Which video card for the Dell UltraSharp 2405FPW Widescreen LCD

[Jesper]

I remember that a while ago someone on the forums bought a Dell UltraSharp 2005FPW monitor. Now Dell has another new monitor, the 24-inch 2405FPW (http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=320-4221&link_number=). What a monster, and it isn't that expensive for such a large LCD screen (US$ 1,199, or Euro 1,248 here in the Netherlands).

See a review here: http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1764466,00.asp

I'm interested in this monitor, but my computer currently doesn't have a video card with digital (DVI) connector.

What would be a good video card for such a monitor? It has a resolution of 1920 x 1200. Can any video card with DVI connection handle such a high resolution? I don't need a super fast 3D monster video card, I never play games on my computer - ofcourse I mainly use Photoshop and other image editing programs.

[Feihung08]

Hang in there Jesper!
I know someone who'll know the answer to this..........I'll be back!

[Jesper]

Ok, after some searching I learned that there are different kinds of DVI interfaces: DVI-D (digital), DVI-A (analog) and DVI-I (which is a connector that can be used with digital as well as analog devices).

There are also "single link" and "dual link" DVI connectors and cables.
Info here: http://www.mycableshop.com/3rd_Level/Video-Flat.htm

Does anybody know more about this? When would you need a dual link DVI cable? The specs of video cards and the monitor I've been looking at don't mention anything about single or dual link....

[Feihung08]

I think it should be a lot more simpler than what your looking at! 1 Monitor = 1 cable = 1 DVI video card. And the cable is supplied with the monitor. (I have the Dell 2001FP btw!) Any of the midrange video cards will more than suit your needs as long as it supports DirectX9! And even a hich end 'budget' card should provide you with what your looking for.

I would recomend.........
Nvidia GeForce 6200 => @ Newegg (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-145-110&depa=0)

And if your computer is over 6 months old you probably have an AGP 8x or 4x slot on your monther board. Meaning you can't use the PCI Express cards.

Hope that helps! But feel free to ask more questions!

[roanjohn]

slurp.........that monitor looks YUMMY!!!

Ro1

[Jesper]

I think it should be a lot more simpler than what your looking at! 1 Monitor = 1 cable = 1 DVI video card. And the cable is supplied with the monitor. (I have the Dell 2001FP btw!) Any of the midrange video cards will more than suit your needs as long as it supports DirectX9! And even a hich end 'budget' card should provide you with what your looking for.
Thanks.
Ofcourse, 1 monitor = 1 cable = 1 DVI video card. But there are different kinds of DVI connectors and cables. From what I read on the website that I provided a link to, there are (at least) three kinds of DVI connectors: DVI-D, DVI-A and DVI-I. That's the simple part; the monitor has DVI-D, and a DVI-D or DVI-I cable and video card can be connected to it.

But what I'm wondering most about right now is "single link" and "dual link". A dual link DVI cable has more wires than a single link cable and is faster (2 x 165 MHz instead of just 1 x 165 MHz). Especially when the monitor has a very high resolution (note that the Dell 2405FPW is 1920 x 1200), it seems to be beneficial to have a dual link cable and video card, otherwise it won't be possible to use a faster refresh rate. (Note that dual link doesn't mean more than one video card or cable).

So I'm wondering if I should pay special attention to the video card and cable to see that they support dual link. Or do all current DVI video cards support dual link?

My computer is a few years old, so I need an AGP card (it doesn't have PCI Express).

[Jesper]

Hmmm... I'm only answering my own questions here, but here's what I found out after some research. I'm posting it here so that it might help others who are thinking about getting a high resolution LCD screen.

A lot of information on how DVI works and what you need when you have a very high resolution monitor can be found in the following article on Tom's Hardware: http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041129/index.html

I need a good but not too expensive graphics card with DVI, that will work at 1920 x 1200. According to the article, cards with an ATI chipset are more likely to work well than cards with an nVidia chipset. I've looked at ATI's website and on other sites, and I think the cheapest option that will work is a card with ATI Radeon 9600 chip. On the specs page for cheaper ATI chips (Radeon 9200, 9250) I see a small note that suggests it won't go higher than 1600 x 1200 via DVI.

[toddb]

I got the 2005FPW and use the XFXForce 6800GT 256MB Dual DVI (http://www.xfxforce.com/product_view.php?sku=PVT40AUD) and seems to work pretty well.

I was pretty impressed with the LCD, very bright and color was pretty darn good for a LCD. The wide screen works very well with PS. My only problem was with the uneven backlighting. I finally made a deal with them to give me another $75 back because they could get me one that was perfect....but it's not real bad, or I would never have kept it...over all it's a keeper. 24", wow, I want that one too!

You should definatly get the DVI video card, and I'd get one that was dual DVI. Allot of these cards have one DVI and one Analog. You can use these LCD in analog, but they look better and sharper in DVI I think.

[Jesper]

You should definatly get the DVI video card, and I'd get one that was dual DVI. Allot of these cards have one DVI and one Analog. You can use these LCD in analog, but they look better and sharper in DVI I think.Ok, but according to the article on Tom's Hardware, graphics cards with dual DVI capability are not so common and more expensive than single DVI cards. I don't want to spend tons of money on the graphics card, because I'm probably going to buy a new computer next year or so. My current computer has an AGP 2.0 slot, which supports speeds up to AGP x4. When I buy a new computer, it will most likely have PCI Express and not AGP, so I wouldn't be able to reuse the graphics card in a new computer.

I've looked up some prices of graphics cards with the nVidia GeForce 6800 chipset, and the cheapest one I could find costs 200 euros (US$ 250). That's about twice as much as the max price I was planning to spend on a video card, and that even isn't a card with dual DVI capability.... :(

[tim]

I just got a Samsung 910T and an MSI 6600 GT card, linked with DVI (not sure which kind - it just worked). It's very crisp, very bright, and it's huge! I really need a bigger desk for this monster, so I can sit further back. I'll have to do something about that, so seriously, don't buy a huge monitor unless you have a big desk!

[Jesper]

Learning more and more...

I found the manual of the 2405FPW on Dell's website: http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/monitors/2405fpw/English/about.htm

The pin layout of the DVI-D connector on the monitor is described in the manual. When I compare it to what I read on the other webpages about DVI, it looks like the monitor has a single link DVI connector (the middle six pins are missing). So it doesn't make sense to buy a graphics card that supports dual link DVI for this monitor.