The goal for this review was to build a low-cost 3-monitor system using ATI 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 Hercules 3D Prophet 9000 128MB: ATI RADEON 9000 chipset, 128 MB RAM, 1x DVI, 1x VGA, 1x TV-out. You can connect 2 analog monitors using a DVI-to-VGA converter purchased separately, no converter was included. 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.

PCI Hercules 3D Prophet 9000 64MB: ATI RADEON 9000 chipset, 64 MB RAM, 1x DVI, 1x VGA, 1x TV-out. Same maximum number of displays as the AGP card.

Also installed were 2 PCI Nvidia cards (a GeForce2 MX and a GeForce4 MX), which were disabled most of the time. They can be enabled without problem though, adding support for up to 2 additional monitors to this configuration.

ATI reference drivers CATALYST 3.4 (6.14.10.6343) and control panel version 6.14.10.5006 were used for both cards.

AGP card at the top, PCI at the bottom

Multi-monitor modes

Clone mode is supported in addition to the standard extended desktop (independent displays) mode. Span mode (both displays treated as a single large one) isn't available.

In clone mode both displays show the same thing. Clone mode is often used for presentations. Both monitors need to use the same display resolution.

To enable clone mode, disable the second monitor connected to the video card in Display Properties, then open advanced settings for the first monitor, go to the ATI Displays tab and enable the second monitor there. To change back to extended desktop mode, simply re-enable the second monitor in Display Properties. You don't need to reboot to change between modes.

ATI Displays page

Please note that clone mode is limited to a single video card. It isn't possible to clone a monitor connected to a different video 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. Each video card only supports a single video overlay, the first application requesting a video overlay will get it, independent of the monitor on which it is on. Stretching a single video across more than one monitor isn't supported.

In clone mode, cloning a video which uses a video overlay doesn't work, the video window on the second monitor will be blank. There are special settings for video overlays in clone mode, but those settings were always disabled on my system:

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.

OpenGL is hardware-accelerated on the primary display, when moving a hardware-accelerated OpenGL window to a secondary monitor it no longer gets updated.

Surround gaming

This configuration isn't suited to surround gaming because there is no support for hardware-accelerated 3D across multiple monitors.

TV-out

TV-out worked without problems. Note that there is no 'change output device' feature (allowing you to show a display on either a monitor or TV), you need to disconnect the second monitor to use the TV and vice versa.

Various features/issues

Changing the primary monitor
Any monitor can be set as the primary monitor for Windows.

Color management
Monitors connected to the same video card can use a different color profile.

Driver stability
The drivers weren't 100% stable, I had occasional system lockups when doing testing, for example after starting/closing/moving video and 3D applications around a lot.

Windows 2000

The drivers have true multi-monitor support, meaning that each monitor is recognized independently, and different settings can be used for each monitor.

Unfortunately I had a lot of issues on my Windows 2000 Server SP3 system, for example settings for the monitor connected to the PCI card were reset after every reboot, and a lot of 'Application failed to initialize' errors. I don't know if these issues are specific to my configuration.

Conclusion

A good and inexpensive multi-monitor solution, support for DVI on the PCI card is a plus.

For a comparison with a similar system using Nvidia cards, see my 3 Monitors with Nvidia GeForce4 cards review.

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