Finding Suitable Graphics Card for Pair of 30" Monitors

[bigalxyz]

Hi forum,

I own a pair of old-ish Dell 30 inch monitors (a 3007 and a 3008). Both should go to 2560 x 1600 resolution but only with DVI-D I understand (no HDMI connection available).

Also I only have a single PCI-E expansion slot inside my PC. Is there a cheap graphics card out there (new or secondhand, I don't mind) that can drive these two monitors at their max resolution?

(I don't use them for gaming, it's just database work, programming, etc. so I don't care about frame rate while playing CoD, GTA, etc. in the slightest!)

Thank you.
A.

 

[alec]

Pretty much any videocard released in last 10 years will do that. My Radeon HD 6950 can (I keep it for emergencies). Coincidentally it does have two DVI ports.
New cards don't come with DVI ports anymore, but DisplayPort to DVI converters work.

 

[4K8KW10]

Or HDMI-to-DVI converter:

Or a DVI-to-HDMI converter:

 

[bigalxyz]

Thank you. Would something like a GeForce GT 710 work for me, do you think? (I like the price!)

 

[4K8KW10]

Thank you. Would something like a GeForce GT 710 work for me, do you think? (I like the price!)

Yes, it will work - it has DVI-D / HDMI / VGA outputs.

 

[bigalxyz]

Thank you! Just ordered one from Amazon, £38, nice.
A

 

[bigalxyz]

I received the card but using the HDMI to DVI cable it will only give me 1200 x 800 resolution on my 30" screens, a long way short of the 2560 x 1600 maximum. At first I wondered if my HDMI to DVI cable was the weak point in the link (although it does appear to be a DVI-D) but after a bit of googling I'm reading of other people having problems in this situation ie HDMI to DVI leads being limited in the resolution they can deal with.

Can anyone advise pls?
Thanks

 

[fizzy]

If it's the same as the monitors I've used in the office, it's not just DVI-D, but dual channel DVI-D. If I recall correctly single channel will cope with up to 1920x1200 or so, with dual channel for anything higher.

You'll need to ensure that the ports being used (or adapters) can output a dual channel signal. I also seem to recall using quite thick DVI cables as well, so might be a cabling issue too.

Using USB to DVI adapters resulted in low res on the monitors as well - which was a real waste but they were bought for screen size rather than res at the time.

 

[bigalxyz]

If it's the same as the monitors I've used in the office, it's not just DVI-D, but dual channel DVI-D. If I recall correctly single channel will cope with up to 1920x1200 or so, with dual channel for anything higher.

You'll need to ensure that the ports being used (or adapters) can output a dual channel signal. I also seem to recall using quite thick DVI cables as well, so might be a cabling issue too.

Using USB to DVI adapters resulted in low res on the monitors as well - which was a real waste but they were bought for screen size rather than res at the time.

Thanks. From what I'm reading (if I've understood correctly), HDMI to DVI-D cables won't support this sort of resulution because they're not dual link. For example, this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/AmazonBasi...ink+cable&qid=1579882776&s=electronics&sr=1-4

seems to claim to support up to 2160p but lots of people in the comments section say they couldn't get it to go beyond 1080p.

So I'm not sure what to do...

 

[Disco_P]

I had my doubts that it would work as I know my 1440p monitors need dual link dvi too. I think you'll need a card with two dual link dvi ports or two cards with a port each (assuming you have the pcie lanes and slots for it)

There are a fair few GTX 600 or 700 series with two Dual link connectors, eg GTX 750.

 

[bigalxyz]

I had my doubts that it would work as I know my 1440p monitors need dual link dvi too. I think you'll need a card with two dual link dvi ports or two cards with a port each (assuming you have the pcie lanes and slots for it)

There are a fair few GTX 600 or 700 series with two Dual link connectors, eg GTX 750.

I've only got a single PCI-E slot unfortunately. I shall investigate the GTX 750. Thank you.

