Video Card for dual DVI?

[dbeck]

Hi everyone,

I'm building a workstation to support two LCD flat screen monitors on Windows XP. I don't do any gaming but I do some graphics work in photoshop, I watch a DVD movie on ocassion and the rest of the time is spent in office tasks and programming. My monitors are set to 1280 x 1124 resolution all of the time.

I am considering purchasing the GIGABYTE GA-K8N Ultra-9 Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard.

What would be a good video card for my needs, that will work well with this motherboard, and which also has two DVI connections on the one card?

I don't need a high-end card. Just something that will perform well with good quality text rendering and frame rates fast enough to play movies now and then?

 

[Ramzie]

I know you said you DIDNT need a high end card but i cant suggest tyhe BFG 6600 or 6800 GTs enough. I think the 6600 would be more on track for you as you dont need a hardcore card. Just make sure when you put it your getting the one with dual DVI and not 1x DVI and 1 VGA. PS. i highly recomend Zipzoomfly for BFG cards as they are one of the only websites i know that provides quality in its operation as well as actually having parts in stock. good luck

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Forget a gaming card like the GF6600.

For your needs the Matrox P650 is a perfect fit, Photoshop optimized, dual DVI, the very best 2D quality out there. Any card from any of the mfr will play movies (even intergrated graphics from last generation can do that), and it's only a few bucks more than the GF6600GTs that are dual DVI.

You could save some coin and get an AGP Mobo (But that would mean going with another mobo, either from another mfr or another chipset [nF3 250]) because the new PCIe P650 128mb-only is just over $200 while the AGP version 64mb can be had for under $150 and it would still have the same superior image quality.


- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! - <A HREF="http://www.redgreen.com/" target="_new"><font color=green>RED </font color=green> <font color=red> GREEN</font color=red></A> GA to SK

 

[Rugger]

This is an addendum to a post he did in the mobo forum where he had very specific mobo rqmts as a power user. A quote from the post:

use the workstation for some graphics work (photoshop) and mostly for programming, email and other office work. I typically have a ton of applications and services running concurrently and I am looking for a fairly robust (fast) machine. I consider myself a power user based on how hard my machine is typically working most of the time. I have a lot of stuff running!

I need a motherboard that supports the following:
Dual Lan (although I do have 2 PCI enet cards I can re-use)
Support for multiple SATA Drives (are the 3GB interface speeds available yet? If so I will go that route)
on-board RAID 0 and RAID 5 support.

I'll likely run three SATA drives in RAID 5 mode for fault tolerance but I may opt to go with two SATA drives in RAID 0 mode.

Based on that I recommended the Giga board he referenced. There was an Asus SLI board that was $40 more and didn't really fit him as well as the Giga. One of the reasons I recommended this board was the future support for the dual core CPUs. DC CPUs will be a good match with the multi-tasking he described - I think he could see some serious performance gains in that situation.

There is the nF3 Ultra chipset boards for AGP/s939, but none of those boards - that I've found - meet all of the other requirements he stated.

You know the video cards, but - in the long run - I think he will be better served by spending the extra $50 for the PCIe card and the nF4/PCIe to have the dual core option in the end.

__________________________________________________
<font color=red>You're a boil on the arse of progress - don't make me squeeze you!</font color=red>

 

[jheine]

Nice choice. Matrox will definately fit the bill here. It's the perfect card for a workstation environment, and has an optimised plug-in for Photoshop. I've been using the G550 on my audio workstation and will never give it up. Matrox still has the best multi-monitor support for those who are looking for that feature. You may also want to check out the Parhelia models as well, since price doesn't seem to be a factor and they have better resolution and support of DL monitors like to Apple 30" Cinema HD display.

<A HREF="http://www.matrox.com/mga/workstation/digital_design/home.cfm" target="_new">http://www.matrox.com/mga/workstation/digital_design/home.cfm</A>

Jarrett

 

[dbeck]

Hi guys,

Thanks for all of the recommendations. This is what I ended up ordering for my system:

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3700+ 1MB 90nm Rev. E
CPU Cooler: Thermaltake A1838 for AMD Opteron/Athlon64
MB: Gigabyte GA-K8N Ultra-9 nForce4
Video: BFG GeForce 6600 GT OC PCI Express 128MB DDR
Ram: Corsair VS1GBKIT400 1GB Kit DDR400 PC3200
Power Supp: Enermax EG565P-VE FMA 535W
Case: Thermaltake Tsunami VA3000BNA Mid Tower
Disks: 3 Raptor WD740GD 74GB Serial ATA 10,000 (raid 5)

I have two 18" LCD monitors that will be attached to the system.

Thanks again for the suggestions. This box should be a screamer!




<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by dbeck on 04/30/05 01:32 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Rugger]

?!
Why didn't you go with GrapeApe's Matrox P650 suggestion? You probably paid as much or more for that BFG 6600GT OC as the P650 and the BFG isn't Photoshop optimized. The BFG is a really nice mid-range <i>gaming card</i>, but doesn't fit your needs/usage very well beyond dual DVI.

__________________________________________________
<font color=red>You're a boil on the arse of progress - don't make me squeeze you!</font color=red>

 

[dbeck]

Hi guys,

Based on the suggestion here I looked into the Matrox before I bought the BFG card.

I found that the matrox p650 <A HREF="http://www.matrox.com/mga/products/mill_pseries/p650.cfm " target="_new">http://www.matrox.com/mga/products/mill_pseries/p650.cfm </A> is an AGP card. My motherboard doesn't have an AGP slot. According to Matrox's product matrix comparison chart, they do have some PCI graphics cards but these were 33hz or 66hz local PCI cards not PCI express. I didn't find any PCI express cards.

Also, I'm not sure what "photoshop optimized" means. I would think any good quality video card would work well with photoshop. Is that incorrect?

 

[dbeck]

Boy, the Matrox web site really sucks. I just clicked on the "Buy Matrox" link and that is the only place I found info on their P650 PCIe 128 card. You would think that the main site would mention this card wouldn't you?

Okay...so now I'm curious. What do you think the Matrox has over the BFG card? I have a RADEON 8500 AGP card that I use right now. I guess I've never thought it was lacking other than I have to use a VGA to DVI adapter on one connection since its not a dual DVI card.

Its probably not to late to change my order to the Matrox card but I'm curious about why you think the matrox would be a better card?

 

[jheine]

This may help a bit. Got the link off the Parhelia APVe card page, which is the top end card marketed for audio, video, and photo professionals, but alot of it is cross card technology.

<A HREF="http://www.matrox.com/mga/workstation/video/technology/home.cfm" target="_new">http://www.matrox.com/mga/workstation/video/technology/home.cfm</A>

After looking, the WYSISWG plugins are more for video production, but Matrox still has rock-solid multi monitor support, since that's the core of their business. For productivity, it's the way to go. For gaming, BFG is tops. Also, you have to consider whether you'll be spanning the single desktop across the two monitors or having a desktop for each, how other you need to switch between both models, and if you want the option for a third monitor.

Jarrett