Matrox TripleHead2Go - Recommended?

[airphotos]

Hi, I use this forum to make an informed decision on all my purchases for FSX and so far on the whole I have not been disappointed.

I am considering purchasing a Matrox TripleHead2Go Digital Edition linked to three 20" Screens running at 1680 x 1050. I have a XFX GTX285 and Matrox's configuration checker tells me it will work ok.

Is anyone using/used one, are they worth the money, any major issues when using with FSX?

Cheers

James

[jetstreamsky]

I've been using the older analogue TH2GO for several years, first with FS9 and then FSX. I wouldn't want to go back to one monitor. There are a few things to know

1. If you use TRACKIR, then v4 or v5 is best as they have a wider field of view than the v3, this is significant as when you turn your head to the outer reaches of the left and right screens v3 loses track.

2. There's a slight narrowing of the view (vertical distance), of course with Trackir that doesn't matter too much, but I'd really like 6 or even 9 monitors (one day maybe)

3. The halo texture used for lights gets overexpanded, so a revised tiny version is needed to fix it. One of the scenery makers makes a free fix for that (possibly GEX), but I noticed someone posted a fix at Avsim this week too.

The digital version allows for continuous image behind the screen bezels, this might seem nice, but actually it's worse in cockpits as switches and indicators get hidden, much better to have the full picture and it's amazing how quickly you don't notice the bezels anyway, much like looking out of a multi-paned window, you simply focus out the frames.

Just be sure the chosen monitor resolutions can be supported by TH2GO or can be set to match, especially if using widescreen monitors.

The biggest advantage of TH2GO is in handling multi-monitors, as far as your PC is concerned is just one very wide monitor, no need to fuss with windows settings which get frequently screwed up and it's really great to run multiple programs like email, browser, Word, etc all at once, very handy.

A must have as far as I'm concerned.

Of course other options are beginning to appear now with Eyefinity from ATI and soon something similar from nVidia, but this Matrox hardware solution works very well indeed.

Allan

[rwmarth]

Triplehead is quite pricey especially since it doesn't include the cost of three monitors. Perhaps take a look at ATI's Eyefinity? From what I gather it's able to use three monitors, but it simply uses outputs on the video card (series HD5800, 5700) and no other hardware.

[jetstreamsky]

The cost of TH2GO does not include monitors, nor does the ATI card, however the TH2GO will work with any card, you don't have to go to specialty cards at each upgrade to maintain the three screens, but 3 screen support is likely to become more common. The downside with the card solution, is that one or maybe two of the monitors have to have a new special digital connector type (the name escapes me at the moment) or adapters have to be used to convert the DVI connector to this new format.

[rwmarth]

Never mind, seems I overpriced it! Probably better off than without getting anew video card then.

[MarkH]

TH2GO gets my recommendation. I have TrackIR 4 with the v5 software and it works extremely well across three 19" 4:3 monitors. Beware if you have not yet bought your monitors (more so if you have). I have read that the widescreen modes (including your chosen 1680x1050) are very picky about what refresh rates your monitor must be capable of. It's something very specific like 57Hz rather than 60Hz. I can't be more specific as I don't run these monitors, but it's worth researching. Ask in the Orbx forums, as I have seen it discussed there.

[Alan_A]

I swear by TH2GO. Because of the refresh rate issue, I'm unable to use it at maximum resolution - I run 3 Dell 20" monitors at 1440 x 900 off a GTX 280. But the resolution is fine - I don't feel that I'm losing anything.

TH2GO costs frames - the card has to push 3 times as many horizontal pixels. Fortunately I installed it when I built my rig and I've never run without it, so I don't know what I'm missing. Performance is good for me but I'm on a high-end machine - i7 965 clocked to 3.875, and 6 gb of 1600 DRAM at 8-8-8-24. A less powerful rig might struggle.

And yes, it's great with TrackIR (I'm on version 5 hardware and software). Makes landing from the pattern much, much, much easier.

[Warrant]

I recommend the 2htgo as well. I have it connected to 2 8800gt cards (1gb each) in SLI configuration and connected to 3 x 22 inch LCD screen running steady at a 3840 x 1024 resolution.
The only minor is you need to be careful with selection of other games, not all support this resolution.