Choosing a computer or motherboard
The computer will house the RT.X2, RT.X2 SD, or RT.X2 LE card. It must have a PCI Express (PCI-e) slot available, and must also have adequate cooling and a power supply large enough to meet the requirements of the RT.X2 card plus all other peripherals in the system. Power consumption is 18.0 watts for Matrox RT.X2 and 10.0 watts for Matrox RT.X2 SD or RT.X2 LE.
You must have at least 2 GB of RAM (4 GB of RAM is recommended for a Windows Vista 64-bit system). You may opt for performance RAM versus value RAM. Our tests have shown that in some systems this can increase performance by up to 10%. Upgrading to performance RAM can be seen as a "bargain" way to increase system performance when compared to upgrading to a marginally better processor.
Your choice of processors is a key element in the performance of your Matrox RT.X2 system, particularly when it comes to certain CPU-intensive functions such as:
- Encoding and decoding compressed video
- Compositing multiple graphics layers
- Realtime color correction
- Realtime chroma and luma keying
- Realtime speed changes
- Realtime transitions (Matrox wipes, dissolve, additive dissolve)
- Realtime track matte
- Realtime SD clip upscaling in an HD sequence (does not apply to RT.X2 SD)
- Realtime HD clip downscaling in an SD sequence
- Realtime multi-camera editing
The Matrox RT.X2 cards are optimized to run on both AMD and Intel processors and to take full advantage of their unique architectures. Single-core and multi-core processors are supported. A minimum of two processing cores is required - either two physical single-core processors, or one physical multi-core processor. Choosing top-of-the line processors may give you additional realtime capability that can be a significant time saver. More processing power will also benefit many of your other applications, such as Adobe After Effects, Discreet Combustion, etc.
Matrox has validated a number of desktop- and workstation-class computers and motherboards. For each computer and motherboard, we provide performance results for the GPUs we have tested, as well as validation recipes that tell you how to configure the system. Matrox dealers have validated additional computers and motherboards for use with RT.X2. Matrox does not have these systems in-house so we may be limited in our ability to troubleshoot them.
Validated computers and motherboards:
Matrox-validated for RT.X2 (Mx.tools 4.0 and Premiere Pro CS4)
Matrox-validated for RT.X2 SD (Mx.tools 4.0 and Premiere Pro CS4)
Matrox-validated for RT.X2 LE (Mx.tools 4.0 and Premiere Pro CS4)
Previously validated computers and motherboards
Matrox Dealer-validated for RT.X2
Incompatible computers and motherboards
