Hi Guys,

With the need to replace the mobo on one of our studio PC's, our local and very helpful PC shop have suggested a board (GA-MA69GM-S2H or GA-MA78GM) which doesn't have an AGP slot, but comes with dual video already on it (SVGA / DVI)



Would myriad be able to support this , or does the dual-video have to be with the Matrox card?



A quick answer from P2 towers would be much appreciated.

Cheers

Simon

HB Sheffield

Hi Simon,

I've had a look at the technical specifications of the motherboards that your local PC reseller suggested. On paper they look fine (we also use gigabyte motherboards ourselves) however I still have some reservations about 'Onboard' Video. In my experience it tends to have the following difficulties:

1) Shared system resources. Basically the system memory (RAM) is split and a portion is used for the graphics 'card'. This reduces your systems core memory and is slower then on graphics card memory.

2) Driver Updates. You often find that the drivers for onboard graphics cards are custom creations form the manufacturer, this makes driver updates and support less frequent / likely.

3) Lower performance. Again because the card is sharing system resources you tend to find that separate cards will outperform it every time with regard to straight line processing and reliability.

I personally feel that with most standard graphics cards now being 'Dual Head' this potentially money saving motherboard has very few advantages.

Hope this helps,

John-michael