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The goal for this review was to build a low-cost 3-monitor system using Nvidia video cards, and to test support for features such as video playback and 3D graphics.
Test system
Dell Precision 650 with dual Xeon 2.4 GHz, Intel E7505 chipset, 1 GB RAM. Windows XP SP1. Monitors: 1 Dell 17" CRT, 2 V7 15" analog LCDs. The AGP video card was set as primary in BIOS.
The video cards
AGP ASUS V9180TD: Nvidia GeForce4 MX 440 chipset, 64 MB RAM, 1x DVI, 1x VGA, 1x TV-out. You can connect 2 analog monitors using the included DVI-to-VGA converter. Please note that a maximum of 2 displays is supported, not 3: for example if you have connected 2 analog monitors and a TV, only 2 monitors will be listed in Display Properties. But you will be able to switch the output of one of the displays between the monitor and the TV.
PCI Gainward GeForce4 PowerPack! Pro/450 TV/PCI: Nvidia GeForce4 MX 420 chipset, 64 MB RAM, 1x VGA, 1x TV-out. Supports up to two independent displays. When a TV is connected, it will show up as an additional monitor in Display Properties.
Also installed were 2 PCI eVGA GeForce2 MX cards (1x VGA only), which were disabled most of the time. They can be enabled without problem though, adding support for 2 additional monitors to this configuration.
The Nvidia 41.09 reference drivers were used for all cards.
ASUS card with DVI-to-VGA converter (top), Gainward card (bottom)
Multi-monitor modes
After installation, the video cards will be in DualView mode, also called independent displays mode. This means that each monitor can use different settings (resolution, color, refresh rate), and you can use different applications on each monitor. If only a single monitor is connected to the video card, the mode selection will be disabled.
Most of the testing for this review was done in DualView mode.
Span mode: in this mode, both displays connected to the video card form a single large display, instead of being independent of each other. For this mode it is best to have two identical monitors, because both monitors will have to use the same settings. Span mode is mainly useful for 3D applications, especially if a 3D window needs to be stretched across both monitors.
Clone mode: both displays show the same thing. Clone mode is often used for presentations. As with span mode, both monitors need to use the same settings.
To enable span or clone mode, you need to disable the second monitor connected to the video card, then open the Nvidia settings for the first monitor, and select the desired mode. Switching between different modes doesn't require a reboot.
Please note that span and clone mode are limited to a single video card. It isn't possible to use span mode to combine monitors from different video cards, and you can't clone a monitor on a different video card.
The following screenshot shows how Display Properties looks like with the ASUS card in span mode. Monitors 1 and 3 are connected to the ASUS card.
Video/DVD playback
Video and DVD playback worked fine on all monitors, I was able to play the same DVD movie (.vob file) on each monitor using Zoom Player. Please note that both cards only support video overlays on one display at a time, but this didn't pose a problem with video and DVD playback. Stretching a single video across more than one monitor isn't supported, also doesn't work in span mode.
Cloning a video in clone mode doesn't work, the video window on the second monitor will be blank.
3D applications
Direct3D works fine on all 3 monitors, but with the usual limitations (only specially programmed applications will be fully hardware-accelerated on each monitor). See the FAQ for more on this issue. When using span mode with 2 monitors, any Direct3D application is fully hardware-accelerated on each monitor, and can also be stretched across both monitors without performance loss.
OpenGL: Nvidia has excellent support for multi-monitor OpenGL. You can move windows to any monitor, as well as stretch them across multiple monitors, and still get decent performance. I used Nvidia's RigidBody demo for performance testing.
In DualView mode, I got the best performance on the monitor connected to the VGA port of the AGP card (100 fps), 75 fps on all other monitors, and 45 fps if the window was placed between two monitors.
In span mode with 2 monitors, I got 75 fps on both monitors, also when the window was stretched across both monitors.
Surround gaming
I tried to stretch Unreal Tournament 2003 across all 3 monitors (using OpenGL and windowed mode), but couldn't get it working, the system locked up as soon as I extended the window to more than one monitor.
In span mode it worked fine, but because it is limited to 2 monitors it isn't very useful for a game like Unreal Tournament (the crosshair is exactly between the 2 monitors).
TV-out
TV-out didn't work well on either card. When using PAL mode, the settings would get reset when starting an application on the TV, or the image would start to flicker. NTSC worked better, but the settings would get reset every time I opened the TV settings tab of the Nvidia display properties.
When a TV is connected to the ASUS card, you can either choose the TV or monitor as the output device, but not both at the same time. The monitor will be blanked when the TV is the output device, and vice versa.
Display rotation
The drivers have built-in support for rotating the display. Changing the display orientation doesn't require a reboot.
Various features/issues
Changing the primary monitor
Unlike other dualhead video cards, any monitor can be set as the primary monitor for Windows.
Color management
Monitors connected to the same video card need to use the same color profile. I don't know if this is a limitation of the driver or Windows.
Windows 2000
I had also tested on Windows 2000 Server SP3, but had various problems, both with the 41.09 and 40.72 drivers. 30.82 didn't work because the drivers didn't recognize the ASUS card. Issues I encountered:
- Direct3D applications don't work, I tested Unreal Tournament 2003 in Direct3D mode and a Microsoft sample application
- no video overlay support on any monitor
- taking a screenshot with PRINTSCREEN occasionally didn't work with 3 monitors enabled
DualView is not the default mode on Windows 2000, it needs to be enabled under Nvidia properties for the card. Note that switching between DualView and span/clone mode requires a reboot on Windows 2000.
Conclusion
A full-featured, inexpensive multi-monitor solution for Windows XP, but not recommended for Windows 2000 due to the various issues mentioned above. Also not recommended if you want to use TV-out frequently.
If you need an AGP card with better performance, you should be able to use a card with a GeForce4 Ti chipset instead of the GeForce4 MX card I used.
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