Re: [Xpert]Xfree 4.1, Matrox G-450 Dualhead questions
On Mon, 7 Jan 2002, Carl Wilhelm Soderstrom wrote: I'm considering buying a G450 for dualhead on my machine, but I want to know if I can hook up a 19 (primary) monitor and a 15 (satellite) monitor with few problems, at different resolutions. yep. been there, done that, no worries. had a 21 at 1440x1080@81Hz, and a 14 at 640x480. I've heard that matrox has antialiasing problems with their drivers though. Is that still true? dunno. maybe I'm just dense but I generally never notice antialiasing problems. Does anyone have specifics? Can I run it in Xinerama, with one big desktop, at different resolutions? yep. been there, done that, see above. they just have to be run at the same color depth. Do I have to, or can I have two separate desktops running, just sacrificing the ability to move windows from one screen to the other? yes you can. some actually like working this way; but it really bothered me. In short, why would I NOT want to buy this card? DRI with mine causes X to lock up after a few (3-20) minutes of playing some games. not all 3D stuff causes it (FlightGear flight sim, atlantis, and glxgears don't cause any problems); but the FPS games (Half-Life, Rune, Quake3 Arena) cause it to hang the framebuffer after some time. I've got a 'revision 82' G450. dunno exactly what that means. maybe those people who have it working fine, have a different revision. based on my browsing through the driver source, the only difference between a G400 and a G450 is that the revision # is 80. the other problem with the G450 is that when running with 2 heads, the memory isn't split 50/50; it's split 75/25. the second head only gets 8MB of video ram. ~~;( Have you tried either Option Crtc2Half # [bool] or Option Crtc2Ram # i ? Without either of these options crtc2 is limited to 8MB, since it is more limited in the resolutions and refresh rates that it supports. The limits aren't as severe for the G450 as the G400, so perhaps people could suggest a more appropriate default limit ? does anyone know if the dual-head Radeons do anything similarly stupid? I understand that the Radeon driver drives the 2 heads in a completely different way from the Matrox driver; the XFree86 code for the MGAs takes the easy way out and pretends that there are two independant frame buffers, while the Radeon driver has two windows into one large frame buffer, so this problem shouldn't arise. what about the G550? Same drivers as the G400 and G450. Don't know how the Matrox provided driver works on any of these cards. also keep in mind that you'll need to turn up the AGP speed on the second head in order to get a decent dotclock limit. otherwise your max refresh rates will *suck*. Is the driver using the G400 limits, where the second head was very limited ? -- Dr. Andrew C. Aitchison Computer Officer, DPMMS, Cambridge [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.dpmms.cam.ac.uk/~werdna ___ Xpert mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://XFree86.Org/mailman/listinfo/xpert
Re: [Xpert]Xfree 4.1, Matrox G-450 Dualhead questions
the other problem with the G450 is that when running with 2 heads, the memory isn't split 50/50; it's split 75/25. the second head only gets 8MB of video ram. ~~;( Have you tried either Option Crtc2Half # [bool] or Option Crtc2Ram # i ? Without either of these options crtc2 is limited to 8MB, since it is more limited in the resolutions and refresh rates that it supports. aha. so that's what that option does. I'll give it a try soon. it's not documented in the mga man page (yet), and the name isn't intuitive, so I didn't guess to try that option. :) does anyone know if the dual-head Radeons do anything similarly stupid? I understand that the Radeon driver drives the 2 heads in a completely different way from the Matrox driver; the XFree86 code for the MGAs takes the easy way out and pretends that there are two independant frame buffers, while the Radeon driver has two windows into one large frame buffer, so this problem shouldn't arise. interesting. I see that www.compgeeks.com has dual-head Radeon VEs for $70. maybe I ought to get one and try it out. what about the G550? Same drivers as the G400 and G450. Don't know how the Matrox provided driver works on any of these cards. I used to use the Matrox binary drivers a long time ago, before X supported the G450 well. didn't like them vey much at all. :( as it is, when I get around to it, I'll try building CVS X with the matrox driver source patched in, to see if that fixes my DRI problems. I don't have much hope, tho. :( also keep in mind that you'll need to turn up the AGP speed on the second head in order to get a decent dotclock limit. otherwise your max refresh rates will *suck*. Is the driver using the G400 limits, where the second head was very limited ? no, it's not the G400 limits; at AGP 1x, the dotclock maximum is actually *lower* than a G400s. 112Mhz, I believe, where I think the G400 limits the dotclock to 120-something. I don't think my workstation at work (where I have a G400) supports more than AGP 1x, tho; so I can't test the G400 at higher AGP rates. Carl Soderstrom -- Network Engineer Real-Time Enterprises (952) 943-8700 ___ Xpert mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://XFree86.Org/mailman/listinfo/xpert
