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First Look: proMAX's DH-Max^tm Dual Monitor AGP Graphics Card Usage Comments and 2D/Apps Performance Tests
By Mike
Published: 11/7/2000

Since the First Look page has several photos, I've created this 2nd page to cover performance tests.
If any ProTools users have not already bought the $749 Appian dual-monitor AGP card to solve the issues of dual graphics cards in G4/AGP Macs with ProTools (noted on the intro page), I'd be curious as to how this $299 card works with ProTools. Please contact me if you've used a DH Max with ProTools.
Digital Video Professional's Feedback:
Brent Kirsten of Digital Core wrote regarding using the DH Max card with the Aurora Video Systems high end Igniter capture card, Adaptec 39160 (PCI Ultra160 SCSI card) and Digital Video applications:

" So Far, It has been working great with Igniter, ICE and Adaptec 39160.
We now can run two monitors, ICE, Aurora and SCSI!!! Before, we had to trade off ICE filters vs. Dual Monitors. Dual Monitors won out becuase of workflo advantages. ie, productivity is higher with Dual Monitors when using FCP and AE.
Since we use it with FCP (Final Cut Pro) and AE (After Effects), we haven't seen much of a 2d performance hit, I'll be workin on a HDTV project this week and next, so this will be the real test.
I was disapointed in the lack of Open GL support, and the NTSC drivers aren't ready yet. Oh well, they got the card out, I'll wait to be able to play Quake...
Formac updated their page, stating their Dual Card won't ship till Q1 2001.
Brent "

Dual Monitor Test Comments: I tested this feature with my Sony F400 (19" CDT) as the primary monitor and an IBM LCD (VGA connector) monitor as the secondary display. I saw no problems with this setup in several hours of use. I ran Word98 for instance and dragged open documents between monitors and ran Quicktime (v5 preview) movies including a test to see if there were any problems if documents/windows were "between" monitors. There's no QT acceleration in the current drivers apparently, but Mpeg movies played fast, however Sorensen codec movies didn't look as good scaled up as they did with the ATI Rage128 Pro or Radeon cards.
One reader noted he had problems in dual monitor mode with a 14" Mitisibishi monitor and a 21" Apple monitor (I believe he had a Mac/VGA adapter on that monitor). He noted a lack of sync on the 14" monitor and a green tint on the 21" (like it had sync on green mode selected?). I asked if he had the firmware update for the card that was installed from the CD included with the sample that arrived here on 11/6/2000. Not sure if that would have helped, or if the Mac/VGA adapter could be a factor.
In my tests with the F400 Sony and IBM LCD, both monitors were correctly identified and seem fine so far.

2D and Applications Performance:
proMAX says they have a driver update due very soon that will boost performance, so the following results with the initial driver release, as with any new graphics card is probably not the last word on performance. I'll update this page as new drivers are released. All tests below were run with only 1 monitor attached in my single CPU G4/500 AGP system running OS 9.04.

Photoshop 5.5 Scrolling Tests
I measured the time it took to scroll the Flowers.psd file (resampled to 300DPI, an 18MB file) at the 400% zoom. Photoshop was allocated 140MB to make sure there was no swap file activity (verified as Photoshop's efficiency was always shown at 100%). I positioned the scroll bars at the max left and top positions, and then timed how long it took for each card to scroll the image horizontally (left to right) and then vertically (down). Display was set to 1280x1024, millions colors. The results are shown in the table below along with times recorded for other cards/systems in previous reviews. All times are in seconds, lower numbers/shorter bars are faster.

Pshop Horiz. Scroll

Pshop Vert. Scroll

Word 98 Scrolling Tests
I measured the time it took to scroll the a 6.9MB document file (2,187 pages, 45K paragraphs, 144,799 lines) with multiple font sizes, etc. from the first page to the last and then from the last page to the first. Word was allocated 40MB (many times the document size). Display was set to 1152x870, millions colors. The results are shown in the table below along with the performance (%) gain seen from the Radeon card. All times are in seconds, lower numbers/shorter bars are faster.

Word Scroll Down

Word Scroll Up
Again with the initial driver release the DH Max trails.

MacBench 5.0 Tests: As noted previously, proMAX has a driver update coming that promises faster 2D performance, so the disappointing results below may improve with later driver updates. I tested at 1024x768/16bit mode and 1280x1024/32bit modes.

MB 5 1024/16bit

MB 5 1280/32bit
The 32bit higher res. tests were especially disappointing, although remember this is just MacBench, which has now been pulled from ZDnet's web site as a mac benchmark. I'm eager to see how the next driver update will affect performance.

Related Links:

Photos and Specs on the DH Max
proMAX's DH-Max Product Page
proMAX DH-Max PDF Spec Sheet (shows fan on card that is not present on shipping model)
Previous Article here from April 2000 on the DH Max
Matrox's G400 product page
Tech Info on the G400 (All features may not be supported on the Mac)
Other Site Video Card Articles and Reviews

Back to WWW.XLR8YOURMAC.COM

Copyright ©, 2000.

