What is the cheapest video card which supports widescreen resolutions?

[aswedc]

I have a Rage Pro, but I downloaded PowerStrip and the custom resolution button is not selectable.

I put in a Geforce FX I have, and it worked, but I don't want to waste that on this computer, which will be doing no 3D.

Thanks.

 

[JonnyBlaze]

any video card you can currently buy will support widescreen.

this would work. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102305

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: JonnyBlaze
any video card you can currently buy will support widescreen.

this would work. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102305

A RADEON 9000/9200/9250 or GeForceFX 5200 would also work (even a PCI version). However, the 9600 can do HD component output (may be useful to you at some point), and is passively cooled (a lot of the real cheap cards aren't). The card linked here is actually the exact one I have in my HTPC, and it works very well.

You could also use something like a RADEON 7000/7500/8500, or a GF4MX (or even a GF3, I think). Basically, any card produced in the last 5 years or so.

 

[Peter]

Basically any VGA chip, even those from the earliest ISA days, are freely programmable to do whatever resolution is within their timing limits. It's rather a question of whether or not its Windows driver supports a certain resolution.

Now that SiS finally updated theirs to include 1920x1200, it is rather safe to say that any card available today does the usual widescreen solutions.

Some cards might have to run a reduced framerate for 1920x1200 because they can't run the DVI port at maximum frequency. This is generally true for older cards like the Radeon 7000, but also for many newer NVidia chip based cards because the integrated DVI transmitter of the NVidia chips degrades its signal quality too much when going that high. If this happens, you'll get 50 instead of 60 Hz.

Sapphire's Radeon 9600 would be my prime choice if I wanted a little performance on AGP, otherwise I'd go with a 9550SE - same chip, even slower card, considerably cheaper.

Saying that, I personally went for a 9550SE-VIVO (H.I.S. brand) for the extra video input.

 

[aswedc]

SiS? Does that mean a $20 Xabre 200 would work? Also around that range is a XGI Z7 and a Kyro II? No HTPC plans here, just need a cheap video card to go with the cheapest LCD panel on Newegg, which at the time happened to be widescreen

Thanks, very informative info.

 

[Steve]

Not the Xabre as it stands, you have to modify the .inf file in the UniVGA driver to add Xabre support (they stopped after 3.57.53, when they turned the Xabre over to XGI). I have added Xabre support to UniVGA 3.67, however it's going to take a while to find my notes on how to do this again, maybe next week.

For the record, I have run my Dell 2405FPW on my (current) H.I.S. 9600 (dual DVI, I could run another on it...), as well as a Radeon 9200, a PCI Radeon 9100, and an All-In-Wonder VE (a PCI 7500).

 

[aatf510]

Originally posted by: Matthias99
However, the 9600 can do HD component output (may be useful to you at some point), and is passively cooled (a lot of the real cheap cards aren't). The card linked here is actually the exact one I have in my HTPC, and it works very well.

What about a BBATI 9700Pro?
Would it be able to output HD component as well?

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: toattett

Originally posted by: Matthias99
However, the 9600 can do HD component output (may be useful to you at some point), and is passively cooled (a lot of the real cheap cards aren't). The card linked here is actually the exact one I have in my HTPC, and it works very well.

What about a BBATI 9700Pro?
Would it be able to output HD component as well?

Yep. All ATI cards above the 9600 (and also the 8500) can use an HD component adapter (available from ATI for ~$30 if it's not included with the card). Only one I'm not sure about is the X300.

 

[aatf510]

Originally posted by: Matthias99
Yep. All ATI cards above the 9600 (and also the 8500) can use an HD component adapter (available from ATI for ~$30 if it's not included with the card). Only one I'm not sure about is the X300.

It seems that I only have the D-Sub, DVI and a S-Video out. Does the HD componet adapter uses a special output?

 

[Peter]

Originally posted by: Matthias99
Yep. All ATI cards above the 9600 (and also the 8500) can use an HD component adapter (available from ATI for ~$30 if it's not included with the card). Only one I'm not sure about is the X300.

