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'beginner' DVI video card

M

munscher

Junior Member
So i've recently purchased a Dell 2005FWP widescreen 20.1" LCD monitor. I want to upgrade my video card to one with a DVI output to take full advantage of the monitor's capabilities. I don't do much in the way of gaming, so I don't need a truely amazing graphics card. I'd like to keep it under $100 for sure, the cheaper the better. What are your recommendations? I would also prefer one that supports dual screen output.

Thanks!
 
I have both slots available i *THINK*. I'll have to check when i get home... what are the advantages/disadvantages? I've been outta the game for waaaay too long.
 
How old is your computer? I doubt you have both AGP and PCI-E, that is very rare in a MB. You probably have either AGP (if it's a few years old) or PCI-E (if it's relatively new).

If for any reason you do have both, go with the newer technology (PCI-E)... it's cheaper and certainly no worse... PCI-E is the better of the two, but primarily because prices are a bit lower then AGP.

If you're system is a few years old, you probably have AGP... nothing wrong with that at all, just get what you need and your system will take.
 
I built my computer.... a year or two ago. I believe i used an AMD 1600+, but im not 100% sure. I know for a fact it had PCI slots, not sure if they were PCIe or not. But in any case, lets just assume i do have PCIe until I can determine otherwise i guess.

DeathBUA: any reason you narrowed it down to those 2 immediately?
 
Well, I don't want to recomend a PCI-E card if you have an AGP MB!?!?

Another, perhaps more important question... define the term "don't do much gaming". Does that mean you only play one game on one day each month? The frequency of how often you DO game doesn't matter one bit about which video card you get... rather the type of game you play determines what you need.

You could play Window's Solitaire 24/7 for 365 days a year, and never need anything beyond the most basic video card.

If, however on one day each year, you play Doom-3 with all the bells and whistles activated at 1600x1200 resolution, you'll need one heck of a beefy video card even if you only play for one hour total in an entire year.

So "don't do much gaming" doesn't really mean anything... if you do no gaming, that would be differant, but if you do play games, the type of game is far more important then the frequency.
 
Originally posted by: Wolfshanze
Well, I don't want to recomend a PCI-E card if you have an AGP MB!?!?

Another, perhaps more important question... define the term "don't do much gaming". Does that mean you only play one game on one day each month? The frequency of how often you DO game doesn't matter one bit about which video card you get... rather the type of game you play determines what you need.

You could play Window's Solitaire 24/7 for 365 days a year, and never need anything beyond the most basic video card.

If, however on one day each year, you play Doom-3 with all the bells and whistles activated at 1600x1200 resolution, you'll need one heck of a beefy video card even if you only play for one hour total in an entire year.

So "don't do much gaming" doesn't really mean anything... if you do no gaming, that would be differant, but if you do play games, the type of game is far more important then the frequency.
Click to expand...

good point, and well taken... i don't do any high-end gaming, no first person shooters, etc.. for the purposes of this decision we can just assume i do NO gaming. If you could give me a rough idea of what time of gaming i could do with the cards that are recommended, that would be great just in case i decide to buy a game sometime... but that's not really needed as i dont see it happening anytime soon.

I also forgot to mention that I have an analog only 17" monitor that I would be using as the second monitor in the setup. So the card would need a DVI output as well as an analog output. If it only has 2 DVI outputs, it doesnt help me.

Thanks for the help!
 
Originally posted by: munscher
Originally posted by: Wolfshanze
Well, I don't want to recomend a PCI-E card if you have an AGP MB!?!?

Another, perhaps more important question... define the term "don't do much gaming". Does that mean you only play one game on one day each month? The frequency of how often you DO game doesn't matter one bit about which video card you get... rather the type of game you play determines what you need.

You could play Window's Solitaire 24/7 for 365 days a year, and never need anything beyond the most basic video card.

If, however on one day each year, you play Doom-3 with all the bells and whistles activated at 1600x1200 resolution, you'll need one heck of a beefy video card even if you only play for one hour total in an entire year.

So "don't do much gaming" doesn't really mean anything... if you do no gaming, that would be differant, but if you do play games, the type of game is far more important then the frequency.
Click to expand...

good point, and well taken... i don't do any high-end gaming, no first person shooters, etc.. for the purposes of this decision we can just assume i do NO gaming. If you could give me a rough idea of what time of gaming i could do with the cards that are recommended, that would be great just in case i decide to buy a game sometime... but that's not really needed as i dont see it happening anytime soon.

