PCI Express x16 graphics card to drive dual monitors

Graphics subsystem supplier Matrox Graphics is pre-announcing a low profile plug-in card for PCI Express applications. The company's Millennium P650 LP PCIe 64 graphics card, priced at less that $250, will feature native PCI Express x16 support and 64MB of graphics memory. The low-profile form-factor card should be available this July.

Significantly, the Millennium P650 LP PCIe 64 will make use of the company's so-called Matrox DualHead technology. It lets you use two digital or analog monitors at a time. These can operate in either an independent mode or in a stretched linked mode.

High-res viewing

Maximum resolution (per display) is 1,920 x 1,200-pixels for digital monitors, using one or two monitors. For two analog monitors resolution is 1,920 x 1,440-pixels. One analog monitor can show 2,048 x 1,536-pixels.

In addition, the new plug-in will feature multi-display 2D/3D OpenGL and Microsoft DirectX acceleration, and a unified Windows 2000 and Windows XP display driver (it works for Matrox's Millennium P-Series and Parhelia Series graphics cards). Matrox-certified display drivers will also be available for popular CAD (computer aided design) and GIS (Geographic Information System) software applications.

Software tricks

This board will also come with a bag of software tricks. For example, Matrox Clone will let you view a copy of one display on the other display. Similarly, Matrox Multi-Display Zoom will let you view a portion of one display full-screen on the other display. Matrox PureVideo will let you view hardware-accelerated video playback in a video window on one display and full-screen on the other display.

Other features will include Matrox Glyph Anti-Aliasing for hardware-accelerated smoothing of text edges, and support for customizable unattended installation for rapid multi-system setup. The board also builds on the firm's existing Millennium P-Series, ensuring long product life-cycles, and adding to Matrox's family of PCI Express cards, including the recently released QID LP PCIe and Millennium P650 PCIe 128 products.

The QID LP PCIe is a PCI Express x16 graphics card that can drive four displays at a time. The Millennium P650 PCIe 128 product also uses the company's DualHead technology, support two digital or analog monitors at a time and packing 128MB of graphics memory.

- Alex Mendelsohn

eeProductCenter