No part of this sites content or images are to be reproduced or distributed in any form without written permission.
All brand or product names mentioned here are properties of their respective companies.
Legal: Users of the web site must read and are bound by the terms and conditions of use.

The Source for Mac Performance News and Reviews
First Look: proMAX's DH-Max^tm Dual Monitor AGP Graphics Card Usage Comments and 2D/Apps Performance Tests By Mike Published: 11/7/2000
Since the First Look page has several photos, I've created this 2nd page to cover performance tests. If any ProTools users have not already bought the $749 Appian dual-monitor AGP card to solve the issues of dual graphics cards in G4/AGP Macs with ProTools (noted on the intro page), I'd be curious as to how this $299 card works with ProTools. Please contact me if you've used a DH Max with ProTools. Digital Video Professional's Feedback: Brent Kirsten of Digital Core wrote regarding using the DH Max card with the Aurora Video Systems high end Igniter capture card, Adaptec 39160 (PCI Ultra160 SCSI card) and Digital Video applications: " So Far, It has been working great with Igniter, ICE and Adaptec 39160. We now can run two monitors, ICE, Aurora and SCSI!!! Before, we had to trade off ICE filters vs. Dual Monitors. Dual Monitors won out becuase of workflo advantages. ie, productivity is higher with Dual Monitors when using FCP and AE. Since we use it with FCP (Final Cut Pro) and AE (After Effects), we haven't seen much of a 2d performance hit, I'll be workin on a HDTV project this week and next, so this will be the real test. I was disapointed in the lack of Open GL support, and the NTSC drivers aren't ready yet. Oh well, they got the card out, I'll wait to be able to play Quake... Formac updated their page, stating their Dual Card won't ship till Q1 2001. Brent " Dual Monitor Test Comments: I tested this feature with my Sony F400 (19" CDT) as the primary monitor and an IBM LCD (VGA connector) monitor as the secondary display. I saw no problems with this setup in several hours of use. I ran Word98 for instance and dragged open documents between monitors and ran Quicktime (v5 preview) movies including a test to see if there were any problems if documents/windows were "between" monitors. There's no QT acceleration in the current drivers apparently, but Mpeg movies played fast, however Sorensen codec movies didn't look as good scaled up as they did with the ATI Rage128 Pro or Radeon cards. One reader noted he had problems in dual monitor mode with a 14" Mitisibishi monitor and a 21" Apple monitor (I believe he had a Mac/VGA adapter on that monitor). He noted a lack of sync on the 14" monitor and a green tint on the 21" (like it had sync on green mode selected?). I asked if he had the firmware update for the card that was installed from the CD included with the sample that arrived here on 11/6/2000. Not sure if that would have helped, or if the Mac/VGA adapter could be a factor. In my tests with the F400 Sony and IBM LCD, both monitors were correctly identified and seem fine so far. 2D and Applications Performance: proMAX says they have a driver update due very soon that will boost performance, so the following results with the initial driver release, as with any new graphics card is probably not the last word on performance. I'll update this page as new drivers are released. All tests below were run with only 1 monitor attached in my single CPU G4/500 AGP system running OS 9.04. Photoshop 5.5 Scrolling Tests I measured the time it took to scroll the Flowers.psd file (resampled to 300DPI, an 18MB file) at the 400% zoom. Photoshop was allocated 140MB to make sure there was no swap file activity (verified as Photoshop's efficiency was always shown at 100%). I positioned the scroll bars at the max left and top positions, and then timed how long it took for each card to scroll the image horizontally (left to right) and then vertically (down). Display was set to 1280x1024, millions colors. The results are shown in the table below along with times recorded for other cards/systems in previous reviews. All times are in seconds, lower numbers/shorter bars are faster. Word 98 Scrolling Tests I measured the time it took to scroll the a 6.9MB document file (2,187 pages, 45K paragraphs, 144,799 lines) with multiple font sizes, etc. from the first page to the last and then from the last page to the first. Word was allocated 40MB (many times the document size). Display was set to 1152x870, millions colors. The results are shown in the table below along with the performance (%) gain seen from the Radeon card. All times are in seconds, lower numbers/shorter bars are faster. Again with the initial driver release the DH Max trails. MacBench 5.0 Tests: As noted previously, proMAX has a driver update coming that promises faster 2D performance, so the disappointing results below may improve with later driver updates. I tested at 1024x768/16bit mode and 1280x1024/32bit modes. The 32bit higher res. tests were especially disappointing, although remember this is just MacBench, which has now been pulled from ZDnet's web site as a mac benchmark. I'm eager to see how the next driver update will affect performance. Related Links: Photos and Specs on the DH Max proMAX's DH-Max Product Page proMAX DH-Max PDF Spec Sheet (shows fan on card that is not present on shipping model) Previous Article here from April 2000 on the DH Max Matrox's G400 product page Tech Info on the G400 (All features may not be supported on the Mac) Other Site Video Card Articles and Reviews
Back to WWW.XLR8YOURMAC.COM
Copyright ©, 2000. No part of this sites content or images are to be reproduced or distributed in any form without written permission. All brand or product names mentioned here are properties of their respective companies. Legal: Users of the web site must read and are bound by the terms and conditions of use.