Matrox TripleHead2Go Digital

By Jason Cross
1/16/2008 2:38:00 PM

Dual-monitor setups have been proven to increase productivity (as much as productivity can be proven, anyway). To that end, most graphics cards—even the cheap ones—have a pair of monitor outputs and all sorts of good software features for using two monitors at once. What do you do if two isn't enough, though? The kings of "lots of monitor outputs," Matrox, released a product that would use one monitor output to drive three displays. This TripleHead2Go was reviewed back in 2006, and though it works as promised, it has one glaring flaw: it's analog VGA only.

Fortunately, Matrox has just recently released digital versions of their DualHead2Go and TripleHead2Go products. It's the same principle as before: take one output and drive two or three monitors with it. The difference this time is simple but profound—it runs using DVI connections, instead of analog VGA. Assuming it works as advertised, is it worth over $300 to drive several displays with one output? Continued...

So what is the TripleHead2Go, exactly? Well, the digital version is a whole lot like the analog model, only with DVI ports all over the place. It accepts either dual-link DVI or VGA inputs, with included cables, and draws power over USB. One DVI goes in (from pretty much any major video card with a DVI output—we used a Radeon HD 3850) and three DVIs go out.

Just plug in all your monitors and you're ready to go. You don't need to install the Matrox software, but it has some benefits. You can do all the standard multi-monitor stuff with it, like configure the layout of your displays (3x1, 1x3, and other options if you have more monitors hooked up), force dialog boxes to appear on certain displays (such as the one the app that spawned resides in), stuff like that. There's even a nifty bezel management feature that lets you move the images on each display over to the left or right, putting some of the image "in the bezel", as it were. You lose some desktop space this way, but it keeps the geometry of your images uniform.

The Surround Gaming Utility is a handy bit of work. Some games will work all right with a really wide display resolution like 3840x1024, but many will not. The SGU currently detects and modifies 177 games. What it does varies from game to game, but the effect is usually pretty simple—support a really wide three-monitor spanning resolution, and keep the interface elements confined to the center monitor to keep them from distorting (and to keep your eyes from having to look left and right all the time to see vital game info). Continued...

The TripleHead2Go is a pretty simple concept that doesn't really require a whole lot of analysis or explanation. It does what it is supposed to do—turn a single DVI output into three. But there are some caveats. You're limited to three 1280x1024 or two 1920x1200 monitors, because the bandwidth of dual-link DVI isn't high enough to push more than that (3840x1024 is nearly four megapixels).

The big catch is the price. This little gizmo will run you $329. For less than that price, you can get a pretty nice video card and run more monitors off of that. Not to mention, the vast majority of video cards have two display outputs and can easily handle two large widescreen monitors. So who is the TripleHead2Go Digital for, exactly? You have to have enough room on your desk for three monitors, but not larger than 1280x1024 (typically 17- or 19-inch LCDs). You have to want that over a pair of widescreen LCDs, which you could drive from just your video card. And you have to have only one graphics card slot, because if you have two, you might as well buy a second graphics card for less money and run three or four monitors that way.

The combination of those things gives Matrox a very small potential market for this device. It's "neat" to run six monitors off one graphics card (with two dual-link DVI outputs) if you want to buy two of these, but that has incredibly limited applications.

The TripleHead2Go Digital deserves all credit for doing just what it claims to do without hassle or fuss, but it's just not priced right. You shouldn't have to pay more than you would for a quality graphics card, especially when a two-card setup would let you drive more monitors than you probably have desk space for, and offer greater flexibility.

Product:

TripleHead2Go Digital

Company:

Matrox

Price:

$329 MSRP (Check prices)

Pros:

Does just what it claims to—turns one DVI output into three.

Cons:

Included cables are too short; expensive.

Summary:

It works as advertised, but costs more than a second graphics card. There are better ways to drive multiple displays, for most users.

Rating: