Nvidia + Matrox TripleHead2Go with resolution 5040x1050!

[xianthax]

out of curiosity, does anyone knows of a reasonably priced stand for 6 x 22" wide screens in a 2 x 3 arrangement?

they all seem to be about $500, and there is no way i can talk myself into that for a few pieces of metal and some screws

cheers,

x

[JaXXoN]

Originally Posted by xianthax

out of curiosity, does anyone knows of a reasonably priced stand for 6 x 22" wide screens

BTW.: I'm right now also looking into this because of obvious reason :-)

Originally Posted by xianthax

in a 2 x 3 arrangement?

I guess you mean in a 3x2 arrangement (width/rows x height/columns)?

Originally Posted by xianthax

they all seem to be about $500, and there is no way i can talk myself into that for a few pieces of metal and some screws

This stuff is even more expensive on this side of the pond!

I guess i will put something simple together based on wood *g*

Bernhard

[JaXXoN]

Originally Posted by JaXXoN

I guess you mean in a 3x2 arrangement (width/rows x height/columns)?

Arrgh, i actually mean 3x2 arrangement (width/columns x height/rows)

[xianthax]

we're talking about the same arrangement i tend to think in row major for arrays as habit (rows, columns)

best so far i've found is this:

http://www.manhattan-products.com/en...d-monitor-pole

which can be found on amazon for about $215 USD and seems to have the adjustment and weight requirements to hold 6 x 22" widescreens in a comfortable viewing position.

i'd rather have a stand instead of the the desk mount due to having glass topped desks, but i could rig something safe up with this using support blocks on either side of the glass to spread the strain.

i'll look more closely after i see the results for 3 or 4 screens.

cheers,

x

[svet-am]

Originally Posted by JaXXoN

Hi!

Just for those who might be interested: i figured out how to get the 5040x1050
(3x 1650x1050) wide screen mode working with TH2G on Linux!

Please find attached a sample xorg.conf additionally including modelines for
3840x1024 (3x 1280x1024), 4080x768 (3x 1360x768) and 4320x768 (3x 1440x900).

There is no need to configure the TH2G from a windows computer since
the TH2G does it's best effort to distribute the input signal reasonably.
However, you may like to replace the default 3840x1024 EDID information
flashed into the box, because you may get a very distorted, hard to read
display during boot-up.

ATTENTION: since it is necessary to override the EDID information
(UseEDID set to False and ExactModeTimingsDVI set to True) in the
xorg.conf file, double check that the displays attached are capable of the
desired resolution. In theory, your LCDs could be damaged if they receive signals
beyond their limit! Nowerdays, LCDs typically will just say "Out of Range" on the
on-screen-display and won't be harmed, but you never know. You have been warned!

Make sure that you have the latest firmware installed on the TH2G:
http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/su...igital/howto1/
You need a windows computer in order to perform the update, but you
can do that within a virtual windows installation inside VMware.

Please note that i needed to increase the 2D clocks for my GTX 260 using
nvidia-settings or otherwise i recognized some annoying screen blanking
during certain graphics operations. I assume that the default memory
bandwidth of 100MHz is probably to slow for the 5040x1050 screen resolution.

regards

Bernhard

can you let me know where you got your timing numbers for the modelines. I'm using the numbers from Matrox's specs and they don't line up with what you have.

[JaXXoN]

Originally Posted by svet-am

can you let me know where you got your timing numbers for the modelines.

I installed windows XP on a separate hard drive, setup the TH2G as
desired and then read out the active timing parameters utilizing the
nvidia control panel (that comes with the nvidia driver for windows).

For details, i recommend reading:
http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=109567

Originally Posted by svet-am

I'm using the numbers from Matrox's specs and they don't line up with what you have.

Out of curiosity, which numbers from which spec are you referring to?

regards

Bernhard

[JaXXoN]

Originally Posted by svet-am

can you let me know where you got your timing numbers for the modelines.

