What specs to look for in a video card to run 22" monitor at high resolutions
 

Hi,
I'll be buying a 22" Mitsubishi Diamond Pro
http://www.necmitsubishi.com/product....cfm?product_i
d=232&division=MITSUBISHI and am now looking a various cards to drive
this monstrosity. Mitsubishi specs say it can go to 2048 x 1536 @ 86
and my job now is to match it to a card provide the signal. Although I
will probably have the screen set to 2048 x 1536 I figure if the card
can do this it will be able to provide viewing at lower resolutions
flicker free.
My needs are to provide clean displays of various large data sets in
2D, sometimes rotate them in 3D and a little low-tech gaming like Age
of Empires, Sim City. I'm a little confused because cards advertised
with 64 MB, 128 MB, or now 256 MB of memory all claim to be able to
display at resolutions near to my 2048 x 1536 benchmark so there must
be more than aggregate memory that determines ability to run large
monitors at high resolutions.
The Matrox P750 seems to a reliable choice for the job but lacks
some of the fun stuff of say the ATI AIW 9000 Pro or GeForce4 Ti 4600.
Will $150-$200 get me a reliable, flicker free card that can display
at high resolutions (that way I can see more of the data set) or am I
asking too much of a card in this price range?
One last question. What is the end result of setting the screen to a
resolution and refresh rate that the card doesn't list? For example,
the monitor mentioned above lists a capability to display 1800 x 1440
@ 92 Hz but the closest a Radeon 9800 Pro comes in terms of its spec
sheet is 1920x1080 @ 120. How would this display on the screen?
Thanks for the help with these questions.

Do you really need 2048x1536? What kind of work do you do?

"Steve Rossiter" wrote in message
...
Hi,
I'll be buying a 22" Mitsubishi Diamond Pro
http://www.necmitsubishi.com/product....cfm?product_i
d=232&division=MITSUBISHI and am now looking a various cards to drive
this monstrosity. Mitsubishi specs say it can go to 2048 x 1536 @ 86
and my job now is to match it to a card provide the signal. Although I
will probably have the screen set to 2048 x 1536 I figure if the card
can do this it will be able to provide viewing at lower resolutions
flicker free.
My needs are to provide clean displays of various large data sets in
2D, sometimes rotate them in 3D and a little low-tech gaming like Age
of Empires, Sim City. I'm a little confused because cards advertised
with 64 MB, 128 MB, or now 256 MB of memory all claim to be able to
display at resolutions near to my 2048 x 1536 benchmark so there must
be more than aggregate memory that determines ability to run large
monitors at high resolutions.
The Matrox P750 seems to a reliable choice for the job but lacks
some of the fun stuff of say the ATI AIW 9000 Pro or GeForce4 Ti 4600.
Will $150-$200 get me a reliable, flicker free card that can display
at high resolutions (that way I can see more of the data set) or am I
asking too much of a card in this price range?
One last question. What is the end result of setting the screen to a
resolution and refresh rate that the card doesn't list? For example,
the monitor mentioned above lists a capability to display 1800 x 1440
@ 92 Hz but the closest a Radeon 9800 Pro comes in terms of its spec
sheet is 1920x1080 @ 120. How would this display on the screen?
Thanks for the help with these questions.

On Sat, 23 Aug 2003 20:52:22 -0700, Steve Rossiter
wrote:

Hi,
I'll be buying a 22" Mitsubishi Diamond Pro
http://www.necmitsubishi.com/product....cfm?product_i
d=232&division=MITSUBISHI and am now looking a various cards to drive
this monstrosity. Mitsubishi specs say it can go to 2048 x 1536 @ 86
and my job now is to match it to a card provide the signal. Although I
will probably have the screen set to 2048 x 1536 I figure if the card
can do this it will be able to provide viewing at lower resolutions
flicker free.
My needs are to provide clean displays of various large data sets in
2D, sometimes rotate them in 3D and a little low-tech gaming like Age
of Empires, Sim City. I'm a little confused because cards advertised
with 64 MB, 128 MB, or now 256 MB of memory all claim to be able to
display at resolutions near to my 2048 x 1536 benchmark so there must
be more than aggregate memory that determines ability to run large
monitors at high resolutions.
The Matrox P750 seems to a reliable choice for the job but lacks
some of the fun stuff of say the ATI AIW 9000 Pro or GeForce4 Ti 4600.
Will $150-$200 get me a reliable, flicker free card that can display
at high resolutions (that way I can see more of the data set) or am I
asking too much of a card in this price range?
One last question. What is the end result of setting the screen to a
resolution and refresh rate that the card doesn't list? For example,
the monitor mentioned above lists a capability to display 1800 x 1440
@ 92 Hz but the closest a Radeon 9800 Pro comes in terms of its spec
sheet is 1920x1080 @ 120. How would this display on the screen?
Thanks for the help with these questions.

Buy Matrox - for high resolutions on analog monitors they are still
the best.

