Drew 2003-07-24 06:40
I was wondering if anyone had any experience with, or had heard any mention of, the performance of the Colorgraphic Xentera GT 4 video card (PCI version).
I am considering purchasing this for the dual dvi function using the ATI Radeon 9000 chipset. It would be coupled with a Radeon 9700 chipset video card on the AGP port.
It will be used in a system running Windows XP Pro with three DVI LCD monitors.
Thanks a lot for your help and input; it is greatly appreciated!
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Christian Studer 2003-07-24 06:47
I'm doing a review of the Xentera GT quad card (VGA cable) this week, let me know if you have anything specific you would like to know, if possible I will test it.
Christian Studer - www.realtimesoft.com
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Drew 2003-07-24 08:39
Thanks Christian, I'll try and think of a few questions - although a few that I had were already answered by the Colorgraphic tech support.
I look forward to reading the review!
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Drew 2003-07-24 08:54
Christian,
Perhaps one thing that might be useful would be a matchup of the Xentera GT 4 against other 1-4 monitor support video cards.
The main points that swayed me toward the Xentera GT 4 was the fact that it supported up to 4 DVI LCD monitors and that it came in a PCI version as well as the AGP version. It appears that there are very few cards that support both dual-DVI and have a PCI version.
Perhaps benchmark and specification differences between those few cards that do have that support may help to differenciate the Xentera GT 4 with it's competition.
I look forward to seeing the review!
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Drew 2003-07-25 01:48
Christian,
I thought of one other thing:
From what I understand about the Xentera GT 4 card, it supports some new video overlay features. They don't seem to go into too much detail online, but some tests, if at all possible, on the video overlay features, or lack of, would be great.
Thanks!
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Christian Studer 2003-07-25 02:13
Hi Drew,
do you have a link for this?
I haven't noticed anything special regarding video overlay support, seems to be the same as other ATI-based cards: a single overlay is available per chipset (one chipset for two monitors), and the first application which requests an overlay will get it, independent of the monitor it is on.
Unfortunately I can't do real performance benchmarking as I have no experience in this area and don't have access to the benchmark applications.
I did test with Unreal Tournament 2003 though, and performance is good at 1024x768, maybe a bit slower than the desktop Radeon 9000 cards though.
I may have to delay the review a bit as I had some hardware issues, I could only test with 2 of the 4 monitors, if the second chipset was enabled I could no longer boot the system.
Christian Studer - www.realtimesoft.com
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Drew 2003-07-25 08:22
Hi Christian,
I'll try and find where I thought I read about the video overlay; I tried to look for it today when I thought about the question, but I couldn't find where I read it. I'll have to wade through my history and try and find it.
It seemed odd to me tos since the Xentera GT 4 uses twin ATI 9000 chipsets, but I'll try and track down where I read it.
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Drew 2003-07-25 08:47
Christian,
I couldn't find where I read about (or thought I read about) the video overlay so I called the Colorgraphic tech support.
Unfortunately I was mistaken, the card only supports video overlay on the primary monitor.
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Drew 2003-07-27 06:15
Christian,
I'm curious about a feature of the Xentera GT 4 that perhaps you could test with your card for your review.
Since the Xentera GT 4 has two monitor TV out support, is it possible with the addition of another video card to have three monitor TV out support?
Specifically, would a setup using an AGP video card with TV out support coupled with the Xentera GT 4 with dual TV out support result in a successful three monitor TV out setup?
Thanks for your help; I look forward to the review!
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Christian Studer 2003-07-28 08:54
I can't test TV-out, but if the card works fine together with an AGP card, I see no reason why it shouldn't work.
I'll test AGP card + PCI Xentera when I do my second round of testing.
Christian Studer - www.realtimesoft.com
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Doug Sharp 2003-07-30 21:55
aaaarrggh colorgraphic the source of my restless nights!
I have 3 of thier 4 port cards. which work lovely together. I have a hughe 12 screen display wall. that XP sees as just one screen with a resolution of 5120 x 3072.
