NVIDIA's TwinView architecture, which debuts on the GeForce2 MX, consists of an independent digital flat panel processor. With two independent display pipelines, a flexible and complete multi-head architecture is possible with the GeForce2 MX.
Dual Independent Digital Flat Panel Processor
The GeForce2 MX supports Transition Minimized Differential Signaling (TMDS) which uses a low-cost physical interface to the flat panel monitor. There are two TMDS channels, each capable of independently driving a digital flat panel. By using the TDMS standard, NVIDIA can allow PC OEMs to offer flat panel based systems and also maintain VGA analog functionality for legacy monitors.
With TwinView you can actually have a desktop that spans up to four monitors by using two GeForce2 MX boards (one AGP, one PCI).
Think of the benefits of using four monitors in financial applications such as stock trading. Certain games, such as Microsoft's Flight Simulator 2000 and Baseball 2000, support multiple displays out of the box. In a flight simulator, you can use a second display to view out from the aircrafts windows rather than having to pan the view on a single monitor.
Games can be run in display clone mode with a big screen TV as one output device or you can watch TV or a DVD movie on your PC without obscuring your main monitor. And to show off your Quake skills, you can even output to a VCR.
|
Extend one application across two displays
|
|
Run seperate applications
|
Additional benefits of TwinView include video editing applications which use one large PC display and one NTSC monitor. Since the GeForce2 MX allows decoupling of refresh rates, the PC (editing) display could be a high-resolution RGB monitor for running the application, while the second monitor can be an NTSC or s-video display for checking the video output for proper color balance and quality. Home theater systems can take advantage of the DVD capabilities of your PC. Hook up a large screen television as a second monitor and you can watch DVDs.
|
Surf the Web while watching a movie
|
|
Play a 3D game on a big screen TV
|
NVIDIA’s unified driver offers tremendous flexibility in how the dual monitors are used. Depending on your application, there are several different modes supported:
- Standard Windows 98 multimonitor support: In this mode, the desktop area is spread across both displays. The refresh rate, color depth, and resolution may be independently set for each display. You can set this mode for multiple categories of displays, although display limitations may override the capabilities of the GeForce2 MX. For example, if the second display is an NTSC TV monitor, you won’t be able to set the resolution above 800 x 600, nor set the refresh rate above 60Hz due to the limitations of the monitor itself. However, the PC monitor in such a configuration may have its refresh rate and resolution set much higher. The desktop may be stretched horizontally or stacked vertically as well.
- Application exclusive: An application may be dedicated to one of the two monitors (or both, if necessary). Examples of this include entertainment applications, digital video editing, and DVD playback.
- Clone mode: Two monitors may show exactly the same output, useful for presentations. The presenter may have a small monitor on the podium while a projector or presentation quality display shows the larger image to the audience. Application zoom mode. In this mode, part of the image from the primary monitor is shown on the secondary display, but zoomed in. This mode can be used for image editing, close-up work in modeling or CAD applications, or image processing and mapping applications.
- Application zoom mode: In this mode, part of the image from the primary monitor is shown on the secondary display, but zoomed in. This mode can be used for image editing, close-up work in modeling or CAD applications, or image processing and mapping applications.
Digital Vibrance Control is a patent pending innovation which allows the display to be optimally tuned for rich color, and brighter, cleaner images. The amount of Digital Vibrance is determined by four user selectable settings which are off, low, medium, and high. These settings are applicable to all visuals including images, 2D, 3D, and video.
Digital Vibrance Control
Next Page: Performance