Dual monitor possible?

[Liam Proven]

On 05/10/2007, Allan Valeriano <allvaleriano at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 10/5/07, Liam Proven <lproven at gmail.com> wrote:
> > I think you're stuck, and by the sound of it, unless you're short of
> > RAM, you'd probably be better off with your built-in graphics. I'd
> > suggest buying a more modern nVidia card with twin monitor outputs. I
> > expect you'd pick one up for the price of a beer on eBay.
> >
>
> Is there any card which one can plug 3 monitors, or to do that I must buy 2
> graphic cards?

The Matrox Parhelia. [ Yes, that's the singular. People don't
understand Latin plurals any more. :¬( ]

That's it, AFAIK. Anecdotally, it's worth noting, Matrox's Linux
drivers for their more modern cards (since the G550) is abysmal. See
here:
http://www.sowerbutts.com/matrox/

Summary: not recommended.

I have successfully used a PCI Radeon 7000 in a machine with a
single-head AGP card - in fact, as it happens, an nVidia. That was
under Windows XP, tho'.

For triple-head support on Linux, my first suggestion would be "don't".
My second would be "no, really, don't".
My third would be "well, if you insist, but prepare for a world of pain."

I'd then suggest either:
- for an AGP system, a dual-head ATI card plus a PCI Radeon 7000 or
9200. But really, seriously, don't even try it.
- for a PCI-Express system, an SLI-capable motherboard with, ideally,
at least 8 lanes to the second graphics slot and preferably two
16-lane slots, two identical dual-head capable cards, and dedicating a
good few days to mucking around with xorg.conf. Suggested preparation
would include getting a 2nd working machine ready, next to the first,
for looking stuff up on the Web while you work, and also finding a
good list of handy swearwords, memorising them and learning their
correct use. (With apologies to Bill Watterson.)

I am very fond of dual-head. The PC I'm typing on is a dual-head
Ubuntu box, with moderately broken installs of W2K and WinXP, both
with dualhead enabled, as was the PC before it. It sits next to a
dual-head Mac set up for dual-head in both OS9 and OS X.

This means I know how much of a pain in the neck it can be to get working!

-- 
Liam Proven • Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/liamproven
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