It looks like my real problem is going to be the dual monitors in SL3.

I guess the guidance I need is how to configure the dual head graphics 
cards; what do you have to do to the Matrox cards, for example, to get 
the dual heads working?  This is a PCIe motherboard, so it looks like 
I'd want the P650 if I need to trade in my PNY cards, since that's a 
PCIE x16 dual DVI jobby.  But if I get the driver from the Matrox site 
(http://www.matrox.com/mga/support/drivers/latest/home.cfm) what do I 
have to do to get the second head working?  I can't see it in the SL3 
docs, and SL4 has display configuration for the second monitor.  The 
nvidia driver actually works for the first head with the PNY card; it's 
just not clear what's needed to get the second half working.

Thanks for the information--this thread has already cleared up some 
questions for me.

Miles O'Neal wrote:

> For basic dual head, if you don't need serious speed or 3D,
> the Matrox cards are wonderful.  We're still running a bunch
> of G450s.  (If anyone can point me to performance comparisons
> of the G550 and P650 vs the G450, I would appreciate it; there
> doesn't seem to be much on the web in this vein!)  We use the
> Matrox drivers, and everything works beautifully, albeit slowly
> (esp. with GL).
> 
> The only nVidia dual head we've tried is a Jaton MX4000Twin.
> The nv driver works very well for most things, but we needed
> GL for one of the Cadence tools, and ended up having to install
> the nvidia driver from their site.  It had some other issues.
> These work fine for us in single head mode. 8^/
> 
> We've also tried an Asus 9250 (ATI) with one RGB and one DVI
> out (one CRT, one flatpanel LCD).  Again, we had to load ATI's
> proprietary driver.  It mostly works, but again 3D bit us;
> the GL support only extends up to a certain screen size, which
> is about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way across the second monitor.  If
> any part of a window is past that point, no GL works within
> that window.
> 
> -Miles

-- 
John Haggerty
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voice/fax: 631 344 2286/4592
http://www.phenix.bnl.gov/~haggerty