Related Articles

Due to the simple nature of the TripleHead2Go, I wasn't expecting to find a boat and a half in the box -- therefore I wasn't disappointed when all that I found was the following:

• TripleHead2Go device (surprised?)
• One 2-foot male-to-male VGA cable
• One 2-foot male-to-male DVI-to-VGA cable (think of a DVI-to-VGA adapter permanently built into the cable)
• DC power adapter and cord
• Software CD

All of the necessities required to make use of your shiny, new TripleHead2Go -- excellent! An issue was brought up in our lab regarding the length of the video cable that runs from the video card to the TripleHead2Go -- some mind find it too short if they want to place the TripleHead2Go on top of their computer case. My argument was that the cable length probably had to be kept to a minimum so as to minimize signal loss/introduction of noise. This is, after all, an analog VGA cable that will have to handle 3840x1024 at 60 Hz cleanly! The quality of the cable looks and feels superb, no doubt because of its intended purpose.

Installation of the TripleHead2Go literally takes minutes, given that your three displays are already set up on your desk, oriented properly, and the power cables plugged in. If you've ever successfully plugged a VGA connector into your video card, then you literally have all of the expertise required to set up the TripleHead2Go. The DC adapter isn't all that difficult to figure out either -- as long as you're at least 10 years old.

Upon first boot, I was presented with the regular Windows desktop of old, being displayed only on the center display. I quickly scurried over to the "Advanced" tab of Display Properties, and witnessed the great resolution potential of my resolution slider. I cranked that sucker up to 3840x1024, clicked "Apply", and ... the menacing hum of two CRTs powering up at once broke the dead silence in the room.

In all honesty, my very first impression was "Holy c**p, the distance between my Start button and my system tray is ginormous!" It really is. Without adjusting the sensitivity of your mouse, you're going to find yourself picking up the mouse a lot in order to navigate the pointer all the way from the left display to the right display. I used to be a heavy dual-monitor user in the day, so I'm used to the practice of scanning both displays at once and being able to work with two sources of information present. With three displays, it takes a little bit of getting used to, but the flow of working is absolutely wonderful.

In my mind, the core difference between two displays and three displays is that you go back to having a "central" display where you can do most of your stuff, while the side displays act as a complement -- whether that be some source of information, a few chat windows, a few terminal windows, a video playing, or even file management operations. I found it much easier to organize my workflow having a central display with two to complement it, rather than two displays where neither one is more important than the other.

After the initial excitement and goofing off, we installed the Matrox software, which consisted of a their multi-monitor PowerDesk software and the "Surround Gaming Utility" (henceforth to be referred to as "SGU" to save my hands from carpal tunnel syndrome). The SGU is what the gamer will want to focus on, and since we're a gaming folk here at Neoseeker, that is what we'll be taking a closer look at.

The SGU has a bit of a dated user interface, but it is otherwise easy to figure out. You are presented with a list of games that can be "optimized" to work in a Surround Gaming setup, along with buttons used to optimize, restore, or edit the configuration file of each game. Games that have been installed with official installers will most likely be detected, whereas games that do not have the appropriate Windows Registry entries will have to be located manually.

The basic idea of the SGU is the following:

• Pick your desired Surround Gaming resolution at the top (out of the four available)
• Pick your game
• Click "Optimize"

If you don't trust the SGU, you can also click the "Edit" button in order to see what modifications the utility will actually be making to your configuration files. In the case of Doom 3, four key variables were to be changed -- r_customWidth, r_customHeight, r_mode, and g_fov. Most games with a flexible/console design will probably follow this same path.

To date the SGU supports 120(!) games out of the box, and Matrox is dedicated to supporting more games as they are released. We've also been told that Matrox takes an active interest in working with developers to ensure the best experience with the TripleHead2Go and it seems that some developers are taking note - a recent World of Warcraft patch enabled support for ultra wide (3840x1024) resolutions and Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion works gorgeously right out of the box. In addition, new profiles are easily created by users who tinker with game configuration settings and fans will no doubt help populate the web with profiles for many, many titles.

As with every new and unique product, there are some cons that need to be addressed with the TripleHead2Go.

First of all, unless your CRTs have a very thin frame around them, you can probably forget about using CRTs in a triple-head configuration for reading/looking at information that spans across more than one display. The 4.5-inch gap between our hulking monstrosities is simply too distracting - LCD's with slim/narrow bezels will yield the most immersive and least distracting experience. However, even with CRTs, a work pattern consisting of three sets of information that stay on distinct displays is perfectly usable.

My second concern is closely tied to the first, and it's a simple one -- you can all but forget about "maximize". A browser window maximized across all three displays is simply not practical. What would normally be a wrapped paragraph on a website becomes one enormously-long line, and it becomes a strain reading and having to move your head back and forth. Relegate one browser window to only one display, and you'll be good.

My third and final concern is one of visual quality. As I talked about in the introduction, Matrox has always been known for their superb engineering when it comes to visual quality, and the TripleHead2Go is no exception. Matrox is doing more with analog than I ever thought would be possible, but unfortunately, real-world physics always snags you in the end. I compared the sharpness and solidity of white text on a black background, and with the TripleHead2Go at 3840x1024 said text is a touch fuzzier and fluctuates a tad more when compared to the same display connected directly to the video card and running at 1280x1024.

To Matrox's credit, the flickering was really only noticeable when I stared at a particular piece of text at a few inches away from the screen for a few seconds at a time, but the text fuzziness would be noticeable to a user just switching from the single display to the TripleHead2Go.

With everything now out of the way, and the road paved ... how does this thing make your games better?! Get going!