Video card recommendation(s) for multi-head configuration

[Vulpes Velox]

On Tue, 9 May 2006 20:28:48 -0500
"Rick C. Petty" <rick-freebsd at kiwi-computer.com> wrote:

> On Tue, May 09, 2006 at 07:32:04PM -0500, Vulpes Velox wrote:
> > 
> > > I'd recommend any "modern" nVidia card (that is, later than
> > > GeForce FX). I have dual-head (and sometimes 3-4 head) working
> > > on almost every box I manage now.  I've had good luck with both
> > > the nv and nvidia drivers in dual-head mode.  Everything works
> > > well out of the box.  At work, some of us have a 1920x1200 and
> > > a 1600x1200 running in 32-bit color.  I've run up to 4 monitors
> > > with two cards pretty successfully with Xinerama.  I won't
> > > touch a non-nVidia card anymore.  That goes for windoze too..
> > 
> > How is the speed when using Xinerama? Last I tried it was back on
> > a old fx5200 using nVidia's drivers and it was dead slow. That
> > was like year or so ago.
> 
> I've had very good luck with and without Xinerama.  Which version
> of the nvidia driver were you using?  What resolutions & bit
> depths?  I'm assuming you had plenyt of video memory.  The FX5200
> is a low-end card, did it run significantly faster in dual-head
> without Xinerama?

I forget. It was what ever was current back in like last June or so.
Low end yeah, but still good for just a work station. I have a
fx5200, fx5700, 6200, 6600, and a 6800 pcie. I have not noticed any
real improvement for basic desktop stuff since the fx5200. The
previous ones seemed a little slow and the color was not as nice.

I just run it in 24bit and in 1280x960. Not currently using Xinerama.
Last I tried it with Xinerama, it was significantly slower. My only
complaint about non-Xinerama is there is no way to tab between
windows on the other screen and get mouse mouse over there with out
touching it.

Next time I feel killing X I will try it out again.