Matrox Millennium G400 & G400MAX

While just about every other video chipset manufacturer is providing support for digital flat panel output, Matrox decided to put their innovative abilities to good use and come up with a technology known as DualHead Display.

Instead of outfitting the G400 (both the regular and MAX versions) with digital LCD out ports that most users won't end up using, Matrox decided to include dual VGA output ports. Why on earth would you do something like that? Here's where DualHead comes in.

The G400 features two independent Cathode Ray Tube Controllers (CRTCs - the Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) is the "picture" tube found in non-HD Television sets), one that outputs the primary signal to your VGA monitor, and a second controller that is capable of performing a number of tasks. The second CRTC can either output to Matrox's on-board MGA-TVO controller or a digital flat panel (via a separate add-on module). The MGA-TVO is more than a TV-output controller, rather it is able to output to either an external NTSC or PAL TV, or to another monitor. The ability to output to two displays at once is the result of Matrox's DualHead Display technology on the G400 and G400MAX boards.

Using the supplied adapter, you can use either a S-Video or RCA output connector for the MGA-TVO driven TV-output. The Matrox G400MAX has a heatsink on the actual MGA-TVO chip, which according to Matrox, is there as a precautionary measure and is not related to any heat problems; on another note, the regular G400 does not feature the same heatsink. Because you are using the MGA-TVO for the secondary display output, your second monitor won't appear to be as sharp as your primary adapter. The second CRTC does not use the G400's integrated 300/360MHz RAMDAC, and therefore only supports resolutions up to 1280 x 1024, still not bad for a second monitor.

With a second monitor you have the option of spanning your desktop across both monitors as in a normal dual monitor Windows 98/2000 setup, or you can use the second monitor to provide the same display as your primary desktop at either a regular or zoomed resolutions.

The TV-output the MGA-TVO provides is of a fairly decent quality, and courtesy of the DualHead technology, you can keep your desktop (primary monitor) at any resolution/color depth/refresh rate while outputting to a TV screen on the second display without causing any problems. If anything, the DualHead is targeted for presentations just as much as it is for users that have a craving for more desktop space.

Another feature allowed for by the DualHead setup is the ability to output full screen DVD-out to a TV while running your desktop in a normal resolution on your primary display. This essentially turns your computer into a fully functional DVD player without losing any flexibility with when you can use your system to do work.

The G400 has wonderful DVD support, however AnandTech will take a closer look at DVD support from all of the latest graphics accelerators in an upcoming article. If you're a DVD fanatic (as am I), the G400 won't let you down.