Whether you need the 750 depends on your need for 3D performance - if
the tools you use for rotation support newer DirectX versions it will
help to get the 750 or the Parhelia, otherwise even the old
Millenium450 or 550 will do. P750 and Parhelia are interesting if you
want to use more than two monitors.

Michael

"Peter Cavan" wrote in message
...
I would class Sim City 4 as "light" gaming. I would call "heavy" gaming
something like Gun Metal, Doom 3 or Half-Life 2.The Matrox cars are
supposed
to be the best for 2D work, but are sorely lacking for gaming. You might
have to get something along the lines of an Ati Radeon 9800 Pro or a
NVidia
5900 Ultra, both expensive cards.
PC



SimCity 4 gets fairly heavy when you max out the graphics, start scrolling
and zooming the map

In alt.sys.pc-clone.dell HamMan wrote:

SimCity 4 gets fairly heavy when you max out the graphics, start scrolling
and zooming the map

True, but compared to a 3d first-person-shooter (eg. Doom3) SimCity4 is
pretty light. Most modern cards will have *some* 3d capabilities. A
mid-range (32-64 MB of video memory) will have plenty of power for
SimCity4 as well as driving a 22" desktop. More memory will allow you to
run at higher resolutions, but you probably won't be running at more than
1600x1200 anyways. 32MB will allow for 1600x1200x16bit, 64MB will allow
for 1600x1200x32bit. Cards with that much memory will also have plenty of
power for SimCity4, as well as most games up until about a year or so
ago. Newer games will still run, but you won't be able to run at max.
resolution/extras. New graphics cards always cause the older models to
plummet in price anyways, so unless you're a hard-core gamer you can
easily afford to buy one or two "generations" ago.

Xalinai wrote:

Buy Matrox - for high resolutions on analog monitors they are still
the best.

Whether you need the 750 depends on your need for 3D performance - if
the tools you use for rotation support newer DirectX versions it will
help to get the 750 or the Parhelia, otherwise even the old
Millenium450 or 550 will do. P750 and Parhelia are interesting if you
want to use more than two monitors.

Michael

How about the Matrox 400? Which older Matrox models are good for 2D and
supports two monitors (19" and 15")? How much memory is needed?

I use a Iiyama 22" monitor with a Nvidia Quadro2 Pro card, I decided to
try 2048 x 1536 and it would be too small to read properly. At that
resolution it changed to 16bit colour mode from 32bit.

The highest resolution you would want to comfortably use on a 22"
monitor is probably 1600 x 1200.

Stuart

Steve Rossiter wrote:

Hi,
I'll be buying a 22" Mitsubishi Diamond Pro
http://www.necmitsubishi.com/product....cfm?product_i
d=232&division=MITSUBISHI and am now looking a various cards to drive
this monstrosity. Mitsubishi specs say it can go to 2048 x 1536 @ 86
and my job now is to match it to a card provide the signal. Although I
will probably have the screen set to 2048 x 1536 I figure if the card
can do this it will be able to provide viewing at lower resolutions
flicker free.
My needs are to provide clean displays of various large data sets in
2D, sometimes rotate them in 3D and a little low-tech gaming like Age
of Empires, Sim City. I'm a little confused because cards advertised
with 64 MB, 128 MB, or now 256 MB of memory all claim to be able to
display at resolutions near to my 2048 x 1536 benchmark so there must
be more than aggregate memory that determines ability to run large
monitors at high resolutions.
The Matrox P750 seems to a reliable choice for the job but lacks
some of the fun stuff of say the ATI AIW 9000 Pro or GeForce4 Ti 4600.
Will $150-$200 get me a reliable, flicker free card that can display
at high resolutions (that way I can see more of the data set) or am I
asking too much of a card in this price range?
One last question. What is the end result of setting the screen to a
resolution and refresh rate that the card doesn't list? For example,
the monitor mentioned above lists a capability to display 1800 x 1440
@ 92 Hz but the closest a Radeon 9800 Pro comes in terms of its spec
sheet is 1920x1080 @ 120. How would this display on the screen?
Thanks for the help with these questions.

In article , says...
I use a Iiyama 22" monitor with a Nvidia Quadro2 Pro card, I decided to
try 2048 x 1536 and it would be too small to read properly. At that
resolution it changed to 16bit colour mode from 32bit.

The highest resolution you would want to comfortably use on a 22"
monitor is probably 1600 x 1200.

bah. How can you say something like that? For you, maybe, for others,
well, it just comes down to personal preferance. I am at 2048x1536, I
use it 12 to 14 hours every day of my life, and I love it. I am on a
Sony 21" monitor.

I am using a Matrox Pahelia (sp?), and it's fine for 2D work (never done
any 3d stuff on this machine), running at 2048x1536, 32bit colour, 75Hz.
Some ppl say they can see my screen flickering, but it does not bother
me...

Recommended.

abby
www.abbywinters.com