Fine but i need a 13th display to control the 12. will the colorgraphic cards work with any thing apart from colorgraphic? no. they wont. this lead me to get a 4th card a 2 port version. will that work no. are there support as help full as a chocolate tea pot? yes.
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Drew 2003-07-31 01:41
Doug,
What sort of conflicts have you encountered with your Colorgraphic card and other branded cards working together?
I am curious as I am considering a Colorgraphic Xentera GT4 (PCI) to couple with my ATI Radeon 9700 (AGP) for a three monitor setup.
Thanks for your help!
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Douglas 2003-08-08 08:37
Drew, please let us know if you have any questions, any time.
Run the Xentera GT 4 in PCI-66 mode and you probably won't need the AGP card.
Yes we can work with other manufacturers video adapters but there are limitations due to boot sequence or overlapping driver filenames etc.
Douglas Jordan
Colorgraphic, VP Engineering
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Barton 2003-08-11 04:37
Douglas,
After reading some of your posts and doing additional reading on the Xentera/Colorgraphic website, it looks as though the Xentera GT4 AGP card is going to do exactly what I have been waiting for for lo these many years.
I have a 3-18" viewsonic DVI displays that I am running at their native 1280x1024 resolution. I have been looking for a card (similar to the Matrox Parhelia) that would support 3 DVI monitors and provide me a resolution of 3840x1024 so I can run Microsoft Flight Simulator (2002/2004) and get that "wrap-around" effect. You can do that with a Parhelia, but not with multiple DVI monitors.
Can you tell me if this is something that the Xentera GT4 AGP will support? Also, is there is late word as to when the AGP version will become available?
You can read about my system here and let me know if you think I will have any performance issues. I don't mind spending the money for the card, I would just hate to drop $500+ on something that might not work and then not be able to return the card.
Thanks in advance!
Barton
Jacksonville, Florida
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Drew 2003-08-12 00:25
Douglas,
Thanks for your offer of support for the Xentera GT4.
The only reason I would be using the AGP card would be to take advantage of the more powerful VPU on the Radeon 9800 PRO card - and because I have it already.
Incidentally, I have already purchased a Xentera GT4 (PCI) and am looking forward to installing it as I have not done so yet because of time constraints.
I will probably just disconnect the AGP connection when using applications (such as gaming) that will support all three of my monitors, but when using applications that do not support three monitors or that I need more VPU power on the primary display I will use the AGP card in conjunction with the Xentera GT4.
From what I understand this should not be a problem, but if I am mistaken any corrections would be appreciated!
Thanks again for your help and input.
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Drew 2003-08-12 00:26
Douglas,
Perhaps you can answer one other question I forgot to list on my previous post:
Are there any conflicts you know of or that are quite possible when using the Xentera GT4 (PCI) with an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro (AGP)?
Thanks again for your help; it is appreciated!
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Douglas 2003-08-12 07:27
First Barton, the Matrox Parhelia uses a shared frame buffer for the 3 screens, so to the application it appears as one display device or one GPU. If MS Flight Simulator supports multiple display devices then I would expect it to work as desired. It should work the same with the Xentera GT 4 AGP card. We expect to have this card shipping in October. We offer 30 day money back when you buy direct.
Second Drew: There will be a driver issue with the Radeon 9800 and the Xentera GT 4. The basic problem is, who is responsible for support when the driver names overlap and we do not manufacture the Radeon 9800. This is a complex issue, where we utilize files directly from ATI and our installation is to only support Colorgraphic products and not ATI. We are working on an updated driver release that could support the 9800 but this would not be part of our generic release. I could work with you on this if you like.
The Xentera GT 4 PCI has 14.08GB of memory bandwidth total between the two MR9000 VPUs. We run faster memory than a standard Radeon 9000 but lower the 3D engine to reduce power consumption. For you 3D games we are thinking of posting an uprated BIOS that will run the 3D engine at a higher rate, so any feedback will be helpful. Colorgraphic is in the business graphics market but the Xentera GT cards are no slouch when it comes to 3D games.
