options (NVidia latter)
2. Doubt the is much of a market here in NZ, I got it free in a compo anyway :)

Mesh · Post by **Mesh** » 24 Sep 2009, 07:16

Westinghouse is nice sure, till the display freezes, the input needs special timings defined so it doesn't push the image a pixel row up, fails to display an image on input2 because nothing is hooked up to input1.

Although, compared to the 'is it on yet' startup time of samsung and other 'top' brands, Westies are still better.

YouTube · Post by **ViciousXUSMC** » 24 Sep 2009, 07:27

No issues with my Westy unit, had it for years now and use all the inputs, no issues at all, no dead pixels, no problems. It was a very good purchase.

My parents just got a expensive Sony Bravia unit that cost nearly 2x more and I think its not as nice... and start up time is horrible, we turn on the cable box and have a black screen for nearly 15 seconds until the picture comes up.

Westinghouse as a bottom of the barrel brand definitly has some cheap/bad products out there, and I think most brands do but the one I have seems to be very good.

Mesh · Post by **Mesh** » 24 Sep 2009, 07:35

You were lucky then, even the 37w had many revisions, including many probleme shared with the 42w2 I have. I read about em while researching my own problems.

Still as I said, even including all these flaws, it still beats the name brands. Was much cheaper too boot.

jayhigh · Post by **jayhigh** » 25 Sep 2009, 01:47

trust me once your try playing games on a triplemonitor setup... u don't want to go back.

even against a large screen HDTV.

actually, i went back.
after playing LOCKON and BLACK SHARK in triplehead, the game is NOT feasible...

I would always need to have the game zoomed in... if i zoomed out, these games become a slide show.

Before I jump over ga-ga in triple head, i would narrow down, and do the research, see what games you can play, because alot of games dont allow you to be flexible with the FOV (field of Vision)

fortunately, new games seem to be supporting, but again do the research before dump $$$ to realize that your triplehead setup runs like a$$, even though it looks gorgeous spread out over 3 monitors...

for some games that to work in triplehead, be prepared for slide show city

bandito · Post by **bandito** » 25 Sep 2009, 07:36

For Matrox to be competitive/relevant.. They may need to intro a TH2Go or QH2Go that utilize the DP 1.2 spec bandwidth (Though no display card use it yet, maybe soon)... The surely will be able to support 3 or 4 (1920x1200) displays.. and at least 2 (2560x1600, 3 will be pushing at the very edge with reduced blanking) displays

YouTube · Post by **ViciousXUSMC** » 25 Sep 2009, 08:13

For Matrox to be competitive/relevant.. They may need to intro a TH2Go or QH2Go that utilize the DP 1.2 spec bandwidth (Though no display card use it yet, maybe soon)... The surely will be able to support 3 or 4 (1920x1200) displays.. and at least 2 (2560x1600, 3 will be pushing at the very edge with reduced blanking) displays

I think the best thing they can do right now is just reduce the price of there hardware. I always felt it was overpriced and thus why I never got it. The $300ish the TH2Go cost is nearly enough to buy a brand new HD 5870 and that is the top end card so it has a high cost premium associated with it.

I cant see the hardware they sell costing too much to make and they just sold it so high because "they could" as a niche market product. However ATI just did a swat raid on that market and ran Matrox out of town :D

I feel if eyefinity works out Nvidia wont be far behind and then they will be in double trouble.

Still Matrox is the only one that is going to say let a laptop user like me use 2 or 3 external montors with there latpop, and they have several tricks and features up there sleeve that eyefinity doesnt, but the cost just doesnt make it worth it to me.

$100 max for the dual, $150 for the triple then I think I would consider it.

Post by **Paradigm Shifter** » 25 Sep 2009, 10:52

If EyeFinity works on ATi's low end 5000 series card, Matrox can't even survive by dropping the price.

They need to get triple 1920x1200 working.

Post by **Abram** » 25 Sep 2009, 12:13

Not ahving to gwete a th2g was my first thoguht when first reading of thisthing.... Of course I'll wait a wheil for better drivers and to work kinks out.

..and to afford three displays. Know way coudl i use anythign smaller than 22".

YouTube · Post by **ViciousXUSMC** » 25 Sep 2009, 14:50

I hear you Abram, I have wanted 3 monitors for years now, the eyefinity thing just pushed me past my limit because I cut out the $300 Matrox unit, but I still spent more than what I had and shopped as cheap as I could.