I also forgot to mention that I have an analog only 17" monitor that I would be using as the second monitor in the setup. So the card would need a DVI output as well as an analog output. If it only has 2 DVI outputs, it doesnt help me.

Thanks for the help!
Click to expand...

Actually they have DVI-analog adaptors they work fine, in fact my monitor is analog and my card has dual DVI output...

I recommended those cards based on price, they were the cheapest Dual DVI cards I could find in PCI-E.....agp cards were about 20-30 bucks more tho
 
Actually they have DVI-analog adaptors they work fine, in fact my monitor is analog and my card has dual DVI output...

I recommended those cards based on price, they were the cheapest Dual DVI cards I could find in PCI-E.....agp cards were about 20-30 bucks more tho
Click to expand...

another good point, haha... this is why i ask questions. I always forget about the little things.
 
Seems like something in the 9600/9800 series of ATI cards would be a good choice. Most have both a VGA and DVI port and are under $100. Sorry I don't know details of which particular models are choice (though I think anything XT is good, e.g. 9600XT).

 
For a true NOOB card with DVI look no further than the ATI RAdeon 9250 series. Good image quality at rock bottom prices, and it should be powerful enough to drive that bad arse of a monitor you got there. Now if you actually want to do some 3D stuff on your new toy, but still don't want to break the bank, get an AGP Radeon 9800Pro for around $100 or an nVidia 6600GT AGP for around $130-$150
 
Yeah those two dual-DVI monitors are excellent solutions and they are definitely the most flexible since you can just use a DVI-VGA adaptor for any analog monitors you have. There's no such thing as a VGA-DVI adaptor, so if you decided to buy a video card with only one DVI plug and later bought a second LCD, you wouln't get the best picture out of the second screen.

Otherwise if you want to save even more cash (and have no need for gaming capabilities whatsoever), any ATI Radeon 8500/9000/9100 card with DVI+VGA should run you about $50 if you can find them and have excellent picture quality.
 
Finally made it home and looked at my system:

XP 1700+ Processor
ASUS A7N266 motherboard with 2 available PCI slots, 1 available AGP slot

Judging by what i've found online and looking at my motherboard, there are no PCI express slots on my board. So still go with PCI?
 
Hmmm i dont know if the AGP signaling voltage on the older Via chipsets supports the newer 8x cards. We may have to jump back to Geforce 4 era.

-Kevin

Edit: As for PCI and PCI-E they are 2 completely different standards. You will want to have an AGP card for your system. Right now, im thinking a Geforce 4 would be the best bet as i dont remember the specs for the Via KT-266 chipset.
 
Ok well that FX and R300 series will both work. The 6 and Xxx series will NOT work as their signaling voltage is 0.8V (AGP 3.0) rather than 1.5 (AGP 2.0) or 3.3V (AGP 1.0)

I would, for an entry level card, for someone who doesn't game at all, recommend a 5200NU or something. Just the absolute cheapest you can find. There is no reason to be recommending him 9800's and even 9600's. Both are way overkill.

-Kevin
 
OK, so i think i am just going to go with a cheap/inexpensive/low cost graphics card for now. It will be at least a year or more before i'll need dual DVI, so i'll upgrade later if need be. I will have a new computer altogether at that time anyways. You have confused me a little bit with the voltages about which cards i can and can not use. I've decided to go with an AGP card as i DO have an available AGP slot.

I have searched on NewEgg for an AGP card with 1 available DVI port. Some people have mentioned Radeon 9250, 5200NU, and the list goes on and on. I don't know which card to get anymore... I also am not sure what an R300 series is. And the link that phaxmohdem supplied for "This card WILL work..." only sends me to a list of boards.

So, keeping in mind that i will be using it to run my 2005FPW, does it matter whether i get a 64mb or 128mb card? Should i worry about clock speeds, etc? Or can I just narrow my search on NewEgg with only AGP cards with 1 DVI port and just pick the least expensive?

Help 🙂

Thanks for your patience!

EDIT: Maybe one of these 2 cards?

ASUS Radeon 9250
Rosewill FX5200
 
I'd suggest you definately choose DirectX 9 (a no-brainer) and probably also a 128-bit memory interface (if that $20+ price bump is within your price range).

If you think you might ever want to use a whole bunch of monitors in your future, a PCI video card might be reusable in your upgraded future rig. The AGP card will just gather dust. If you don't ever see the need for 3+ monitors, ignore this bit.

 
Um... if you do zero gaming... the cheapest one should work, just check that it suppoprts your resolution.

If you plan on doing maybe some light gaming every now and then, get the 6600 or 6600GT.

Norm
 
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