chepest dual-dvi solution?

[heat23]

I have a Dell 1800FP and a Dell 2001FP montior. I have them hooked up to a dual Analog Nvidia Quadro video card but the the picture is not crisp. I want to use both of the DVI connectors instead. If I got 1 AGP DVI video card and 1 PCI DVI video card, will that work? Will I be able to run one at 1600x1200 and the other at 1280x1024 and be able to extend my task car to the secondary monitor?

I don't care about performance, just picture quality.

Thanks

 

[Peter]

There are dual-DVI Radeon 9600 cards - whilst not the fastest, they are the lowest it goes for GOOD (!) signal quality on DVI, even on high-res monitors.

 

[heat23]

Any solutions for < $100? Would 2 video cards (1 PCI and 1 AGP or 2 PCI) with DVI solve my problem? How is that approach different than getting 1 video card with dual-DVI?

 

[Peter]

The ugly thing about PCI VGA is that they're a massive system bandwidth hog; audio replay, storage throughput, that's all going to suffer. Besides, I doubt you'll be getting such a pair of cards for less than a dual-DVI 9600 would cost.

 

[ponyo]

Peter, if you're talking about HIS 9600 dual dvi, I've read it doesn't work correctly with 2 lcds via dvi. A member here bought that card on my rec and had the same problem.

 

[heat23]

Originally posted by: Naustica
Peter, if you're talking about HIS 9600 dual dvi, I've read it doesn't work correctly with 2 lcds via dvi. A member here bought that card on my rec and had the same problem.

I don't like to hear that. I'm looking for a sub-$100 solution. Whats your take?

 

[ponyo]

I don't know a sub $100 solution. Two videocards, one AGP and one PCI will likely still cost you over $100.

If I wanted cheap dual DVI card and didn't care about gaming performance, I would get Matrox P650. P650 at Newegg

I like passive cooling and Matrox uses quality Silicon Image DVI transmitter chips.

 

[heat23]

Thanks for the Matrox suggestion.
http://www2.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=14-102-318&depa=0
How about that? Can I get 2 of those?


By the way, one of my monitors is RGB and the other is BGR. Does that affect whether or not I need to get 1 video card or 2?

 

[keeleysam]

Originally posted by: heat23
Thanks for the Matrox suggestion.
http://www2.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=14-102-318&depa=0
How about that? Can I get 2 of those?

I'm going to go with No. the 7000 can't handle goo DVI output.

 

[keeleysam]

http://www2.newegg.com/OldVersion/app/V...Desc.asp?description=14-150-083&depa=1

That's $10 more than the Matrox, but it will outperform it quite a bit.

 

[ponyo]

Get one AGP and one PCI. This AGP is also $30.http://www2.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102523

As long as you don't use crappy long DVI cables you should be fine running DVI on both monitors at native.

 

[imported_Kensai]

I'd go with a Dual-DVI 6600GT.

 

[ponyo]

Originally posted by: keeleysam
http://www2.newegg.com/OldVersion/app/V...Desc.asp?description=14-150-083&depa=1

That's $10 more than the Matrox, but it will outperform it quite a bit.

Does that XFX model use nice Silicon Image DVI transmitter like Matrox or does it use Nvidia's crappy DVI transmitter? I bet it uses Nvidia or some other cheap transmitter.

 

[heat23]

Originally posted by: Naustica
Get one AGP and one PCI. This AGP is also $30.http://www2.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102523

As long as you don't use crappy long DVI cables you should be fine running DVI on both monitors at native.

Will this work in a Dell Precision 360? I've tried to put in a couple AGP cards in there in the past and they didnt fit iinto the AGP slot that the computer had. I thought all AGP is the same??

 

[Peter]

Originally posted by: Kensai
I'd go with a Dual-DVI 6600GT.

Apparently one can't warn often enough that NVidia's integrated TMDS (DVI signal) transmitter isn't up to the job when it comes to high-resolution DVI panels. Avoid! Extremetech and Tom's have articles on the topic.