Best vNidia for Tripplehead setup?

[Billy41684]

Hello all!

I know this is not server related (thus it being in the General Discussion forum), but I am posting this to every Linux Forum I can think of to help get the best results...

Currently I have an ATI Radeon 9550 (256mb) video card with a dualhead setup. I am unable to run Compiz Fusion unless I use 1024x768 ratio because of the max texture size capable of ATI cards (1024 x 2 < 2048). Since I want my display to be 1280x1024 running dualhead, I have sacrificed Compiz Fusion (1280 x 2 > 2048) and decided to save up some $$$ for a new video card, this time nVidia is my choice.

However, I have recently found the need for a 3rd monitor (need more real estate). So I've done the math for nVidia's max texture size (1280 x 3 < 4096) and 3 monitors at 1280x1024 would be perfect, and still capable of running Compiz Fusion. This has got me really exited! Then someone pointed out that I should go widescreen on the desktop. My notebook is already widescreen, and I like it.. So I did the math (1440 x 3 < 4096) and even triple widescreens will still work! So now I am really super excited! XD yay!

Now - there's just one thing left to do.. Research on what it takes to get 3 monitors working as one big desktop. Dualheads are easy, because my card has two outputs DVI & analog (with a DVI-> analog converter on the DVI port) for two monitors, and I just use the mergefb tools with the Radeon driver (the free one in the kernel - I hate FGLRX). With nVidia I am stepping into a whole new world as i've never owned one before (would have stayed that way if ATI wasn't so limiting in their hardware/drivers).

So here's the plan. I am going to buy a 512mb nVidia card (DVI+analog ports) for sure to at least get my dualhead working - I don't think I can ever go back to just one monitor ever again. But alas the new problem arises.. Do I need to get a second nVidia card to get this 3rd monitor?? Or maybe there is a nVidia card that had 3 outputs? Or... Ultimately, would it be best to get 3 lesser nVidia cards?

Some basic info:

I'm not a gamer. I don't use Windows at all (except for the XP in VMWare to run IE7 to test my web pages in [i'm a web developer]). I watch a few movies on the computer, just every now and then. The only real 3D things I ever run are Compiz Fusion and my GL Screensaver(s). I run Debian Sid (Sid forever!! XD) with the 2.6.23.3 kernel (custom compiled). When I buy the video card(s) I am buying 3 brand new matching widescreen LCD monitors. Um..... I use XFCE as my DE (full time). I have a 2.7 ghz intel, 2gb ddr ram, 1.5TB hdd (combined sata, sataII, and ata133). My mobo only has ONE AGP slot on the mobo and about 3 or 4 empty PCI (not PCI Express) slots available. If I have to, I am going to buy a new mobo too (then I get to use my AMD Opteron XD).

Ok - what this all boils down to is 3 things mainly...

1) Which video card do you prefer/recommend for my setup?

2) How many video cards am I going to need?

3) Point me in the right direction to get more info about triplehead setups on Linux.

Thanks! XD

[John]

You already know I don't have much experience with Linux on the desktop, so can't offer much advice. I do know that there are a few companies selling multi-monitor setups, so that might be useful to you. Here are links to those:

http://digitaltigers.com/zenview.shtml
http://www.monitoroutlet.com/multimonitor_nec_main.html

I'm not sure if any of those would be better than having three individual monitors, though.

By the way, that Compiz Fusion program looks quite awesome. I just watched a YouTube video on it and it seems to have some great functionality.

[Billy41684]

Wicked cool links there! A few of those actually looked perfect! I already have smoething in mind for my monitors though. The thing I am worried about is the video card and if Linux will be able to use them how I want it to.

As for Compiz Fusion - Yeah, it's pretty spiffy. I've been using Compiz since the beginning (well, for the past 2 years at least). I even made the switch over to Beryl for awhile. Now that Compiz and Beryl have joined forces toward a common goal (Compiz Fusion) I have moved with them. It's just, now that my needs are growing, my hardware can't seem to keep up (stupid ATI and their 2048 maximum texture limit). So it's time to upgrade hardware to keep using Compiz Fusion.

When you did a youtube search - were you watching Compiz, Beryl, or Compiz Fusion? All three are very different - Compiz is old school and doesn't have all the coolest features, but was pretty stable. Beryl was a split from Compiz, that had more features to play with, but instabilities started to popup. Both sides ran in their own directions for about a year, gaining a LOT of ground both ways. Now they have both come to the realization that no matter how good each gets in their own way, the software will become perfect when they merge together. The newest features/plugins meets the most secure backend... Thus, Compiz Fusion.

To be exact - Compiz Fusion just a set of features/plugins that works on top of the original Compiz. Both working together to make the end user's experience enjoyable, and stable.

Now if I can only get it to work on 3 monitors, that would be sweet.

[John]

Here's a link to the Compiz Fusion video that I watched: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4Fbk52Mk1w

[Billy41684]

Thats a good video! Shows off most of the plugins. Watching this makes me miss my Compiz Fusion even more

[John]

Knowing nothing about Compiz Fusion, after watching the video it seems to be some sort of desktop management program in that you can have multiple desktops running at the same time. Also, it seems as if it can manage multiple monitors as well.

Is that pretty much what it does?

[Billy41684]

Any DE (Desktop Environment), and most WM's (Window Managers), in Linux have multiple desktops. They've just never been able to "cube" it like that before.

Compiz is a WM replacement. It replaces whatever your DE's WM is (Gnome = Metacity | KDE = KWin, XFCE = XFWM4, etc). Instead of having your normal WM controls the windows, you are handing it over to Compiz.

Compiz has its own "themer" called Emerald. This is what decorates your windows (the styles/themes). Emerald themer only themes windows built by Compiz, so you can't use it with your normal WM.

Compiz Fusion is a set of plugins that add extra controls that only the Compiz WM can handle, like cube, scale, rotate, rain, fire, wobble, etc etc. There are a good number of plugins, all doing separate things. However, some plugins rely on other plugins to be loaded (like rotate, it obviously needs a 'cube' to rotate, etc). when everything is working together it is a perfect mesh of never before seen eye-candy that is hard to ignore, even by Windows users.

Multiple monitors is not part of the DE or WM, thus Compiz doesn't know or care if you have 1 or 16 monitors. It just sees a DE that needs a WM. The multiple monitor setup is all in the Xorg backend. However, when there are multiple monitors there are all sorts of things you have to take into account, like hardware texture limits (ATI's is 2048x2048 - nVidia's is 4096x4096). This limit just means anything bigger than this size will not be rendered on the screen. Things will get cut off. Like my desktop wall paper. If I set my desktop resolution to 2056x1024, then on the far right side I get a huge white space - the wallpaper just stops drawing where the hardware texture limit is. However, if I am not running Compiz, the background shows up fine - all the way to the edge. Why?

Compiz is not just another WM. It is a WM that doesnt use the FB (frame buffer) or hardware to draw to the screen - in fact, it uses OpenGL. Everything being drawn gets fed to OpenGL and then OpenGL places it on the screen - this is the reason you can still have full DRI while using some of these effects (like watching a movie while the cube is rotating, without ever missing a single frame). Since OpenGL is the main tool here, the texture limit comes into play. The hardware texture limit is the maximum size any 3D object can be before it just stop rendering.

That's just one of the things to take into account when using Compiz. Its actually a very picky task. Some people find it extremely easy to install and use, while others have the hardest time. It just depends on your situation/setup/hardware/whatever.

For more info you can check out their project site at http://compiz.org/ - you'll find a lot of info there, including screenshots & videos, and a link to their forums.