High quality LCDs

[Mark R]

We've got some pretty sweet workstations at work.

Double or triple head with 21" LCDs running at 2048x1536 (native), and super high dynamic range (10 or 12 bit).

Any idea where I can find such screens, how much they cost, and what sort of uber card I need to connect them to?

 

[Acanthus]

for triple displays youre talking more than 1 graphics card, for triple displays @ 2048x1536 youre talking 3 graphics cards.

The displays i am completely out of my league in, as they arent intended for consumers.

 

[Cheesetogo]

Viewsonic used to make a 22" lcd that had a native resoulution of 3840x2400, but they no longer make it and it costed around 8 thousand dollars.

 

[xtknight]

NEC's ultra gamut LCDs with LED backlights.

 

[CP5670]

Those are only 1600x1200 though.

IBM also makes a 22" widescreen that does 3840x2400 and costs about 8k. Might be a rebadge of that Viewsonic one for all I know.

Anyway, for the original question, you're going need a dual link DVI port to run each one of those at that resolution. I don't think there are any consumer cards with more than one dual link port, although there are probably workstation cards with two of them.

 

[xtknight]

Why not check what it is in display properties (via EDID or DDC)?

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: CP5670
Those are only 1600x1200 though.

There are NEC 2048x1536 21.3" monitors coming out this month.

http://www.nec-lcd.com/english/whatsnew/press051013_e.html
http://www.nec-lcd.com/english/whatsnew/press051013_1_e.html

Actually these are 10-bit panels with a 12-bit gamma LUT. One also has an LED backlight system (109% NTSC gamut). QXGA=2048x1536.

 

[Acanthus]

Originally posted by: CP5670
Those are only 1600x1200 though.

IBM also makes a 22" widescreen that does 3840x2400 and costs about 8k. Might be a rebadge of that Viewsonic one for all I know.

Anyway, for the original question, you're going need a dual link DVI port to run each one of those at that resolution. I don't think there are any consumer cards with more than one dual link port, although there are probably workstation cards with two of them.

2048x1536 is doable on a single connection isnt it? i thought it was above 2048 that needed dual link.

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: Acanthus

Originally posted by: CP5670
Those are only 1600x1200 though.

IBM also makes a 22" widescreen that does 3840x2400 and costs about 8k. Might be a rebadge of that Viewsonic one for all I know.

Anyway, for the original question, you're going need a dual link DVI port to run each one of those at that resolution. I don't think there are any consumer cards with more than one dual link port, although there are probably workstation cards with two of them.

2048x1536 is doable on a single connection isnt it? i thought it was above 2048 that needed dual link.

I was under the impression that 1600x1200 was more or less the normal limit for single-link DVI, and 1920x1200 is kind of pushing it (using reduced blanking interval). I don't know for sure though, but I would be kind of surprised if you could run 20x15 without dual-link.

 

[imported_BikeDude]

According to http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041129/tft_connection-05.html you're right: 1920x1200 requires reduced blanking.

And it assumes your video card has a good DVI signal to begin with... (hopefully things have changed to the better this past year)

Hmm, Matrox have been awfully quiet as of late? Depending on the application, their cards were good at driving several monitors, but dual-link might be outside Matrox' capability still?

 

[Mark R]

Heh.

Turns out that the graphics card is some special matrox thing, which has dual 3MP 10-bit monochrome digital outputs, and the screens are special 13-bit monochrome panels (8192 greys).

Which brings me to my next question: What support does Windows have for high colour depths (1024 greys, 1 billion colours)? Obviously, it must have some support, otherwise the matrox card wouldn't offer it.

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: SynthDude2001
I was under the impression that 1600x1200 was more or less the normal limit for single-link DVI, and 1920x1200 is kind of pushing it (using reduced blanking interval). I don't know for sure though, but I would be kind of surprised if you could run 20x15 without dual-link.

2048x1536@52Hz is possible with DVI (uses 163 out of 165MHz). That's just fine for HDTV depending on the frame rate.

 

[ProviaFan]

Originally posted by: Mark R
Heh.

Turns out that the graphics card is some special matrox thing, which has dual 3MP 10-bit monochrome digital outputs, and the screens are special 13-bit monochrome panels (8192 greys).

Which brings me to my next question: What support does Windows have for high colour depths (1024 greys, 1 billion colours)? Obviously, it must have some support, otherwise the matrox card wouldn't offer it.

I was interested in the whole 10 bits per channel (30 bit color) thing when the Parhelia first came out. I'm not totally clear on how it works, but at the time there were (significant?) compatibility issues with some applications. For medical use that's obviously not going to be a problem, but I'm not sure how practical such a system would be for everyday use.

FWIW, I've heard that Vista will supposedly support high-bit color depths like that. I'm also very unclear on this, but it seems that ATI's latest X1000 series cards may support something similar to the Matrox, at least under certain limited conditions; nonetheless, I highly doubt that they have driver support for running an ordinary application (e.g. Photoshop) with 30 bit color support as the Matrox Parhelia and P?50 series can.

 

[lifeguard1999]

The Viewsonic monitor is a rebadge of the IBM monitor. I have two of them at work and at 3840x2400, it has a very low refresh rate.

The NEC monitor (2048x1536) requires a dual-link DVI cable to work. I have an engineering sample at work as well. It is a cool monitor, but I expect it to be expensive since the 1600x1200 version is $6K.

 

[Unkno]

Two ways to buy it from:
1.Ebay
2.Directly order from manufacturer