PC hardware: how much video card do I need?

by richarcm - 3/8/06 6:28 AM

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Post 1 of 8

how much video card do I need?

by richarcm - 3/8/06 6:28 AM

Obviously, I'm a newbie at building a computer, but I'm learning a lot. What I can't seem to understand is how much video card to I need for my monitor.

I've got the gateway 21 widescreen (1680 x 1050 @ 75Hz) but don't yet have a video card to drive it (found a really good deal at my local best buy for a returned box). I'm looking for the cheapest card that will do a good job with this display.

I'm not a gamer, though I do play a little bit, but mostly its for text editing (side-by-side documents is going to be great!) and watching movies (picture-in-picture is going to be great!) while I write or code.

So I'm not looking for the best of the best, just enough video card to make sure that my eyes don't get tired and the movies don't look choppy or ghoasty.

my motherboard has 2 PCIe slots and SLI is an option, but doesn't seem to be a cost effective solution.

My gut is telling me something in to GeForce6600 range. Does that make sense?

Thanks for helping me out.

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Post 2 of 8

One thing. Make certain that

by Ray Harinec - 3/8/06 12:53 PM In reply to: how much video card do I need? by richarcm

whatever card you get will support that resolution. I believe that some do not.

I believe that newegg puts such a note by such monitors.

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Post 3 of 8

how do I know?

by richarcm - 3/8/06 2:10 PM In reply to: One thing. Make certain that by Ray Harinec

I've looked at lots of stats on lots of cards, and they only seem to regularly list a max resolution, and this stat seems to apply to analog crt displays, with the max for digital lcd significantly less. But I can rarely find such a figure. How can you know the appropriate card?

Thanks!

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Post 4 of 8

Sorry for the late reply

by Ray Harinec - 3/9/06 11:50 AM In reply to: how do I know? by richarcm

I would go to the card mfr's website, and if not shown, ask them via email.

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Post 5 of 8

That high resolution isn't needed

by MasterAtArms52383 - 3/9/06 12:13 PM In reply to: how much video card do I need? by richarcm

Maybe I'm mistaken, but I really don't think you need that high resolution for text editing and movies. The letters will be so small I doubt it would be comfortable. Very high resolutions really shine during graphically intense games, however, to play very intense newer games at the resolution you metioned you will need a top notch card to get high frame rates(7800GTX)? For what you are needing it for I would advise dropping your resolution to something like 1280x800 and buying a GeForce 6600GT or a 6800 with 256MB RAM. That will be more than adequate for your needs.

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Post 6 of 8

A gf6600 will handle it fine

by ramarc - 3/9/06 3:25 PM In reply to: how much video card do I need? by richarcm

from nvidia's FAQs: All NVIDIA GeforceFX, Geforce 6 and Geforce7 family of GPU's will support the native 1680 x 1050 resolution of the Dell 2005FPW widescreen LCD monitor digitally. Since the Dell 2005FPW uses a non-standard resolution, you may need to add the custom resolution to your display settings by using the Custom Resolutions feature found inside the NVIDIA Forceware Display Properties. The following article describes how to create custom resolutions:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/custom_resolutions.html

P.S.: I'm so jealous!!!!

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Post 7 of 8

Thanks!

by richarcm - 3/10/06 7:09 AM In reply to: A gf6600 will handle it fine by ramarc

Thanks for the help! I think I'm going to get one of the eVGA Geforce 6800GS with 256MB cards. It seems like it will play the occasional game without frustrations, but is less than $200.

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