I would really highly recommend the Dell 2209WA its 22" and its an e-IPS panel, it goes for $289 right now but I have read several threads of people talking a sales rep down to about $212 for them, its cheaper than the 20" ultrasharp that is selling for $329.

Im on a selling spree right now to make up cost.

Got my pellet rifle on sale, all my Wii games, my Car amps, and have other stuff to go soon :D thats ok I kinda needed to clear out some of the stuff but you can never sell it for what its worth.

Just keep in mind the current issue that we dont know if you need a display port monitor or not for the 3rd monitor, and if an active adapter works and how much they cost. I got a Dell 2408WFP for my 3rd monitor but thats like a $550.00 screen.

Now I am spending my day watching the kids and eyeing my room because I cant fit 3 monitors on my little corner desk lol. So looks like I need to totally rework my room and build a custom desk.

My small projects always end up being so much bigger and more expensive than planned. Gah my arcade project with a budget of like $100 cost me over $500 before it was done, and removing my corner desk means taking apart and breaking part of that project.

Magic Man · Post by **Magic Man** » 25 Sep 2009, 23:05

So looks like I need to totally rework my room and build a custom desk.

Know what you mean. I've decided to move up into the attic. It's only small but my master plan is coming together...

:D

Post by **BHawthorne** » 25 Sep 2009, 23:08

[quote]So looks like I need to totally rework my room and build a custom desk.

Know what you mean. I've decided to move up into the attic. It's only small but my master plan is coming together...

:D

Cool glass cockpit setup. :)

YouTube · Post by **ViciousXUSMC** » 26 Sep 2009, 01:35

My only issue with plans right now is can I drive all 4 of my monitors from the 5870, only need the 3x 24" at one time for computer work, but want to use the left over dvi/hdmi port for the 37" mounted on the wall above them for movies and the wii.

It was said you cant use the 4th port "at the same time" as the other but that leads me to think I can toggle it on/off.

I would use a switch but bad things may happen if I suddenly toggle out one of my 1920x1200 displays to my 1920x1080 screen plus thats more stuff on the desk and more money/cords.

I got my plan worked out, custom size desk going to use 2x file cabinets or similar for end support and a counter top for the desk top/surface. Its going to run down my whole wall at about 8' and its going to be 27" deep (enough to have my computer tower straight back with some room behind for cables and air space.

So now need to go track down the counter top I like and some suitible cabinets for the ends. Should be the cheapest and most effective desk build possible.

Will have L brackets and wood to support it in addition to the cabinets. Need a VESA mount for the 37" now too.

It should be really nice if it all works out as planed.

Brokenwall · Post by **Brokenwall** » 29 Sep 2009, 05:46

For me EyeFinity is great because I use multiple screens all day at work, but I love how when doing work each monitor is its own to all applications and windows. With ATI you can setup a hotkey to switch the displays from a single large display to separate smaller displays.

This will be great for when I want to work and watch a movie fullscreen on one display and do work on the other two.

Right now I work on two and bust out my Asus G51 laptop for the HD movies.

YouTube · Post by **ViciousXUSMC** » 29 Sep 2009, 06:13

I have an Asus W90 laptop :D

But yeah my 24's are due in today its good to know I can toggle between the large group and individual monitors because I know for movies and stuff that a single large display would be bad. I still need to know if I can use all 4 ports on the card and toggle between the hdmi port and the dvi port, if I can do that I am going to be happy with my purchase, if not I should have waited for a better card, or the 5870X2 so I get a more significant upgrade from my dual 4850's I run now.

Post by **Downtown1** » 29 Sep 2009, 07:05

I have 2 DVI cables connected to each of my monitors, one of them goes to the Th2Go, the other straight to the video card. PC has 1 Th2Go input, 3 monitor inputs. Then I switch profiles from one large spanned desktop to 3 individual monitors.

Takes a while to switch selections though, like a good 30 seconds or so. Sometimes it will bug out and I have to switch profiles twice in a row, so it takes about a minute. Plus 1 of my monitors always has to have its mode switched manually. Hopefully with EyeFinity switching between spanned and individual is much faster since they don't have to change which video out they're using, just how they're rendering the desktop.

YouTube · Post by **ViciousXUSMC** » 29 Sep 2009, 07:13

In the video review that was posted it shows the process of going from 3 monitors to eyefinity and it was instant other than the fact he had to tell the manager program the order of his monitors, however after creating the monitor group you should be able to then toggle them on the fly very quickly.

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