Review: Matrox TripleHead2Go expands your screen real estate (a lot!)
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Mar 12, 2008 at 5:22pm
Apple doesn’t promote the fact that at least its high end iMac (with the ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB of GDDR3 dedicated video memory) packs some pretty serious graphics punch. I’ve connected a 30-inch display to it. And with the TripleHead2Go Digital Edition from
Matrox Graphics you can connect three screens.
The TripleHead2Go to go is a small external box that doesn’t require you to open up your Mac. You connect the TripleHead2Go Digital Edition to the monitor output and add up to an astonishing three displays. If you have a Mac Pro workstation, you can connect the TripleHead2Go Digital Edition to the primary monitor port, attach two Apple Cinema Displays to this unit, and connect the third Cinema Display to the second monitor port. The operating system detects the device as an ultra-widescreen monitor which is then split into threestandard resolutions compatible with the attached displays, all the while harnessing the graphics hardware already present in the system for all 2D, 3D, and video acceleration.
The TripleHead2Go features digital output support for a stretched desktop of three screens with a combined resolution of up to 3840×1024 (triple 1280×1024). Users of the TripleHead2Go Digital Edition can also operate in DualHead mode with a combined resolution of 3840×1200 (dual 1920×1200). It connects to the dual-link DVI output of a compatible notebook, desktop or workstation to three digital monitors, optimizing the connection between the system, graphics card and panel.
Though it worked fine with my 24-inch aluminum iMac, the TripleHead2Go is promoted for the MacBook Pro and the Mac Pro. And it’s the latter system that will let you take full advantage of the Matrox product.
But whichever of these Macs you use it with, the TripleHead2Go Digital Edition works great, especially for those in the mechanical CAD, 3D visualization, and digital content creation & animation business. The device enables users to examine multiple views of a design or project.
One feature that is available for Windows users, but not, alas at present, for the Mac is “Surround Gaming.” Surround Gaming involves expanding supported 3D games across three displays and provides for a greater in-game field of view. The Matrox TripleHead2Go currently supports over 250 game titles across a wide variety of game genres—on Windows.
The TripleHead2Go Digital Edition is constructed of steel, so it’s rugged. It has lots of air vents, which is handy, since it does get hot. Also, note thatif you’re connecting the TripleHead2Go Digital Edition to your system’s analog and not the dual-link DVI output, you should adjust the image quality of your displays each time you use a new display mode. Install the software that comes on the installation CD. Then, to adjust the image quality of your settings:
Choose Apple, then System Preferences from the menu bar.
Open the Matrox GXM Image Quality panel.
Choose a display mode, then click Adjust Now.
Also, the first time you start your Mac after connecting to your monitors, your displays may be blank (that is, black). This may be because your system is using a refresh rate that’s higher than what your monitors support. For a possible work-around or fix for this problem, go to the Matrox Technical Support Site.
TripleHead2Go Digital Edition includes support for Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5. It has a manufacturer’s suggested retail price of US$329.
It’s too bad there’s no gaming support for the Mac, as this would make the TripleHead2Go Digital Edition a must-have for hardcore gamers. As it is, those working in the mechanical CAD, 3D visualization, and digital content creation & animation will find it a very welcome addition to their hardware arsenal.
Macsimum rating: 7.5 out of 10
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Contributor
Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 4,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
