Twin View and More

TwinView

The MX features NVIDIA's new TwinView technology, which is just like Matrox's DualHead technology. Like DualHead, TwinView allows a single video card to drive two displays. The MX can support several different dual display combinations:

Two digital flat panels
Two RGB monitors (with second RAMDAC)
Two analog flat panels
One digital flat panel and one analog flat panel
One digital flat panel and one RGB monitor
One digital flat panel and one TV
One RGB monitor and one TV
One RGB monitor and one analog flat panel (with second RAMDAC)
One analog flat panel and one TV

The MX has two TMDS channels that can each support a single digital flat panel display. TwinView offers the standard dual display modes: Win98 multimonitor support, application exclusive, clone, zoom, and virtual desktop. Check out our DualHead article for more information about the different modes.

Output devices

We have to note that not every MX card will be able to offer all the possible dual display combinations. The number of combinations available depends on the type and number of video outputs the board manufacturer puts on the card. For example, if an MX card only has one D-sub analog output, you won't be able to run dual CRT monitors. Generally, you can expect to pay more for cards that actually have the video outputs to support the MX's TwinView technology. There's a $50 difference between Hercules $149 Prophet II MX and the $199 Prophet II MX Dual-Display.

Digital Vibrance Control (DVC)

We'll let NVIDIA describe DVC first:

Digital Vibrance Control (DVC) was designed to make all PC visuals crisp, bright and clean. This patent pending technology is built into the GeForce2 MX graphics subsystem and allows the user to manage the digital bitstream between the graphics pipeline and the display subsystem. Through a simple user interface the user can control color separation and intensity resulting in bold, dynamic visuals with sharp, balanced color. Since DVC digitally accesses data before it reaches the display subsystem, its benefits apply to all forms of output including TV, digital flat panels, monitors, and LCD projectors.

In other words, DVC allows you to tweak the image color in software.