Addenum: i used the nvidia control panel (on windows) to determine the timings
for the widescreen modes 5040x1050 and 4320x900, only. For 3840x1024, 4080x768
and 3360x1050 i did it in a different way: attached/routed the TH2G to a virtual
windows 2000 running inside VMware, then flashed the appropriate mode
using the Matrox PowerDeskSE tool. The mode timings will then show up in the
EDID and can easily be read out by the X-Server which in turn calculates the timings
(which worked fine for me).

In other words: for 3x1680x1050 and 3x1440x900 i used nvidia control panel
on windows and for 3840x1024, 4080x768, i retrieved the pre-flashed EDID settings.

BTW.: the EDID variant was not possible for resolutions >4095, because the
appropriate EDID fields have only 12 bits, so a value of 5040 couldn't be
encoded and flashed into the EDID.

Again, out of curiosity: which modelines do you have? Are the modelines
as suggested in the xorg.conf file above not working for you?

regards

Bernhard

[xianthax]

just an update, my first triple head 2 go came in today, i have 3 x screen running off it at 1680 x 1050 each. works awesome, compiz works perfectly, and my 3d apps have seen about a 25% frame rate boost over the Xinerama setup even with compiz active.

seems to be a pretty ideal setup so far, haven't seen any quirks or problems, just seems to work as one would expect.....

now when i get crazy enough to setup 3 more screens we'll see what happens

-xian

[JaXXoN]

Originally Posted by xianthax

works awesome, compiz works perfectly, and my 3d apps have seen about a 25% frame rate boost over the Xinerama setup even with compiz active.

Glad to hear it's working fine for you!

Originally Posted by xianthax

now when i get crazy enough to setup 3 more screens we'll see what happens

Just a minute ago a got the confirmation that i can pickup the six 22"LCDs
that i ordered on Monday, so i can tell you what happens with six displays,
later the day :-) But i don't expect any serious problems.

regards

Bernhard

[JaXXoN]

Originally Posted by xianthax

just an update, my first triple head 2 go came in today, i have 3 x screen running off it at 1680 x 1050 each.

I understand you are running your three displays in 5040x1050 wide screen mode
at 57 Hz (means: all LCDs connected to the TH2G)? In other words, you are not
using the 3360x1050+1680x1050 twinview setup as mentioned, earlier?

Can you please tell which displays you have?

Today, i took myself time to try out one of the Acer V223Wbd LCDs along with
two Benq 2091FP LCDs (all three connected to the TH2G). The Benq LCDs
worked as expected, but the Acer LCD only recognized 1680x1024 with the
consequence that the picture is stretched (resulting in ugly moire-patterns) and
26 pixels are missing. The same problem appears with windows (taskbar missing).
Running the GXM wizard did't helped.

Maybe it makes a difference when hooking three Acer displays to the TH2G
(rather than mixing with the Benq LCDs) and then running the GXM wizard, again?
I will probably try that out tomorrow, but opening more boxes will just make the
return harder in case it strictly doesn't work :-(


@svet-am
Can you please post your timing information or modelines? Maybe the TH2G
timings differ for different displays?

Feedback is highly appreciated!

regards

Bernhard

[xianthax]

yes 5040 x 1050 @ 57hz all off 1 port on the card, 3 screens hooked to the th2go

2 x acer AL2223W
1 x benQ something, label is worn off says "senseye" on the base

i used the modeline for 5040 x 1050 from the xorg file you posted in this thread.

cheers,

x

[JaXXoN]

Hi!

Just to keep those interested in the loop: i got the six displays working by slightly
modifying the timing. Seems like the Matrox default value for the vertical blanking
(1066) was too aggressive for the Acer V223Wbd LCDs and needed to be slightly
increased. In order to compensate that i also slightly increased the pixel clock.

The appropriate modeline looks like this:

ModeLine       "5040x1050" 328.80 5040 5104 5168 5376 1050 1053 1057 1073 +HSync +VSync

However, one of the six displays was DOA, so will need to return it ...

regards

Bernhard