Matrox TripleHead2Go review

The TripleHead is an adapter that plugs into your graphics output and splits the graphics signal three ways.

This allows you to span your Desktop across three monitors, each with a resolution of up to 1280 x 1024. The extra screen space gives you more space for palettes and toolbars when editing photos or making digital home movies, or for playing games at huge resolutions.

Setting up the TripleHead can be a pain - we couldn't get it work with our ATI graphics card, even with the latest drivers and despite our PC passing Matrox's compatibility test. An nVidia card worked perfectly, though the inputs and outputs on the box are clearly labelled and the software is intuitive, if basic. Matrox says that the device will only work if you use three monitors from the same manufacturer. We checked it out using three identical monitors and three different ones, and it worked fine both times.

Matrox claims the TripleHead is great for three-screen gaming - titles like Civilisation IV, F.E.A.R., Flight Simulator 2002 and 2004 are supported, among others. However, most games look oddly stretched across such a large horizontal resolution. And you'll need a hefty graphics card to run games at 3840 x 1024. For games like F.E.A.R., you'll probably two cards in an SLI or Crossfire arrangement.

The £250 for the box is pricey - and that's before you even factor in the cost of the two extra screens. The TripleHead only supports a refresh rate of 60Hz, which means it will only work with TFT monitors, CRTs require higher refresh rates. With DVI connections, this will inevitably lead to image quality problems as the picture must be converted from the digital signal of your PC to the analogue of the TripleHead and back to digital for the TFT. The level of degradation depends on the screen, but there will be some, which is hardly ideal for photo or movie editors . And there are alternatives. Even a relatively puny GeForce 6200 or Radeon X300 can support two high-resolution screens, which is enough for most tasks. Or you can use the built-in X300 of Xpress 300 motherboards with an extra ATI graphics card to output to three screens, a more complicated solution, but cheaper.