Reader's Comments - Index of - Free

Choosing a Computer System for Digital Imaging
Any pearls of wisdom anyone?
-- Ajoy Prabhu (www.AjoyPrabhu.com), May 22, 2002
The following is gleaned from what I have read from reliable online and print
sources as well as my own experience.
Dual monitors (aka Dual Head) -- There are two ways to do this: use a video card
that has two outputs, or use two video cards. I have not tried to use two video
cards; I expect there would be difficulties with resource conflicts. Probably best to
use two cards from the same manufacturer.
Matrox used to be the king of dual-head (and quad, etc.!) cards. Now ATI and
nVidia have also gotten into the act. If you don't care about 3D performance
(mostly used in games), Matrox is still an excellent choice. I have used a number of
their cards, albeit with only one monitor, and had no complaints. Their 2D quality,
which is what you need for photo editing, is legendary. Their software (driver)
support for dual-head is supposed to be good and the cards run about $120 for a
G450 dual-head with 32MB video RAM.
ATI makes a number of dual-head cards. I have a Radeon 8500 which works OK.
ATI's problem has always been with driver support but they seem to be improving.
Their 2D quality is also good. ATI used to make all their own cards but now they
also sell chips to other companies so it is more difficult to know what you are
getting. Lots of choices from