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What card for dual 27 inch

Soldato
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5 Dec 2002
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3,046
Am pricing up a machine and need some help picking a graphics card. It's a work PC so doesn't need to be top end at all and will probably be connected to a pair of Asus PB278Q 27 inch monitors.

Will it need to have 2 dual link DVI connectors to run them both at full res?

Any suggestions?
 
Associate
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3 Dec 2007
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85
Yes it will need two dual-link DVIs. When you say it doesn't need to be top end, do you want it just to be able to display standard windows apps or are you thinking gaming at all?

Edit: The above is assuming you want to use the DVI ports. The monitor you mentioned also has HDMI and Display port which are both capable of 2560x1440.
 
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Soldato
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Nah it's going to be the work machine so no gaming machine at all. I was pricing the machine up on the system configuration page so the options are:

MSI HD 5450 1024MB GDDR5
Sapphire HD 7770 1024MB GDDR5 (temporarily out of stock) - [add £61.67]
Sapphire HD 7850 1024MB GDDR5 - [add £95.00]
Sapphire HD 7850 2048MB GDDR5 (temporarily out of stock) - [add £111.67]
Sapphire HD 7870 2048MB GDDR5 - [add £136.67]
KFA2 GeForce GTX 660TI EX OC 2048MB GDDR5 - [add £178.30]
EVGA GeForce GTX 660TI 2048MB GDDR5 - [add £182.50]
KFA2 GeForce GTX 670 EX OC 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card - [add £220.00]
KFA2 GeForce GTX 680 EX OC 2048MB GDDR5 - [add £310.00]
Asus GeForce GTX 690 4096MB GDDR5 - [add £620.00]

As it's only going to be used for work (no heavy photoshop) I'd want the cheapest that would do the job well so nothing like the GTX 680/690 etc. No preference to the DVI over HDMI at all was only because someone said that they HDMI topped out at 1920*1080 but I don't know if that's incorrect.
 
Caporegime
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Whats your budget?

The Sapphire you have listed there has 1 Dual-Link DVI

http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?cid=1&gid=3&sgid=1160&lid=1&pid=1487&leg=0

As does the Sapphire 7950 http://www.sapphiretech.com/presentation/product/?cid=1&gid=3&sgid=1157&pid=1718&psn=&lid=1&leg=0

The GTX 670 has 2, so you wouldn't need to buy an adapter http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-195-EA

As does this GTX 660TI http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-032-KF&groupid=701&catid=1914&subcat=2379

I don't know what res the HDMI tops out at, but HDMI is never the same quality as DVI
 
Soldato
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Company will be paying rather than me personally so there isn't a fixed, it's just a case of what ever is needed that isn't going over the top considering it'll be for office use. Personal view was to see what the cheapest card with dual link DVI was?

We'll be getting a few of these machines plus monitors so potentially quite a large order so if there's a better suited card not on that list then I'll ask when making the order for that instead of one off their set list.
 
Caporegime
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Don't forget that the monitors have DisplayPort which also supports 2560x1440 so a card with a dual link DVI and DisplayPort will do the job.

If you'll have the room you could also fit a couple of cheap cards with dual link DVI and run one monitor from each.

Depending on the motherboard and processor you're getting it may also be possible to run one monitor from the integrated GPU as long as the motherboard has a dual link DVI or DisplyPort output.
 
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Caporegime
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Edit or that ^^^^ yes, But the GTX 640 is a pretty weak card. it couldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding.

Company will be paying rather than me personally so there isn't a fixed, it's just a case of what ever is needed that isn't going over the top considering it'll be for office use. Personal view was to see what the cheapest card with dual link DVI was?

We'll be getting a few of these machines plus monitors so potentially quite a large order so if there's a better suited card not on that list then I'll ask when making the order for that instead of one off their set list.

The cheapest 2x Dual-Link DVI i could find is this
KFA2 GeForce GTX 660 2048MB GDDR5


You need to confirm that, i would phone them up and ask about it.
 
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Caporegime
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How weak are they? Too weak for day to day use of work applications like netbeans, SQL client, office, putty, very occasional Fireworks etc at 2560 x 1440?

Or could you run it from a 7750 using the 1 DVI and 1 display ( or mini with adapter), as the monitor supports display port?

eg: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-070-HS


Quite a bit weaker than that 7750 http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/535?vs=612

I'm just not sure how it would deal with 2560 x 1440
 
Soldato
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4096x2160 per display (DisplayPort 1.2)
2560x1600 per display (Dual-link DVI)
2048x1536 per display (VGA)

The above is from the HIS site so looks like it should so will probably go for that. Thanks again.
 
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