[ale] TwinView stupid question

[Dow Hurst]

Geoffrey,
The TwinView functionality lets you have a single desktop across a 
couple of monitors with different refresh rates and full hardware accel 
for normal use.  It is what Xinerama ought to be but isn't yet.  I've 
wanted hardware accel since a biochemistry modelling app requires it but 
I didn't want to give my dual head setup.  I think the dual head setup 
is extremely addictive. :-)  

My ChainTech brand Geforce2 MX420 doesn't have but one signal output.  I 
wasn't aware at the time of the TwinView functionality so I bought the 
wrong configuration.  Since I am going to make this work by getting a 
better version of the Geforce line, I want to make sure I acquire the 
right signal outs.  Sound like the DVI to SVGA is a cheap converter so 
that is good.

Since the ATI has dual signal outs, is there any way of doing multihead 
with accel on it?  Sounds like your setup in your XF86Config to do a 
"clone" dual head.  You want either "Traditional" multihead with 
separate desktops or "Xinerama" with one desktop.  If XFree manages the 
"Xinerama" extension then you can't have hardware accel since it isn't 
supported yet.  I haven't found a ya or nay on "Traditional" multihead 
supporting hardware accel.  SuSE Sax2 X configurator will tell you that 
multihead doesn't support 3D accel.  I don't believe that is really true 
for all cards and situations.
Dow


Geoffrey wrote:

> Dow Hurst wrote:
>
>> I've kept reading and it is pretty obvious once you get into real 
>> world examples that only two Nvidia cards can work as I'd asked in my 
>> previous post, but this was stated as unstable compared to using one 
>> Nvidia card alone.  So my next question is, since I'll be looking for 
>> an Nvidia card with multiple outputs, are there any Nvidia cards that 
>> have two 15pin CRT outputs?  Or do I have to get a DVI to SVGA 
>> converter, if that exists, from somewhere?  The TV output is only 
>> good for going to a TV with a NTSC type signal, correct?  Anyone care 
>> to explain in layman's terms how you actually hook up two monitors 
>> and/or a TV to one of these multi out Nvidia cards?  I want to 
>> understand what I have to do before I go a drop a bunch of money on a 
>> fancy smancy video card. ;-)
>
>
> I don't have an nvidia card, but my radeon card has vga, digital and 
> s-video outputs.  As for needing two vga, my card came with an adapter 
> that converts the digital to accept vga, so I don't think that should 
> be a big issue.
>
> I've not had any success (with X) doing as you've noted, two monitors 
> to two outputs on the same card.  When I boot my machine with two 
> monitors connected, both screens show the boot info and mirror the 
> console output.
>
> I know of folks who have had success with this card and other ati 
> cards that have dual outputs.  I've been planning on trying a quick 
> SuSE install just to test this scenario, but haven't made the time to 
> do so.
>
> Understand, you don't really need to spend a lot of bucks for a dual 
> output card, mine as around $100 when I got it, certainly cheaper now. 
> It's only got 32mb (only, I remember when that was a lot of system 
> memory.)
>
>>
>> I've never bought a top of the line video card so am not too familiar 
>> with which brand is best for what I want to do.  Nvidia seems to have 
>> a bunch of different brands from third party manufacturers and it 
>> isn't easy to sort thru which is the best deal.  Also, here is my 
>> goal: 3D OpenGL hardware acceleration on at least one of two monitors 
>> in a multihead or Xinerama-like setup.  I believe that ATI can't do 
>> that and only Nvidia with Twinview can.  Is that correct?
>
>
> 3d is not supported  for dual monitors on XFree, although the 
> proprietary drivers for nvidia may well support it.  If so, then 
> you're likely to want a card with more memory.
>
> You have to get a later version of XFree to get 3d to work with the 
> later ati cards at all.
>

-- 
__________________________________________________________
Dow Hurst                  Office: 770-499-3428
Systems Support Specialist    Fax: 770-423-6744
1000 Chastain Rd., Bldg. 12
Chemistry Department SC428  Email:dhurst at kennesaw.edu
Kennesaw State University         Dow.Hurst at mindspring.com
Kennesaw, GA 30144
*********************************
*Computational Chemistry is fun!*
*********************************


_______________________________________________
Ale mailing list
Ale at ale.org
http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale