Card for Dual Display 1680x1050 LCD

[AzBat]

Feels strange getting help here, but figured this is THE forum to ask for help.

On my work computer they're letting me get dual LCD monitors for my ESRI GIS apps. I've got a Dell Core 2 Duo with 1gb RAM running WinXP Prof. I also have a Dell 20" widescreen LCD running 1680x1050. It's not digital, just standard analog VGA. I'll be adding another just like it. The computer can take a low-profile PCI Express x16 card. From what I can tell the computer was originally capable of taking an ATI Radeon X1300. I figured most of today's card should be more than capable, but was worried about the support for my high res & widescreen might be hard to match. If anybody has any suggestions I would greatly appreciate the help. Thanks in advance!

Tommy McClain

 

[Davros]

most modern gfx cards (infact pretty much all of them) support 2 monitors
does it have to be low profile ?
heres 3 pages of them :
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...escription=&Ntk=&SpeTabStoreType=&srchInDesc=

my guess is the 9400gt or hd4550 would be the most powerfull (you'll have to check benchmarks)
(there is a 9500gt but it only supports 1 monitor)

edit: the 2 cards compared :
http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cID=1377

 

[AzBat]

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately, I have a small Dell desktop case that only supports low-profile PCI Express cards. Thanks for the link to Bjorn, but it doesn't look like either of them are are low-profile. Cost isn't really much a factor, but considering this is a county government office, I'd like to be mindful of how much I spend. Anything over $150 I think would be excessive. Plus, if it works good, then I'll need to buy probably 2 or 3 more cards for the rest of the computers in the office. Since it seems that most modern cards support 2 monitors, looks like I just need to research based on price & if it's low-profile or not. I've done a little looking & it seems the low-profile cards are pretty cheap as it is. Probably end up going with ATI.

Tommy McClain

 

[Davros]

does the backplate have to be low profile as well ?
cards like this you can unplug the vga connection and buy a seperate one (would mean a bit of work with a hacksaw )

 

[Albuquerque]

Dell provides a big pile of dual-head display cards that use a special dongle to "break out" the dual video ports.

 

[Davros]

Azbat you should check this out :
http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_quadro_nvs_420_us.html

Edit:
dont know if displayport works with a vga connection

 

[AzBat]

does the backplate have to be low profile as well ?
cards like this you can unplug the vga connection and buy a seperate one (would mean a bit of work with a hacksaw )

Thanks for the heads up. Yeah, it looks like the backplate is low profile as well. I'm currently using the integrated Intel Q965/Q963 graphics. After further research it looks like the Intel graphics may already be capable of dual display, but for some reason Dell doesn't sell a VGA to Dual CGA cable, but they sell a dual DVI cable. So it might only work with DVI monitors. At this point, I'd rather buy a new card & know it will work out of the box.

Tommy McClain

 

[Davros]

cga ?
as in colour garaphics adapter?

 

[AzBat]

LOL, OMG, That should have been VGA. Bad typing & proofreading on my part. Sorry.

Tommy McClain

 

[Davros]

You never know ive seen companies, running incredibly old programs on even older hardware

 

[AzBat]

Dell provides a big pile of dual-head display cards that use a special dongle to "break out" the dual video ports.

Model numbers or links would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Tommy McClain

 

[AzBat]

Azbat you should check this out :
http://www.nvidia.com/object/product_quadro_nvs_420_us.html

Edit:
dont know if displayport works with a vga connection

Sorry, but I replied over the weekend, but my computer crashed & lost the post. So let's try this again...

With regard to Quadro, I don't think we need workstation class graphics. I'm sure cheap consumer grade will be completely sufficient. All of our apps are simple. The most demanding apps I'll be running are ESRI ArcView & Google Earth. The latter is the only 3D app I'll be using. Anyway, I'm looking for cards I can get at my local Best Buy or Office Depot since my boss will be paying for it. The list given from NewEgg should be helpful though. I'm looking through it now. Thanks!

Tommy McClain

 

[Albuquerque]

Model numbers or links would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Tommy McClain

Well, I surfed around for a moment on Dell's website and can't find any But I know the Optiplex line comes with a multitude of SFF video card options with the dual-head dongle like I described, because we have a significant number of them. GX260's, GX270's, GX280's, GX620's, 745's and 755's all with various ATI-flavored slimline cards with the special dual-head dongle.

Here's the card info from my GX620: PN 109-A26030-01
Here's the card info from my 755: PN 109-B27631-00

Neither of these are "high end", I think these are both like X1300 and X1600 or thereabouts. Whatever this latter one is, it has a sizeable fan on it.

 

[Davros]

Since my boss will be paying for it.

Exactly why you should be looking at the most expensive over the top peice of kit you can find

 

[AzBat]

Exactly why you should be looking at the most expensive over the top peice of kit you can find

Considering I'm a new employee & already had them spend about $2k on software already, I'm not going to rock the boat. However, I think my boss realized I'll probably be better off with a completely new system. Let's cross my fingers I get one.

Tommy McClain