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Dual monitors are passé. So why not have three? No wait - how about four? With the Predator ProMedia card from US company Colorgraphic, that's exactly what you get. For the price of a single full-length PCI slot and £1166 you get a card that delivers four VGA outputs and four TV outputs (composite and S-Video). There are a number of different configuration options on offer, depending on your working needs, so you can also have two or four DVI flatpanel monitor outputs, up to four Video Decoders (PAL/NTSC/SECAM), TV tuner, 1-5 Digital video I/O, MPEG decoder and audio processor, though not all at the same time.

The card we reviewed features the TV tuner and four video I/O, as well as four VGA outputs. The card has 16MB VRAM per port and uses four S3 Savage4 chips for 2D and 3D acceleration. There is no OpenGL support at present, but OpenGL drivers are expected to be available soon - look out for the free update at [w] www.colorgraphic.co.uk. Speed-hungry 3D jockeys may have to look elsewhere for a multi-monitor system until then, but for screen-hungry video-editing and page-layout apps, the card looks like a very good idea.

Imagine having your video-editing app on one screen, another screen for all the floating palettes, another for the clip windows and another for Photoshop, a Web browser - whatever you like. Likewise for audio editing, illustration and Web design - in fact, any situation where you need to see all the information at once without the clutter of palettes and floating windows, or the inconvenience of having to switch between open apps.

As we mentioned, although the card is perhaps not a great idea for full-on 3D production, for casual 3D use it's fine. Perhaps you're an illustrator who uses a 3D application and Photoshop together, creating simple 3D shapes for artwork. The 3D performance of the card in this situation may not be that much of an issue.

2D performance was decent, but there was a problem where the image on a monitor would disappear when using the MultiVue video display app. Photoshop was also confused, and prevented you from seeing all of a maximised image on one monitor, though we suspect that this was due to Windows NT rather than the card itself.

The Predator ProMedia enables you to output to TV monitors as well as VGA screens. The Set Array control panel means you can define the shape of the array (number of rows and columns), and you can even spread the output across all four displays for video wall apps - superb for presentations or conferencing.

The ProMedia card may be a niche product, but thanks to the number of configuration options this is a very flexible card. It's a shame there's no OpenGL as yet, but it does offer good value for money, especially if you can profit from the workflow improvements a four-monitor set-up will provide.

Computer Arts' Verdict: 4/5
Speed: 3
Documentation: 3
Ease of use: 4
Value for money: 4

For: Up to four VGA and four video outputs · Four video Ins · TV tuner

Against: Does not suppress all of NT's multi-monitor glitches · No OpenGL as yet