Would this work: GF2 GTS (AGP) for games + G450 (PCi) for 2D?

[Tero Lehto]

I want to have the picture quality (2D) of G450 but I'm not satisfied with its game performance. Therefore I'm considering combining a G450 PCI adapter with a GF2 GTS (Elsa or Leadtek) adapter in the same PC.

In theory this should work just fine by disabliing D3D and OGL support from the PowerDesk settings of G450, but has anyone tried this in practice with games? The point is to have the GF2 deal with D3D and OGL games and let G450 handle the rest.

The hardware configuration would be: ASUS A7V-133, TB 1,33 GHz 2x (PC-133) 128 MB SDRAM, G450 PCI and GF2 GTS (AGP) from Elsa or Leadtek.

[Maggi]

should work ...

connect your higher quality monitor to the Matrox card (the 2nd one obviously to the GeForce)

goto your BIOS and set VGA boot sequence to "PCI first" or "PCI/AGP"

enter desktop properties, click on the greyed out 2nd monitor that should appear in the settings tab and enable "expend desktop to this monitor" (or whatever they called it)

Then drag all your 2D apps to your main monitor (that one that's hooked up to the G450) and off you go ... I hope

at least that's the theory and I have no clue about NVidia drivers and their compatibility to multiple gfx card setups.

Lemme know how far you get.

Cheers,
Maggi

[Brian R.]

My gaming computer uses an ASUS V7700 with a G200 PCI. Works fine. I have the ASUS as the primary display. Latest detonator drivers and G200 PCI drivers. WinME, W2K and Win98 all worked fine with this setup. Had trouble installing W2K with the G200 card disconnected from the monitor. Not a big deal.

[Tero Lehto]

Thanks a lot for both of you.

One more thought. The product description of G450 PCI ( http://www.matrox.com/mga/products/mill_g450/pci.cfm ) notes the following:

G450 PCI is recommended for systems based on Intel chipsets. Feature and performance support for systems based on non-Intel chipsets is limited. Please visit the FAQ on our website for more details.

This means - according to the G450 PCI "FAQ" - that e.g. bus mastering won't wirk with non-Intel motherboards which wouldn't a problem in this case, but should I also expect instability? As I mentioned earlier, I'll probably use the ASUS-ATV-133 board.

Anyway, I'm after the 2D picture quality and normal office-like use, so maybe G200 PCI would be fine as of what comes to performance - at least it's a lot cheaper than the G450 PCI.

[This message has been edited by Tero Lehto (edited 28 April 2001).]

[Brian R.]

Go with the G450. Haven't been able to compare them side by side with the same monitors and computer, but in my two setups, the G450 has much better display quality.

[bugblatt]

The ATI Radeon is supposed to have image quality on a par with the G450. Personally I'd get a Radeon (then you can use your main monitor for 2D and 3D, not just 2D) and get a cheap PCI card for the second monitor. Or alternatively there's the Radeon VE which has dual-monitor support but itsn't as fast as a full Radeon.