Make that "all ATi cards 9500 and up, if they have a DVI port". The DVI-to-Component dongle is available from ATI's online shop.

S3 Delta-/Gammachrome and XGI V3XT and up include component-out HDTV right in the box.

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: Peter

Originally posted by: Matthias99
Yep. All ATI cards above the 9600 (and also the 8500) can use an HD component adapter (available from ATI for ~$30 if it's not included with the card). Only one I'm not sure about is the X300.

Make that "all ATi cards 9500 and up, if they have a DVI port". The DVI-to-Component dongle is available from ATI's online shop.

Caveat duly noted. The handful of dual-VGA cards you can get in this range (such as the 9600AIW, and maybe a few others) cannot use the ATI dongle. Also, some retail cards (from both ATI and NVIDIA) include appropriate adapters in the box, so you might want to check the included bundles with cards if you are looking for component output.

 

[Steve]

Originally posted by: aswedc
SiS? Does that mean a $20 Xabre 200 would work?

Originally posted by: sm8000
Not the Xabre as it stands, you have to modify the .inf file in the UniVGA driver to add Xabre support (they stopped after 3.57.53, when they turned the Xabre over to XGI). I have added Xabre support to UniVGA 3.67, however it's going to take a while to find my notes on how to do this again, maybe next week.

All right, the kind person who showed me how to add Xabre support to UniVGA drivers earlier this summer has helped me out again:

I finally got a chance to look at the drivers. Assuming you are using Windows XP, unzip the uvga3_370.zip file and go to the WinXP_2K folder. Open sisgr.inf and add the following lines...

In the [SiS.Mfg] section, add this:

%SiS.Product.DeviceDesc1% = Xabre , PCI\VEN_1039&DEV_0330

In the [Strings] section, add this:

SiS.Product.DeviceDesc1 ="Xabre"

I used the most generic identifier for Xabre I could find in the original Xabre driver file. As far as I can tell, this is just for the Windows plug-and-play identification. Otherwise, all the Xabre 200/400/600 cards use the same exact driver setup. Hopefully, there is still enough Xabre material left in the UniVGA drivers to still work with your card.

So the modifications above will look like this and this. Actually doing this, is my weekend project

 

[tuteja1986]

i saw the a 128MB 9250se for $33... DVI slot

Get that : ) it support widescreen but if you do some gaming then get 6600GT

 

[Peter]

sm8000, the 1039-0330 identifies the chip as a PCI entity. Longer identifiers add card (subsystem) ID to enable support for card specific features that can't be autodetected (which is rare with SiS designs). Thus, going with the chip ID will get you the default behavior of the driver, which should be good enough for almost anything. (And if there's anything special to cater for, you could still borrow the relevant .INF file sections from the latest official driver release.)

The UniVGA driver does work with discrete Xabre chips because of the SiS tradition - they always kept pulling their discrete graphics chips into the chipset northbridge one generation later. They did that with the 200 chip (2D only), did it again with the 6326 (3D w/ DVD acceleration), the 300, the 315 and finally the 330 that went as the "Xabre". What happens next, now that the graphics business has spun itself off the main company, we'll see. The latest SiS chipset, the 761, has stepped BACK from "Mirage2" DX8.1 (Xabre) graphics to "Mirage" DX7 (315). (WTF?)

 

[Steve]

I was never able to get UniVGA drivers to work with the Xabre embedded in my M847LU as they stood, I had to do those mods to get it to work. The Xabre doesn't appear in the list of supported products for the UniVGA driver, and Xabre downloads give you the choice of UniVGA 3.57.53 or another driver. Also, doing those mods would give my Xabre the options of 1920x1440 and 2048x1536, but they wouldn't fit within the monitor.

 

[Steve]

Well, so far it seems to be a no-go. The UniVGA driver doesn't work "out of the box" with the Xabre, of course, but if I add the two lines it does work - to a point. I still can't go higher than 1600x1200. 1920x1200 is offered, but if I choose it the screen goes black, and eventually recovers to a small white rectangle with an odd character representing the mouse pointer. I have to boot into VGA mode to get back to normal again.