![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Monday , January 02, 2012
- Author:
- Brent Justice
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
Galaxy MDT GeForce GTX 580 Video Card Review
Galaxy has developed a video card that is based on the GeForce GTX 580 GPU and will allow you to run triple-display gaming with a single video card. This unique video card allows gamers more display options than ever on a GeForce GTX 580 GPU. We will look at configuration options, gameplay experience on triple-display, as well as overclocking.
Gaming Display Configurations
Single Display or 4th External Display
The Galaxy MDT GeForce GTX 580 can be configured in several different ways for gaming. While this video card is not the best single display option, it is possible to run a single display with this video card if you don't have multiple monitors. It is also possible to connect a 4th display, outside the spanned modes, for desktop use. If your display natively supports HDMI or Display Port you can connect them directly. But if your display only supports DVI, you will have to use an adapter.
The included passive DVI to Display Port adapter will let you connect up to a 1080p display to this video card, 1920x1200 or 1920x1080. The nature of the passive connector means that it cannot carry a larger resolution, for example 2560x1600 with a 30" display. In order to make that happen you need to purchase a separate active DVI to Display Port adapter as shown below.
This active DVI to Display Port adapter will allow you to connect your DVI display to this device, and then to the Display Port on the video card. By doing this, you will be able to run at 2560x1600 now on your 30" display. As you can see, we have a single 30" display connected in this way and are able to run at the native display resolution. We can run at this resolution in combination with a 3x1 triple-display setup for gaming.
Keep in mind that this is only if your display has DVI, and lacks HDMI or Display Port such as this Dell 3007WFP. If your display supports Display Port or HDMI natively, then this active adapter is not necessary. You can directly plug in Display Port to the video card and run at the native 2560x1600. Alternatively, if you have a 1080p display, or lower, and only have DVI, then the included passive adapter will work just fine. This just shows how single displays can be connected to the video card, either to use as a single monitor or to use as a 4th external monitor outside the spanned 2x1 or 3x1 configuration.
2x1 Dual Monitor Gaming
Using two of the HDMI ports on the video card you can run a 2x1 dual-monitor setup easily. There is no configuring you have to do, the video card knows how many displays you have connected. You just have to connect them in the right order, else the screens will be backwards.
The right side display needs to be plugged into the very top, and under it the left display. There was absolutely nothing to configure, we just made sure the resolution was what we wanted in Windows and that was it. It is all automatic.
The downside to dual display gaming is the bezel right smack dap in the middle. As you can see in Deus Ex game menu, the screen is centered and split right where the bezels are. In actual gaming, this is also an issue as in some games the weapon you are using is split between the monitors. In this game, it was more to the right side, but in some others its isn't. Dual display gaming really is more distracting than anything else with the bezels sitting right in front of your face, but it is easily supported as you can see.
3x1 Triple Monitor Gaming
3x1 gaming is the preferred way of gaming for this video card. It is also easy to setup, with no configuration necessary. Just plug all three displays in to the HDMI ports, again with the right display at the top (or very left if video card is horizontal), then middle display on the middle connector then the left display at the bottom (or right side.) Once you boot Windows it should all be lined up with no issues. You just need to go in and set the resolution. Similar to the Galaxy MDT X5, you can create custom resolutions in NVIDIA Control panel to achieve 5040x1050 and 5760x1200.
In this configuration you can see that the game menu is now centered on the center display, so it is easy to manipulate. In-game, since the video card is just operating with a large widescreen resolution the HUD will not be centered on the center screen. What you will have are parts of your HUD on the very left side of the left display, and very right side of the right display. With specific NV Surround and AMD Eyefnity technologies AMD and NVIDIA and game developers can write support into a game that centers your HUD on the center display in those configurations. Since the Galaxy MDT GTX 580 is not using NV Surround, and just one big resolution, the HUD will be spread out from left to right, and not centered. Your guns and reticules however, should all be centered on the center screen since they are placed in the center of the image.
EZY Display Software
In the past, Galaxy included a piece of software called Win-Split which allowed you to control your display configuration in software, this is what was included with the Galaxy MDT X5 GTX 560 Ti video card. Galaxy has since created a new piece of software in-house called Galaxy MDT EZY which has simplified software control of display configurations.
We downloaded the latest version of this software and installed it. In our specific scenario, testing 2x1 and 3x1 spanned gaming modes we didn't really find a use for this piece of software for just gaming. The options it gave us were to either split up the displays into separate displays, or to combine the resolution into the spanned 3x1 gaming mode. For gaming, there is no reason to take it out of 3x1 spanned mode. However, we can see that this could be useful if you use your displays for both productivity and gaming. The icon sits in your system tray, you can right click it and with one click switch between split and spanned modes. It makes it so you can have a triple display setup for regular daily use, and then switch to spanned mode to game on. The software is small, simple and easy to use. If you are using a Galaxy MDT video card, it is a good program to have installed.
Custom Resolutions
By default, the native resolution of the three HDMI connectors combined with the custom chipset is 3840x800 or 3840x1024. This is what your desktop will run at by default with three displays, which works fine for smaller displays. If you have higher resolution displays, as we do, the resolutions can be customized and increased in NV Control Panel.
If you go to the Change Resolution option under Display you will see the available resolutions officially supported. If you click the Customize button you can input your own resolutions. To enable 5760x1200 we put that resolution in, and then there were two important options we had to change in order to make that resolution work. We had to set the refresh rate to 50Hz, from the standard 60Hz. At 60Hz the resolution test failed to pass, and we could not set this resolution. By reducing to 50Hz, we were able to run at 5760x1200 on the desktop. We also have to select the "CVT Reduced Blank" option to force resolutions above 3840x800. Using a lower resolution, such as 5040x1050 allowed us to run at 60Hz just fine. We still needed to set "CVT Reduced Blank" in order for it to work.
After creating these resolutions we were able to switch between them from the NVIDIA Control Panel. The desktop worked just fine at both resolutions with these settings. We do wish the Galaxy MDT GeForce GTX 580 natively supported these resolutions and that this extra step not be required and that 60Hz be supported at 5760x1200, but at least there is a way to force it, and it works. The only issue we ran across is actual game resolution detection of these customized resolutions, which we will show you on the following pages.