Matrox M9188 powers eight displays

Robert Hallock (Thrax) Matrox announced last week the introduction of the M9188 graphics card, capable of supporting eight displays via Mini DisplayPort connectors.

November 18, 2009 12:10 PM ET in News, , , , ,

matrox_m9188Matrox announced last week the introduction of the M9188 graphics card, capable of supporting eight displays via Mini DisplayPort connectors.

The Matrox M9188 PCIe x16 multi-display Octal graphics card addresses the need to visualize large amounts of data at once in order to effectively make decisions. The latest offering from the M-Series family is the world’s first single-slot PCIe x16 octal card, featuring the ability to support both DisplayPort and DVI Single-Link outputs to ensure wide compatibility with today’s monitors.

There was some misinformation tossed around about this card, so we went to the source and asked Matrox Marketing Communications Specialist Stephen Choi to clarify.

Icrontic: Does the M9188 support WDDM 1.0 or 1.1?
Stephen Choi: “The current driver supports WDDM 1.0 and we expect to have a WDDM 1.1 the first half of 2010.”

IC: Does the “independent desktop mode” limitation for Windows 7 mean that one desktop cannot be spanned across all connected displays?
SC: “Yes, this is a limitation for the time being, but we do expect to have a driver for Windows 7 that includes support for stretched desktop (one desktop spanned across all connected displays) in the few months. In the meantime, the current driver does support stretched desktop in Vista under WDDM 1.0.”

IC: If the M9188 does not support WDDM v1.1, how does this affect the environments or markets the card is targeting?
SC: “Lack of WDDM 1.1 support will not affect this card’s target markets. Currently, these markets are all on XP and will experience a very slow adoption to Windows 7. There will be a Matrox driver with support for stretched desktop on the M91888 once this customer base is ready to move to the Windows 7 OS.”

To summarize, the M9188 does in fact support the Aero interface under both Windows Vista and Windows 7, but the driver limits the card to one desktop per monitor in Windows 7 until some time in 1H10.

The M9188 will no doubt be well received by parties invested in data visualization, such as finance, airports, traffic management and meteorology. However, it will be interesting to see how, if at all, this card competes with Eyefinity editions of the Radeon HD 5000 series in those target markets; Eyefinity models will support six displays connected via Mini DisplayPort at fraction of of the M9188′s price.

The Matrox M9188 has a $1995 MSRP and will launch in 4Q09.

7 Comments

  1. 18 Nov '09, 5:23 pm lordbean

    First thing that jumped to my mind was professional stock analysts / market players. An 8-monitor setup from a single card would be a dream, particularly if you can install 2 in a system and run 16 monitors simultaneously.

  2. 18 Nov '09, 5:30 pm Annes
    Quoting lordbean

    First thing that jumped to my mind was professional stock analysts / market players. An 8-monitor setup from a single card would be a dream, particularly if you can install 2 in a system and run 16 monitors simultaneously.

    I actually forwarded this article to one of our analyst guys who's VERY interested in a better multi-monitor setup. His reply? "I am salivating."

  3. 18 Nov '09, 5:31 pm _k_

    Why stop there? There are mobos that have 7 pci-e slots. Think about it, 56 monitors.

  4. 18 Nov '09, 6:34 pm mas0n

    LOL, Matrox. I think I still have my Parhelia sitting around somewhere. It was pretty much the same story. Costs 3 times as much for last-gen features across a few more displays.

  5. 18 Nov '09, 6:50 pm primesuspect
    Quoting Annes

    I actually forwarded this article to one of our analyst guys who's VERY interested in a better multi-monitor setup. His reply? "I am salivating."

    Tell him to hold tight; Eyefinity might be cheaper and is definitely better.

  6. 18 Nov '09, 7:55 pm photodude

    It would be interesting if with virtualization technologies if 8 independent desktops with 8 users in a single or multiple OS could be achieved. I could see to being used for computer "hubs" for 8-56 users from one computer "hub." likely targeted to public libraries and universities, Possibly even some small businesses.

  7. 18 Nov '09, 11:46 pm photodude

    wow, estimated MSRP $1995

    If virtualization technologies could be use to create an 8 user hub I could see 8 user hub systems built around this for around $4000 a cost of $500/user .... not really a savings but an interesting idea

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