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Cheapest PC GPX card with Widescreen

combatcolin

combatcolin

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Oct 24, 2004
2,283
0
Northants, UK
Looking to buy a 20" Apple Cinema Display, for WOW really :eek: , over a normal big 19" monitor.

Unfortuatly my trusty old Radeon 8500 64MB hasn't got a W/S resolution so i'll need a new card that does.

Any suggestions, starting at the bottom of the range and working my way up.

I'll be able to get the Cinema display at edu prices. £505, and my gf's mum is buying my old card for £20, so i've got a budget of around £50 - £100.
 
Your current graphics card should work fine - most ATI and nVidia cars support widescreen resolutions. If it has DVI out then it'll probably be fine - bear in mind that unsupported resolutions aren't normally displayed in the Windows Display manager thingy. Windows should automatically recognise the widescreen resolutions as soon as its plugged in via DVI.

If you're intent on getting a new card just make sure you get an ATI or nVidia card. Any one would do. I know that nVidia cards all support widescreen before since I've used many with my widescreen monitor for a while.
 
Yup, so long as you hook it up via DVI you will be able to use widescreen just fine....

SHadow ;)
 
combatcolin said:
Looking to buy a 20" Apple Cinema Display, for WOW really :eek: , over a normal big 19" monitor.

Unfortuatly my trusty old Radeon MB hasn't got a W/S resolution so i'll need a new card that does.

Any suggestions, starting at the bottom of the range and working my way up.

I'll be able to get the Cinema display at edu prices. £505, and my gf's mum is buying my old card for £20, so i've got a budget of around £50 - £100.
Click to expand...

Why don't you get the Dell for much cheaper? I have heard a lot of good things about that Dell 2050 or whatever it is. Then you could save money for a better graphics card. ;)
 
I take it that ATI updates the supported diplay modes in new drivers then?

I downloaded a PDF with all the tech specs on and could not find the mode that the Cinema Display use's.

1680-by-1050 pixels (optimum resolution)
1280-by-800 pixels
1024-by-640 pixels

Do ATI answer e-mails sent to them or do they farm you off?
 
It was very difficult to find information on this! :eek: Newer Catalyst drivers have added several widerscreen resolutions, and some of them is probably for the 8500, but I couldn't say for sure. If the drivers doesn't support it, you can always use Powerstrip to add it manually.

Still have a 8500 lying around here, and a 20" DELL 2005FPW, but my new box doesn't have any AGP slots :eek: so I can't test if it support 1680x1050.

If you don't want to take any chances, a 9600 is pretty cheap and will give you widescreen, as well as more eye candy in WoW...
 
Thanks for the help, ATI don't have a forum and you have to register for support, my card is 2nd hand so i don't think i'll be able to register.

Im moving house as soon as mine sells, and the Cinema Display is my moving in present to myself, so i won't be buying just yet.

Really looking forward to widescreen WOW lovelyness - its a bit cramped on a 15" CRT!
 
Dubbz, Know anyone with an AGP MB that you could test it out on?

It would be a massive help if you could.

So many icons on WOW, can't see the action sometimes! :(
 
As a point of reference, I am sat at work using a Dell 2005FPW. This is running off a very cheap ATI Radeon 7000 PCI. If this supports widescreen (which it did after a driver update I must point out) then I would be extremely surprised if your 8500 didn't.

Simon
 
i would (and have) buy a 9700 on ebay, they are nearly as fast as a 9800 and are going for silly prices (£35) and they are way faster than any 4 pipeline budget card you can buy new.
 
Widescreen Resolution is all within the drivers. Download the newest ATi drivers for your system, and you should be good to go. I have like 6 different WS resolutions that I can run on my Radeon 9600, and like 4 on my Radeon 7000. Though of course I do have em hooked up to 19" IBM monitors, but they do 1920x1080, 1280x854, 1680x1050, lol. :D
 
Hector said:
i would (and have) buy a 9700 on ebay, they are nearly as fast as a 9800 and are going for silly prices (£35) and they are way faster than any 4 pipeline budget card you can buy new.
Click to expand...

Have you seen the difference between the 9700 and the 9800 in Doom 3? :eek:
 
combatcolin said:
Looking to buy a 20" Apple Cinema Display, for WOW really :eek: , over a normal big 19" monitor.
Click to expand...

You'd get a better price from Dell or Philips, for a display with similar (same?) specs. Of course, the Apple looks nicer :)
 
As has been suggested, make sure you grab the latest drivers. If they don't show the resolution (my 9000 mobile didn't show the 1280x720 of my TV available), you can always use something like PowerStrip to add the resolution to the list of selections.

Good luck.
 
combatcolin said:
Dubbz, Know anyone with an AGP MB that you could test it out on?

It would be a massive help if you could.

So many icons on WOW, can't see the action sometimes! :(
Click to expand...

Afraid not..

But if engelhart can get it working on a 7000 PCI then I whould be extremely suprised if you couldn't do it on a 8500 AGP.
 
Thanks everyone.

My mind, and not to mention my wallet can breathe a little bit easier now.

Now all i need to do is sell the house..if only that was as quick and easy :(
 
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