Re: [Xpert]Xfree 4.1, Matrox G-450 Dualhead questions
I'm considering buying a G450 for dualhead on my machine, but I want to know if I can hook up a 19 (primary) monitor and a 15 (satellite) monitor with few problems, at different resolutions. yep. been there, done that, no worries. had a 21 at 1440x1080@81Hz, and a 14 at 640x480. I've heard that matrox has antialiasing problems with their drivers though. Is that still true? dunno. maybe I'm just dense but I generally never notice antialiasing problems. Does anyone have specifics? Can I run it in Xinerama, with one big desktop, at different resolutions? yep. been there, done that, see above. they just have to be run at the same color depth. Do I have to, or can I have two separate desktops running, just sacrificing the ability to move windows from one screen to the other? yes you can. some actually like working this way; but it really bothered me. In short, why would I NOT want to buy this card? DRI with mine causes X to lock up after a few (3-20) minutes of playing some games. not all 3D stuff causes it (FlightGear flight sim, atlantis, and glxgears don't cause any problems); but the FPS games (Half-Life, Rune, Quake3 Arena) cause it to hang the framebuffer after some time. I've got a 'revision 82' G450. dunno exactly what that means. maybe those people who have it working fine, have a different revision. based on my browsing through the driver source, the only difference between a G400 and a G450 is that the revision # is 80. the other problem with the G450 is that when running with 2 heads, the memory isn't split 50/50; it's split 75/25. the second head only gets 8MB of video ram. ~~;( does anyone know if the dual-head Radeons do anything similarly stupid? what about the G550? also keep in mind that you'll need to turn up the AGP speed on the second head in order to get a decent dotclock limit. otherwise your max refresh rates will *suck*. Carl Soderstrom -- Network Engineer Real-Time Enterprises (952) 943-8700 ___ Xpert mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://XFree86.Org/mailman/listinfo/xpert
Re: [Xpert]Xfree 4.1, Matrox G-450 Dualhead questions
Hi, I have this card, with two monitors at the same resolution with FreeBSD and Linux (XFree 4.0 and 4.1) With Solaris you can use XFree or you can patch Solaris 8 and then works. I have two icewm, one in first monitor and the other one in the other monitor, without problems. I don't test it, but I think that if I change this: Section Screen Identifier Screen 0 Device G400_1 Monitor Generic Monitor DefaultDepth16 SubSection Display Depth 16 Modes 800x600 EndSubSection EndSection Section Screen Identifier Screen 1 Device G400_2 Monitor Generic Monitor DefaultDepth16 SubSection Display Depth 16 Modes 800x600 EndSubSection Then two monitors will have two different resolutions, no? Tuxracer works fine :-) On Fri, 4 Jan 2002, Tom Manning wrote: I've been reading everything I can find on this card, and there's so much conflicting and outdated info out there I'm getting confused. I'm running Mandrake 8.1 on an older Pentium II, with a BX chipset. **I know some of these questions are newbie type questions, but if I fully understood the howtos and such I wouldn't ask, so please bare with me :-)** I'm considering buying a G450 for dualhead on my machine, but I want to know if I can hook up a 19 (primary) monitor and a 15 (satellite) monitor with few problems, at different resolutions. I've heard that matrox has antialiasing problems with their drivers though. Is that still true? Does anyone have specifics? Can I run it in Xinerama, with one big desktop, at different resolutions? Do I have to, or can I have two separate desktops running, just sacrificing the ability to move windows from one screen to the other? In short, why would I NOT want to buy this card? Thanks for any help! Tom ___ Xpert mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://XFree86.Org/mailman/listinfo/xpert Carles Pina i Estany | Nick: Pinux / Pine / Teufeus E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] / [EMAIL PROTECTED] / [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.salleURL.edu/~is08139/ Y ahora unas palabras de parte de Telefónica: ´#@Ô?¨È joer!..@%$·() ___ Xpert mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://XFree86.Org/mailman/listinfo/xpert