Douglas Jordan
Colorgraphic, VP Engineering
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Drew 2003-08-13 00:10
Douglas,
Thanks for the driver information regarding the use of an ATI Radeon 9800 with the Xentera GT4.
It would be great if it were possible to work with you on resolving, or rather circumventing, this conflict as I have yet to install the card. Please advise if you would rather I contact you privately about this.
Are there any plans for Colorgraphic to offer a multiple-monitor solution that is based on a higher performance chipset than the Radeon Mobility 9000?
Thanks again for your help; it is greatly appreciated.
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Douglas 2003-08-13 06:37
Drew, you can contact me directly:
djordan@colorgraphic.net
Higher performace is always a possiblity, however we have to consider what is selling in our market as well. For the most part Radeon 9800 class graphics is too power hungry to make it practical for a quad card.
Douglas Jordan
Colorgraphic, VP Engineering
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Uncle-Bob 2004-01-08 05:21
Douglas,
Does Quake 3 and UT2003 work perfectly on your 12 monitors all together ?
do you play on a 12 screen image ?
if yes, what frame rates do you get with this games ?
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Don Roberts 2004-01-25 15:51
Christian,
What ever happened to the Colorgraphic Xentera 4 AGP article? Did I miss a link in my reading?
Douglas,
Will the Xentera 4 AGP work with a TV tuner card, such as the Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-350?
Thanks to both of you,
Don Roberts
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Christian Studer 2004-01-25 20:00
The review is online: Xentera GT 4 review
Christian Studer - www.realtimesoft.com
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Don Roberts 2004-01-26 04:28
Christian,
Thank you for the quick response and link to the Xentera review.
Regards, Don
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Daniel 2004-02-07 15:20
I am trying to get my Radeon 9700 Pro and my Xentera GT card to play together. The drivers have the same file names and are different versions. This leads to many problems ending in BSOD's. SO, I renamed the driver files to start with "b" instead of "a". I then warmed up my hex editor and corrected the file name references in all the driver files including the INF anc CAT files. To my total amazement, the driver installed. I then tried to pull up the display settings, I got this error 4 times, once for each head I am guessing:
"The currently selected graphics display driver can not be used. It was written for a previous version of Windows, and it no longer compatible with this version of Windows.
The system has been started using the default VGA driver.
Please contact your hardware manufacturer to get an upgraded driver, or select one of the Microsoft provided drivers."
I have checked the device manager and the driver loads correctly, and each display has system resources allocated to it. I have looked around for version flags that might be causing the problem but have found nothing that looks wrong. I have modified the drivers on the colorgraphic website as well as the 781r2rc6 version with the same results.
Has anyone gotten an Xentera to work with another ATI card not using the 9000 chipset? Any input or theories are welcome.
Thanks,
-Daniel (masived@aol.com)
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John Hitchcock 2004-02-18 23:06
Douglas,
I am building a PC (3.2 Gig -875 chipset), which I would like to use for the following tasks - 3D CAD, Video editing/recording, and TV tuning/viewing/recording, all running simultaneously. I will be using ProE CAD, 3D Studio, Adobe Premiere, Adobe Photoshop and a "Tivo like" DVR program with a DVD recorder. I wish to have 3 LCDs and an NTSC TV all connected to this PC. Can I do this with a Xentera GT card or cards?
Thanks.
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ecarlson 2004-02-19 13:54
I hope you have a TV card with hardware encoding (and ideally decoding), otherwise the TV recording will take up most of your CPU unless you record at low quality. A hardware encoding card will run at least $100, and with decoding too ~ $150.
- Eric www.InvisibleRobot.com
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John 2008-03-21 12:32
I just installed a colorgrafics GT$ AGP onto my dell demention 4550 and have 3 screens. One only has the wallpaper on it and the other two show the same page. I am able to use my computer but unablke to fix this problem. I went into the settings and it only shows one monitor. i did install the disc but nothing, John.
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