Please help choosing right dual monitor card

[robert3]

I am ordering a new Dell PC & I want them to install a dual monitor card.

My question is the card they are offering is the right one or not for eSignal Advance Charting purposes.

The card they are offering is :

256 MB ATI Radeonx600 PCI Expressx16 with dual VGA monitor support ( Full Height )

Willthis card do the job ?

System specs are :

P4 2.8 GHz Dual Core
2 GB DDR2 533 MHz
Intel 875 Chipset
21 inch + 17 Inch Monitors
250 GB HDD

somebody asked a similar question here

[robert3]

Hi Steve,

I really appreciate your feedback. That last was from me only. Since then Dell gave me the exact Name & specs of the Video card, I posted it again to find out if that card would do the job that we need to get done for eSignal Advanced Charts.

The card they are offering is :

256 MB ATI Radeonx600 PCI Expressx16 with dual VGA monitor support ( Full Height )

I don't know what all those specs mean so can you tell me if that is the right card ?

Yes, I am paying them the premium for it about $ 155.00 for it & I don't have any other alternative but to buy from them because I live in a place this is the best thing available no matter how much I pay.

What I would like to do is to stack 6 or more Oscillators under one chart but then one monitors height is not enough to do that so can you tell me if I can stack 3 Oscillators under one chart in one monitor and 3 more oscillators under the same chart in a second monitor ?

I would also like to know if I can plot two charts for the same symbol say 5 Minute in one monitor & 15 Min in a second monitor using this card.

Also I would like to plot two symbols in two monitors seperately.

Since you are using the card you probably can best answer these questions.


Thank You for your help.
Robert

Hi Robert,

You will have no problem doing what you referred to with the video card Dell is offering you. The price is not bad either. See the first link for an independent price. Check the second link for the manufactures site. Check the third link and you will see it will drive two monitors easily.

link1

link2

link3

I am assuming Dell will be selling you the monitors as well. You are probably ok, however, you want to make sure one of the monitors wil take a DVI input and the other will take a VGA input. This is because the card has one VGA connector for an analog CRT and one DVI-I connector for a digital CRT or flat panel.

Hope this helps.

[robert3]

Hi Steve,

I might be in trouble here. I am oredering the system without monitors because they are not offering 21 inch CRT or flat panel monitor where I live & I have two 17 inch monitors from my old sytem and I am planning on getting a 21 inch Philips CRT monitor from outside.

The old 2 monitors were operating with my Compaq & Dell systems so I supposethey are analog ? How can you tell ?

The new Philips I am ordering, I wouldn't know until I get it because they don't keep that in stock so I can't see it.

So how do I proceed? I haven't paid Dell yet so still there is a chance to make changes or just cancell the video card.

Please help. It is morning here so I have to let them know in couple of hours.

Thank you again.
Robert

Hi Robert,

You are still ok I think. Assuming you have only VGA, you may be able to use a DVI to VGA converter. My board with dual DVI outputs had these. Here is a link that shows the adapter. You should check with Dell or the manufacturer of the video card to make sure.

As far as being able to tell what the DVI looks like, look at the previous post, link1, and click on the image viewer on the left part of the screen.

[robert3]

Hi Steve,

You have been great help & I want you to know that I sincerely appreciate all your help.

I looked up the links you gave me & now I am able to understand visually what is it all about.

Let me see if I understood correctly.

I should be able to use the old monitors as well as a new 21 inch I am buying provided I have the ATI DVI-2-VGA connector.

I should ask Dell if they are giving the connector with system or not & if not, I don't think I can buy where I live in a small town.
So I should insist on that.

Something else I noticed on the description of video card that Dell gave which says as folows.

256 MB ATI Radeonx600 PCI Expressx16 with dual VGA monitor support ( Full Height )

It says " with dual VGA monitor support " Does that mean it comes with that adaptor ?

Thanks
Robert

Hi Robert,

You are most welcome. Since they have advertised it that way, it must be ok. Still I would verify with them to ensure that is the case.

[FibbGann]

Hi Robert,

Just from experience I would recommend getting a 128 in place of a 256. The 256's can get pretty hot and there is really no need for a 256 unless you plan on playing high end video games.

This way if in the future you want to add another card (4 monitors) you don't run into a an over heating issue inside your pc box.

JMHO.

[robert3]

Hi Steve & FibGann,

I am really new to video cards and I don't play any video games at all. