TripleHead2Go: The Latest External Multi-Display Upgrade from Matrox

Final Words

For any gamer, the thought of a box like the TripleHead2Go most likely brings first to mind what it would be like playing your favorite game with the additional screens on each side, and a widescreen resolution which stretches out into your peripheral vision. This type of display setup seems better suited for simulation games, particularly flight-sims, where the breaks between monitors would be less noticeable. However, the TripleHead2Go solves the DualHead2Go's problem of having a break in the middle of the screen due to the two displays being side by side, making wide-screen first person shooters more feasible.

The idea of being a sniper for instance in Battlefield 2, and having the wider field of view that a resolution like 3840x1024 provides would potentially give you an edge over those players that don't, being able to see enemies who might try to sneak up on you from the side. However, the breaks on each side can still be quite bothersome in fast paced first-person games where having a clear field of view is important. In games like Age of Empires 3, the extra view can potentially make a difference when managing units, allowing you to select and control very large numbers of units more easily than before. Simulation games like Microsoft Flight Simulator seem to be best suited for a three-monitor display, and with a powerful graphics card and/or SLI setup the view can be breathtaking.

These are just a few examples, and there are other types of games or 3D applications that can also benefit from the extra displays, but we still find the breaks between monitors too much of a distraction to make it worthwhile with most games. There is one slight problem, however: not all games are supported by Matrox's SGU application right now, and some games may never see support. For example, while we listed Battlefield 2 above, it is at present a hypothetical example, as it is not currently supported. You can try to force the proper resolution, but you will not get the correct field of view. There are at present 120 game titles officially supported, and presumably more will be added, but there are certainly going to be titles that never receive support. Anyone familiar with widescreen gaming will probably already recognize this fact, but proper TH2G resolution support in games is going to be even less common.

Of course, the TripleHead2Go isn't just for gaming. For those with laptops in office situations, the added desktop space is good for running multiple applications, or large media editing programs, and could theoretically boost productivity. However, how much your productivity will skyrocket over what you could normally accomplish on a single display is subjective, and this is where the price tag will determine for each individual if it's right for him or her. Being able to have the extra desktop space that the TripleHead2Go provides might be very practical, but any PC user can get extra desktop space by adding another GPU for less than the cost of a TripleHead2Go. This is why it seems that the TripleHead2Go is a fairly specialized piece of hardware that won't be practical for the average PC owner.

As with the DualHead2Go, the TripleHead2Go does exactly what it claims to do without any problems, and we were able to install and set up the drivers fairly easily. While the 3D gaming is much improved with the device, we would still prefer not to be limited to analog and have a dual-link DVI version of the TripleHead2Go. The fact that at the maximum resolution only a refresh rate of 60hz is supported is unfavorable to some, but is understandable given the limitations of this device.

As we mentioned in the introduction, the TripleHead2Go can be bought for about $270 at the time of this writing ($250 if you are a student). This is no small amount of money, considering this device requires a computer with a graphics card and three monitors to be of any use. On top of this, because the resolutions it can achieve are so large, a powerful graphics card for your system would be preferable. The cost of the device, graphics card, as well as the extra monitors would be pretty staggering, so those with extra monitors or a powerful graphics card would be much more likely to consider this than someone looking to make a triple-display system from scratch. Regardless of this, Matrox has provided the first realistic device to allow a triple-display setup, and is no doubt counting on the fact that there are those willing to get a setup like this by any means.

To sum up, the TripleHead2Go is a good quality, albeit expensive, device for setting up a triple display system without much trouble at all. While it's really the only way to get the type of "surround graphics" that it claims, we see this as more of a novelty item than a practical one for most users. The kinds of users who would really benefit the most from this are die-hard gamers (preferably simulation type games), and laptop owners who really want to impress people with their three screen presentations. Other users would be better off upgrading their monitor(s) to widescreen LCDs, or using a big-screen TV for a display, and those (desktop users) needing extra desktop space across multiple monitors can already get that sort of feature by purchasing a second graphics card with dual DVI connections. The TripleHead2Go's negative aspects like high performance requirements for gaming at high resolutions and compatibility issues (with ATI hardware) might ultimately be overshadowed by the positives, but the bottom line is the Matrox TripleHead2Go is a piece of hardware that, in spite of what it achieves, isn't worth the high price for most people.