Related Articles

I was extraordinarily excited when I first heard that I would have the opportunity to review a new offering from Matrox. They has been on my short list for a very long time, and I have been silently keeping my ears perked for news of any new products that would be coming out from behind their walls in Quebec. I was particularly excited about the Parhelia's triple-head gaming capabilities back in 2002, and since then, this technology has been improved and made available to the masses -- and that fulfills a secret wish of mine.

After spending a good deal of time with the TripleHead2Go, we are very impressed with the overall product. The potential for increased productivity shoots up through the roof, the burden of complex work is alleviated to a great degree, and Surround Gaming is -- for lack of a better word, sweet. The immersion of having an image spread across three displays, and curving in towards you, is definitely something that has to be experienced. The greatly enhanced field of view not only allows you to suspend belief, but gives you a significantly increased tactical advantage. You see the enemy long before he can even begin to hope to see you.

Take a look at the following in-game screenshots from Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Unreal Tournament 2004 for an idea of just how much more game you get:

The difference is literally breath-taking.

There are, as always, some cons to this technology. Most games are not designed to be used in such an odd aspect ratio, and it shows -- usually in the form of warped in-game menus. Even in games that look nearly perfect being stretched across three displays, menus remain warped in awkward-to-read ways, and in the case of Unreal Tournament 2004, clickable elements overlap each other. This wouldn't be so much of a problem if there wasn't a 4.5-inch gap in between each display, leading me to think that three LCD panels, as opposed to CRT displays, would be the optimal way to play games on the TripleHead2Go.

Text clarity also seemed to be affected, and did not look as crisp to the eye with the TripleHead2Go as it does with only one monitor. This could pose a problem for some if the system is being used for prolonged periods of time for writing/reading/programming/etc. Flicker and colour vibrance were not an issue at all.

As you may have noticed, we exclusively used only NVIDIA-based video cards in our testing. As mentioned before, a representative from Matrox informed us that as of press time, ATI-based video cards had only limited functionality with the TripleHead2Go. CrossFire apparently does not work at all in a triple-head setup. Matrox did mention that ATI is in the progress of implementing support for triple-head (possibly in their next driver revision), but at the time of testing, nothing had been confirmed. On the other hand, Tom's 12" iBook G4 managed to drive all three CRT displays, along with its own built-in LCD, almost perfectly -- and it has a Radeon 9550 with 32 MB of dedicated video RAM. This leads us to believe that the ATI support issue is definitely one of software only.

The only anomaly displayed (no pun intended) was about half-way in on the last display, where windows would simply stop being drawn. Due to OS X's hardware-accelerated GUI (and hence probably more intense VRAM requirements), I'm willing to bet that this anomaly was a result of not enough video memory for the last portion of the frame buffer. In any case, the operating system-independent theory has been proven correct.

Matrox is pushing the TripleHead2Go as not only a gaming solution, but as with most of their products to date, as a solution for production professionals. Unfortunately, as none of us here at Neoseeker are into the production business full-time, we are unable to provide too much insight into how the TripleHead2Go would change the typical production work regimen.

Based on my time with the TripleHead2Go, I believe that this product could earn a top spot in many gaming setups. There is, of course, the question of whether a 30" widescreen LCD would serve the same purpose better, but that would only become a choice if the buyer was trying to decide on the TripleHead2Go + three new 17"/19" LCD panels vs. said 30" LCD. The TripleHead2Go route is most likely a great deal more cost-effective, given the fact that most of us have at least one or two decent CRTs laying around. With an MSRP of $299 USD, you could easily put together a set of CRTs at a reasonable price and have a decent widescreen setup.

The TripleHead2Go may also be the best reason to jump onboard with SLI, as we did see some very nice results when using two of our high-end cards in SLI. LCDs are becoming more affordable every day, meaning that you could buy the TripleHead2Go today and use it with some CRTs, and upgrade to some fresh, new LCD panels at a later date. The upgradeability potential is significant.

In summary, Matrox's TripleHead2Go is one of the most exciting products that we've played with here at the Neo Lab. It's been a long time since we've seen a product with so much "wow!" factor, and it's been even longer since we've seen a product with "wow!" factor that retains long-term benefits. Whether you're a video producer, photographer, or you just want to straight-up get your game on, Matrox definitely has a winner with the TripleHead2Go.