Linux stereo set-up

From: Michael Hothorn
Date: 1 December 2011 15:33

Dear all,

sorry for the off topic question (that has been asked many times before, but the hardware keeps changing): I want to buy a linux workstation with Nvidia 3D vision and an Alienware OptX AW2310 23-inch 3D TFT monitor. This set-up suggested by the CCP4 wiki for TFT stereo. Has anyone a similar set-up running under linux and can suggest a matching graphics card? It would be perfect if it could handle twinview with a second, non 3D/stereo TFT monitor. Does the Nvidia Quadro 4000 do this, and is the Nvidia driver running stable under linux?

Thanks
Michael

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From: Andrew Purkiss

Dear Michael,

We have exactly that set up running here. A dual screen linux machine
with one Alienware OptV AW2310 screen running in stereo using the NVIDIA
Quadro 4000 card and the second screen in 'normal' mode. As far as I can
remember, the only restriction is that the second screen can only
display the same resolution as the first. Just remember that you need
the optional stereo out connector as well (make sure it is the Quadro
4000 model). This uses an additional slot, separate from the graphic
card, on the back of the machine. The current NVIDIA driver works fine
and the quality of the stereo is very good.

Additionally, if you are going to have a lot of machines with this
setup, then you may want to consider the 3D Vision Pro, which uses radio
transmission to talk to the glasses and allows pairing of glasses to
individual computers. The standard 3D Vision systems uses Infra-Red and
the glasses can get confused with if two people are using stereo next to
each other. The 3D Vision Pro is considerably more expensive though.

Hope this helps,

Andrew

--
Andrew Purkiss
Cancer Research UK.

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From: David Schuller

I presume the Quadro 4000 should work, it is listed on the supported products page:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/quadro_pro_graphics_boards_linux.html

We have a Quadro FX 3800 card with the optional stereo bracket (900-50762-0000-000).
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/652465-REG/PNY_Technologies_900_50762_0000_000_Stereo_Bracket_for_Quadro.html

The 3800 puts out less heat:
4000  142 W
3800  108 W

And yes, we have run our setup with a second, non-stereo,  monitor.

My hope is that soon stereo-capable monitors using DisplayPort v1.2 and with the IR emitter built-in to the monitor will make it to retail, but I haven't seen anything like that for sale yet.

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