Posted: October 4, 2000
Written by: Tuan "Solace" Nguyen

The Many Modes of TwinView

With TwinView architecture, GeForce2 MX supports multiple displays on a single GPU. Supporting a variety of display options -- such as digital flat panels, RGB monitors, TVs, and analog flat panels -- provides tailor-made visual solutions for individual needs.

Flexibility doesn't end with the choice of display. NVIDIA's unified driver architecture offers several different modes for using your display setup.

Standard Windows 98 multi-monitor support, which spreads the desktop across both displays. You determine the refresh rate, color depth, and resolution for each monitor, given its capabilities. This mode allows you to stretch your desktop horizontally or stack it vertically -- an optimal solution for financial trackers.

Application exclusive, in which an application may be dedicated to one or both monitors. This mode is excellent for entertainment applications, such as DVD playback, and digital video editing.

Clone mode, in which monitors show the same output. This mode is useful for presentations. A presenter may use the smaller monitor on the podium, while a projector conveys the data to the audience.

Application zone mode, in which a zoomed-in section of the primary display's image is shown on a secondary display. With the graphic artist in mind, this mode is perfect for image editing and modeling in CAD applications, image processing/mapping applications.

Virtual desktop, which supports full pan-and-scan mode, can be configured for one or both displays.

Additionally, there are several possible configurations, including:
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

As you can see, TwinView offers plenty of configuration options to choose from and it sure looks sweet sitting in front of two large screen, perfect flat, 22” monitors.

Other Features
Other architectural features of the GeForce2 MX are equivalent, for example the NSR or NVIDIA Shading Rasterizer. If you want to learn more about this technology, please read our Official NVIDIA GeForce2 Guide.
Let’s move on to some benchmarks shall we?
Benchmark System

AMD “Thunderbird” Athlon 1GHz

Asus A7V rev. 1.01, BIOS 1002
256MB Infineon PC133 SDRAM Cas2
Elsa Gladiac MX with official Detonator 3 (6.18)
IBM GXP75 Ultra100 HD
Windows 98 SE

Quake 3 Arena with latest Point Release
Demo 1 & 2: Normal and High Quality
1024x768
1280x1024
1600x1200

Next Page