 

[fizzy]

Thanks. From what I'm reading (if I've understood correctly), HDMI to DVI-D cables won't support this sort of resulution because they're not dual link. For example, this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/AmazonBasi...ink+cable&qid=1579882776&s=electronics&sr=1-4

seems to claim to support up to 2160p but lots of people in the comments section say they couldn't get it to go beyond 1080p.

So I'm not sure what to do...

You might have better luck with display port to dvi adapters, given DP has a higher bandwidth than hdmi. (edit - just checked and since DP to Dual link DVI is a video conversion process an active adapter is required which isn't cheap. ). Just need something that will output a dual link dvi.

Having a scan through some of the older cards still listed on ocuk and they appear to have one dvi connector if any. It's probably going to be older cards available 2nd hand that would have two native dvi connectors. Something that isn't a low profile card. Possibly going back to something like an ATI 4000-5000 series card, maybe original radeon HD 5700 series from a few years back. Think the card I had in my retro pc with twin dvi, and it was something like an ATI 5450xt 512MB card. There are options around if you want to go 2nd hand, but you'd need to confirm it can drive two monitors at that res though. Some cards even though they had twin DVI ports, only 1 supported dual channel.

Does your motherboard have any onboard GFX?

 

[bigalxyz]

Does your motherboard have any onboard GFX?

Yes, Intel HD something-or-other. Gives me an extra DVI port and an extra VGA port at the back but it's not dual link (and I'm already using the DVI port to drive a third 24" monitor at 1920 x 1080!!)

 

[bigalxyz]

I had my doubts that it would work as I know my 1440p monitors need dual link dvi too. I think you'll need a card with two dual link dvi ports or two cards with a port each (assuming you have the pcie lanes and slots for it)

There are a fair few GTX 600 or 700 series with two Dual link connectors, eg GTX 750.

Slight concern about power consumption with the GTX 750 (say)? I checked and the PSU on my PC is good for 300W but I'm wondering if that's enough.

 

[Disco_P]

Depends on the rest of the spec, but you'll almost certainly be fine as the card will only draw 'significant' (ie 75W) power at full 3D load

 

[bigalxyz]

Depends on the rest of the spec, but you'll almost certainly be fine as the card will only draw 'significant' (ie 75W) power at full 3D load

thank you. Well I found a GTX 750 on eBay for £50 so I’ve bought that...fingers crossed!

 

[bigalxyz]

So...I have the card now. Plugged it into but nothing happened. Red light came on next to what looks like a 6 pin power connector. Upon a bit of googling it looks like this particular card needs a separate power supply through that connector. All I have by way of spare connections from my PSU is a single Molex 4 pin. But I'm reading that this isn't enough to drive the card and that I need a twin Molex into 6 pin adapter. Is that likely to be correct?

I do have the option of disconnecting my DVD drive - that would free up another Molex connector I think. But a bit of a nuisance. Failing that, should I think about replacing the PSU with something a bit beefier & with more connections?

 

[alec]

First, disconenect dvd and test that the card works with two molex leads.
Then, working under assumption that a DVD takes almost no power to run, put a molex splitter on DVD lead. Then join one molex direct from PSU + one molex from DVD to 6pin.

 

[bigalxyz]

First, disconenect dvd and test that the card works with two molex leads.
Then, working under assumption that a DVD takes almost no power to run, put a molex splitter on DVD lead. Then join one molex direct from PSU + one molex from DVD to 6pin.

Good plan. Thank you.

 

[bigalxyz]

It works!

Card driving 2 2560x1600 30” monitors via DVI-DL and a 24” 1920x1080 24” monitor via HDMI to DVI converter. Perfect!

And I found a second spare Molex connector (hiding under a bundle of wires) so no need to disconnect my DVD drive.

Was concerned that my 300W PSU might not cope but it seems to be fine so far.

Thank you everyone for your help. A very good outcome.