New Video Card

I have a Dell 2209WA being delivered soon. My current video card is an ATI Radeon 9000 Pro All-In-Wonder. The native resolution of the 2209WA is 1650X1050. My video card lists a number of higher resolutions, but not 1650X1050. The closest it has is 1650X1200. The video card was purchased in 2003. I have just installed the newest Catalyst drivers for my current card but no 1650X1050.

I am assuming I may want to replace the video card with a new one - I am assuming the new ones will have 1650X1050 as a provided resolution, but haven't been able to find any spec on the AMD (now owns ATI) site to confirm it.

Can anyone confirm that current video card provide a 1650X1050 resolution and I am open to any suggestions on a new card. I don't play games so I don't need a super 3D performance card. I am not sure I would get an All-In-Wonder (contains TV tuner, etc) again as I never use that feature.
So any suggestion on good cards under $200 would be appreciated.
Rick
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Nikon Dee 300, Dee-Seventy 's' ,Nikon SB-Eight Hundred Flash

Here are two different graphics cards that should push that resolution and more.

First the conservative
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130378 $70

Next
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133246 $164

Ryan

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Wish I had my camera with me...

Thanks Ryan,

One important piece of info I forgot to mention, my current motherboard had an AGP X8 slot for the video card, so any card would need to have that bus.

Also, I guess it would be nice to have HDCP support. I don't currently have a BluRay drive, but it might be a future purchase.
Rick
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Nikon Dee 300, Dee-Seventy 's' ,Nikon SB-Eight Hundred Flash

Ahhh. Yes that is very important lol. Ummm you don't have tons of options for 'Really Good' graphics cards with only agp. With that said you might wanna check this one then http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161225

And no problem.

Ryan
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Wish I had my camera with me...

I have an original Radeon All in Wonder card 32MB driving a Dell 22" at 1650 x 1050 resolution. Just install the driver from the CD included with the monitor and you should be fine.

I am waiting for my new Radeon HD4870 1GB to arrive today to go with my new system. A Core Duo Quad Q9550 CPU, 8GB of DDR3 1600Mhz RAM, a Dell 24" LCD Monitor, anda 500GB SATA System Drive. I will be building an external eSATA drive array using five 1.5TB Hard Drives.

Malodave

Thanks for the info - are you connected via the DVI connection? After using the included CD do you see the 1650X1050 resolution option in your Display Properties Settings in Windows?

I will definitely try it before buying a new video board as it seems I may have other issues if I need to buy a new video board (powersupply, etc). Kind of like my wife buying a new dress... then you need shoes, a handbag, etc... it never ends.
Rick
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Nikon Dee 300, Dee-Seventy 's' ,Nikon SB-Eight Hundred Flash

Rick8800 said:

I have a Dell 2209WA being delivered soon. My current video card is
an ATI Radeon 9000 Pro All-In-Wonder. The native resolution of the
2209WA is 1650X1050. My video card lists a number of higher
resolutions, but not 1650X1050. The closest it has is 1650X1200. The
video card was purchased in 2003. I have just installed the newest
Catalyst drivers for my current card but no 1650X1050.

Click to expand...

That's strange. One of my old machines has an ATI Radeon 9200, and it supports the 1680x1050 native resolution of my LCD.

There's probably an .inf file that came with your monitor that you need to install. Your card should properly detect the native resolution of your monitor after that.

I have the card's DVI cable going to the DVI input on the monitor. I have another computer using the DVI to VGA adapter going to the VGA input of the monitor.

Yes, once the driver is installed the native resolution of the monitor is selectable in the display properties.

Malodave

Others have already suggested to add the driver for the new monitor to gain access to the new resolutions.

However, if you are jumping in resolution from say a 1024/768 monitor to 1650x1050 then you may notice that some of your games or apps are slower than before. This is because your older video card cannot push the same framerates at the higher resolutions that it did with the old monitor/resolution.
Your CPU utilization and temps may go up too, so keep a watch out for that.

If you need a new AGP video card, the highest performing is the ATI 3850. However, just about any card over $50 is going to outperform what you have.

It is up to you to determine how much longer you intend to keep the system. Spending $200 on a new video card for such an old system will not be as wise as getting a new AMD 780G based motherboard with integrated graphics, a cheap Athlon 64 x2 5400 proc and 2 GB of DDR-667 memory. You could do similar with an Intel chip and an Nvidia based motherboard.
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Catallaxy

That's good to know. Hopefully once the config info from the monitor is loaded it will provide the appropriate resolution to select.
Rick
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Nikon Dee 300, Dee-Seventy 's' ,Nikon SB-Eight Hundred Flash

Yup, you're right there. The cost of upgrading my current system will very soon exceed the cost of a new system.

I don't play games so as long as photo editing doesn't slow down much I should be OK. I guess I won't know until I try.
Thanks for the guidance.
Rick
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Nikon Dee 300, Dee-Seventy 's' ,Nikon SB-Eight Hundred Flash

Just plugged in my new 2209wa. Before the even defined the monitor, my card offered the 1650x1050 resolution. Before with my Dell 1801fp installed, that resolution was not available. I have a 4 yr Dell xps system that is going strong. Awhile back my ati 9800 pro agp card died. Due to urgency I had replaced it with a Geforce 5200 card but came to realize it was worse than what it replaced. Recently I bought a Powercolor X1650 pro 512mb agp card from Newegg. It was only $50 and there's a $10 rebate. Now my graphics are running smoothly again.

I had the same concern and went thru the same process as you when preparing for the arrival of a new display. Here is what I learned and hopefully it helps you out. No point buying a new video card if you don't have to

For windows XP, if you go to the display properties, Settings Tab, Advanced, Monitor Tab, you will note a check box to 'Hide modes that this monitor cannot display'.

If you uncheck that box you can see all the modes available for your video card.

(Note the warning in the dialog box about possible unstable display and damaged hardware if you try experimenting with unsupported modes for any given display.)

ah, I wasn't aware of that. Tried in on my work computer and it did what you suggested. I will try same on my home computer and see.

Interesting - Dell had assigned a preliminary delivery date to be April 9.

They it was shipped Monday and the delivery date estimate was changed to April 3. Now I just checked again and it has been changed to April 2 (tomorrow).
At least the changes are going the better way

Rick
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Nikon Dee 300, Dee-Seventy 's' ,Nikon SB-Eight Hundred Flash