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Thread: Need help with choosing vid card

  1. #1
    Member illroot's Avatar
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    Need help with choosing vid card

    So i've got an older machine that I want to get a new vid card for, mainly because now I have a LCD hooked up to it (before it was CRT) and I want to use the DVI port instead of the VGA. It's to my understanding that you get a clearer, crisper image and text when using the DVI and right now the VGA isn't cutting it. I can't push the resolution too high or the text becomes all broken up where as before on the CRT it was fine. Here are the comp specs:
    AMD Athlon thunderbird 1.33ghz
    Elsa Gladiac 920 (Geforce 3)
    512mb RAM

    Any suggestions as to what would be good? Obviously this isn't a fast machine. My wife uses it to surf, image editing, and the occasional game of Starcraft. I use it every so often as a render box. What would be a good card that would fit these specs with DVI? Am I correct in assuming that I need a DVI card to get a better image at a higher res on this LCD?
    Thanks for any suggestions.
    ~illroot

  2. #2
    Ultimate Member Rugor's Avatar
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    The whole trick with LCDs is to make sure you're running them at the native resolution. For example, my LCD monitors are 1280x1024 native resolution. That means they actually have an array of 1280 x 1024 pixel elements built into them. If I run any other resolution the system has to do some interpolation to make the image fit and it doesn't look as good.

    First find out the native resolution of the monitor and try that. Then worry about a different video card.
    "Dude you're getting a Dell." Obscure curse from the early 21st Century, ascribed to a minor demon-spirit known as "Stephen?" [sp].

  3. #3
    Member illroot's Avatar
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    Thank you Rugor! That did the trick!
    Now my question is this, I had the same monitor hooked up to another machine that I used the DVI plug with and the image seemed to have looked better. Of course on that machine I have a ATI 9800pro (using DVI)and on the other a Geforce3 (using VGA). Should I even bother with getting something with DVI output for this machine?
    Are there any cards that would fit this machine that is about $50?
    ~illroot

  4. #4
    Senior Member rockinup1231's Avatar
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    Well, I went searching myself, and this is what I came up with

    http://www.techonweb.com/products/pr...=B84105&src=NT
    Mind you, it is PCI-e

    If you'd like to look at other search results, try this.

    http://www.nextag.com/serv/main/buye...&plw=30&phi=50

    I suggest you look at these search results before thinking of getting the video card I suggested...there are some that may be more compatible.
    Last edited by rockinup1231; 03-03-2007 at 01:47 PM.
    MSI 870S-G46 | AMD Phenom II X4 965 @ 3.8ghz | Gigabyte Radeon 7870 Ghz Edition | 1 x 128GB Kingston HyperX SSD | 2 x WD 500GB Blue HDD | Arch Linux x64 | BFG Tech LS SERIES LS-550 550W | 2 x 4GB DDR3 1600 RAM, 2 x 2GB DDR3 1600 RAM (12 GB)

  5. #5
    Ultimate Member Rugor's Avatar
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    Given that machine, get the cheapest AGP video card with DVI that you can find. If you can get an FX5200 with DVI go for that. Don't buy anything PCI-e for that system.
    "Dude you're getting a Dell." Obscure curse from the early 21st Century, ascribed to a minor demon-spirit known as "Stephen?" [sp].

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