Widescreen Gaming Forum

Hi there everyone,

Since nvidia will not give SLI multi monitor support, I can not use the program SOFTTH for ultra high rez surround gaming because it would be pointless as today's games will suffer and be almost unplayable.

I was wondering if anyone heard any news about if or when matrox will update their hardware or give us a firmware update so that it would allow us to play games at 5040 x 1050 resolution or higher with SLI enabled (Since DX9 is capped)?

If a free program can allow games to be played at such a high resolution, I can't understand why Matrox will not cater those who have high-end graphics card setups (I will go out and buy another 9800 gx2 for quad sli) that can handle that kind of resolution.

I just want to be able to use my 20" wide screen monitor's native resolutions with surround gaming....I am sick of looking at my blurry desktop, but I can't ever go back to gaming on a single 20" monitor - sigh :(

TH2G is a hardware solution to triplehead gaming, SoftTH is a software solution. Software solutions are always more general than hardware solutions but you pay the price in performance.

It seems foolish to assume that Matrox doesn't want to support widescreen monitor formats, there has to be something more to it than simply updating the unit. My guess is that there is some hardware limitation in TH2G preventing it from being used at native widescreen resolutions.

Taken from a review :

"An unfortunate omission from the list of supported widescreen resolutions is 5040x1050 (triple 1680x1050). Although DX8 and DX9 GPUs are not capable of outputting an image greater than 4096 pixels wide, new DX10 GPUs such as the NVIDIA 8800 series have increased this limit to 8192 pixels, even in DX8 and DX9 applications. Matrox states “the maximum pixel clock supported by the dual-link DVI output could, in theory, enable the triple 1680x1050 resolutionâ€

[quote]Taken from a review :

"An unfortunate omission from the list of supported widescreen resolutions is 5040x1050 (triple 1680x1050). Although DX8 and DX9 GPUs are not capable of outputting an image greater than 4096 pixels wide, new DX10 GPUs such as the NVIDIA 8800 series have increased this limit to 8192 pixels, even in DX8 and DX9 applications. Matrox states “the maximum pixel clock supported by the dual-link DVI output could, in theory, enable the triple 1680x1050 resolutionâ€

People keep on quoting this review. It's not a DX9-DX10 issue. It's a max pixel width video card issue going over 4096. You can do over 4096 in DX9 just fine with current gen hardware. People are confused...

Now for TH2G and over 4096...that's another hardware problem altogether...

Your topic title isn't correct, because TH2G works just fine in DX10. DX10 does not magicly mean any specific resolution.

_________________
Brad Hawthorne
Product Manager
Nthusim Pty. Ltd. | www.nthusim.com

Higher resolutions would be possible.

It would most likely require a new Triple head to go Unit however.

Matrox just has to think they'll make lots of money from it, and it will happen. haha

The quotation is mine, and the quotes are from emails sent by Matrox employees. I wanted to put Matrox's language in the review because I feel their choice of words is very significant.

Ghimpi, I don't believe there's anything wrong with what I wrote. I said "new DX10 GPUs such as the NVIDIA 8800 series have increased [the pixel] limit to 8192 pixels, even in DX8 and DX9 applications." As always, people have to read carefully.

My e-mail to matrox and the reponse :

From: icxnamjah@hotmail.com [mailto:icxnamjah@hotmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2008 8:39 AM
To: Matrox Graphics Sales
Subject: Re: Matrox Inquiry-481



Hi, thanks for the response



I think there was a misunderstanding of what I meant. I know that because of windows limitations, the device supports up to triple 1280x1024, but my question was if one day the resolution limitation of windows changes, will the device support triple 1680x1050 or will I need a new device (or will there be some sort of firmware update) to support the new resolutions?



Thanks

______________________________________________________________

Hi Leo,



There is no announcement as of yet whether or not this resolution limitation of 1680 x 1050 will one day be supported with our device with a firmware update or whether or not you will need a new device in order to support this resolution in the future. This is essentially still undetermined. However, as I mentioned before, I would highly suggest that you visit our website periodically for any updates regarding this issue.



Regards,



Anna Maria Kounougeris
Sales and Marketing Representative
Matrox Graphics Inc.

Toll-free 1-800-361-1408
Email: graphics@matrox.com
URL: http://www.matrox.com/graphics


So, I guess we gotta start bitching at Microsoft now?

I know that because of windows limitations

Windows has a limitation in the resolution it can display? Please clarify it

I don't really get it either.

I'm running Windows in 5040x1050. But is that only because I have multiple graphics cards? Are they saying that a single GPU can't output 5040x1050?

I have two 8800GTX cards in SLI (connected to center monitor) and a 8400GS (connected to side monitors).