dual 2405FPW at max resolution question

[teddy3501]

hi. here's what i have on order... should be coming soon.

two 2405FPW and two eVGA 7800 GT.

I plan to run the 7800's in SLI and use the dual DVI ports to the moniters. I just notice that the resolution specs on the eVGA website says: 2560 x 1600 and 1600 x 1200 Max Digital

I'm assuming its saying i can only run the 2nd moniter at 1600x1200. I'd like to run the 2nd moniter at 1920x1200. I guess my only other option is getting a PCI video card.

Can someone suggest a good PCI base video card that has DVI and will support 1920x1200? I'm looking around and seems like most the the nvidia PCI cards are FX5700 based cards which only support upto 1600x1200 on the DVI (it supports higher only for analog).

Also, if I buy a ATI base card, will it get along with the nVidia cards (driver conflict issues)?

Thanks!

 

[keeleysam]

Just don't run it in SLI and plug one monitor into each.

 

[teddy3501]

running them in SLI will give me the frame rates i'm looking for when playing at 1920x1200 with everything on.

Yes, I want my cake and eat it too.

 

[keeleysam]

You can only have one display with SLI.

 

[teddy3501]

which means the only option is getting a PCI based video card. Any suggestions out there?

 

[Velk]

You are getting a PCI video card to be a 3rd video card as well as the two 7800SLI I assume ?

 

[JBT]

Originally posted by: teddy3501
hi. here's what i have on order... should be coming soon.

two 2405FPW and two eVGA 7800 GT.

I plan to run the 7800's in SLI and use the dual DVI ports to the moniters. I just notice that the resolution specs on the eVGA website says: 2560 x 1600 and 1600 x 1200 Max Digital

Thanks!

The 2560x1600 is refereing to VGA
the 1600x 1200 is refering to DVI

The Official DVI spec only goes to 1600x1200 thats why it lists it. The 7800 GT's can certinaly drive over that. You won't have any issues.

 

[Busithoth]

Originally posted by: keeleysam
You can only have one display with SLI.

That for real? What a silly oversight on their part.

I second the notion that you shouldn't run them in SLI, and enjoy the monitors in all their glory. I'm running HL2 with all eye candy on at 1920x1200 with an x800xt, so you shouldn't have any problem with one of those cards. SLI requires an actual connection between the cards, doesn't it? Too bad, otherwise you could enable SLI for gaming and disable it for second monitor.

If you're going to get a PCI video card anyway, I'd say stick with nVidia, for driver's sake.

 

[quattro1]

Originally posted by: Busithoth


SLI requires an actual connection between the cards, doesn't it? Too bad, otherwise you could enable SLI for gaming and disable it for second monitor.

If you're going to get a PCI video card anyway, I'd say stick with nVidia, for driver's sake.

Yes SLI requires a connection between the cards but it is internal and never needs to be touched. You can have both monitors connected at all times, heck even 4. When you enable SLI, only one monitor works, disable it and you get all of them back on. Very easy. No need to be swapping cables.

 

[darkswordsman17]

Originally posted by: quattro1

Originally posted by: Busithoth


SLI requires an actual connection between the cards, doesn't it? Too bad, otherwise you could enable SLI for gaming and disable it for second monitor.

If you're going to get a PCI video card anyway, I'd say stick with nVidia, for driver's sake.

Yes SLI requires a connection between the cards but it is internal and never needs to be touched. You can have both monitors connected at all times, heck even 4. When you enable SLI, only one monitor works, disable it and you get all of them back on. Very easy. No need to be swapping cables.

Yeah, all you have to do is disable SLI when not playing a game and enabling it before. They were supposed to have made it so that you don't have to reboot before/after enabling SLI now, so it should be fine.

I thought DVI was rated for up to 1920x1200, and only dual-link was rated for higher? I know that one of the DVI ports is dual-link while the other is just a normal DVI port. You should be fine with dual 2405s though.

Personally, I'd rather have two 2001s flanking a 2405, but hey your choice.

 

[IeraseU]

You can run both monitors off one 7800 card with no trouble at 1900x1200 despite what the specs say.

 

[JBT]

1920x1200 is fine with reduce blank interleaving on. Which will happen anyways. So its not an issue. Its just that card manufacterers only list the offical DVI spec of 1600x1200.

 

[Busithoth]

Originally posted by: darkswordsman17

Originally posted by: quattro1

Originally posted by: Busithoth


SLI requires an actual connection between the cards, doesn't it? Too bad, otherwise you could enable SLI for gaming and disable it for second monitor.

If you're going to get a PCI video card anyway, I'd say stick with nVidia, for driver's sake.

Yes SLI requires a connection between the cards but it is internal and never needs to be touched. You can have both monitors connected at all times, heck even 4. When you enable SLI, only one monitor works, disable it and you get all of them back on. Very easy. No need to be swapping cables.

Yeah, all you have to do is disable SLI when not playing a game and enabling it before. They were supposed to have made it so that you don't have to reboot before/after enabling SLI now, so it should be fine.

I thought DVI was rated for up to 1920x1200, and only dual-link was rated for higher? I know that one of the DVI ports is dual-link while the other is just a normal DVI port. You should be fine with dual 2405s though.

Personally, I'd rather have two 2001s flanking a 2405, but hey your choice.

Good, I thought this should be how it is. Glad to hear nVidia thought of this.
Of course, I enjoyed having my personalized google page/trillian on my second monitor while the primary had a game going.

 

[teddy3501]

thanks for all the response. i guess the best thing is for me to get the hardware setup and running before buying that 3rd PCI video card. i sure hope i can run dual displays at 1920 with SLI. will let you guys know how it goes... moniter doesn't get here until sept 13... dells takes for ever since it's made to order i guess.

 

[teddy3501]

quick update... got my dual dell 2405fpw setup with 2x7800GT's. 2nd moniter does run at 1920. when switched to SLI mode, 2nd moniter goes blank. am very happy about the setup except i can't get BF2 to run at 1920! will only go upto 1600x1200.

btw, i plug each moniter into it's own video card (rather than 2 moniters into 1 video card's dual DVI). i think that's why i'm able to get 1920 on each moniter. if had used the video card's dual DVI, i think the 2nd moniter would go up to 1600 only. haven't tested that though...

 

[Markbnj]

There are some people who claim to have gotten BF2 running in wide-screen mode by using command line switches as follows:

bf2.exe +menu 1 +fullscreeen 1 +szx 1920 +szy 1200

This is a modification of the standard command line in the desktop shortcut, adding the last two terms.

This works for some people, and not for others. If I try anything along these lines the program exits to the desktop, but others report that it has worked.

Unfortunately it is not true widescreen, as the field of view does not change, and you lose a little of the top and bottom of the view. My advice is to play bf2 in 1600 x 1200 and email Dice and EA that you wish they would support wide screen.

For what it's worth, you can get Call of Duty to run in true wide screen at 1920 x 1200, and it's gorgeous. Check out www.widescreengamingforums.com for a solution.

 

[teddy3501]

it dumps me out too when i try the +szx and +szy switch. maybe they'll put 1920 support in a future patch. thanks for the widescreengaming link.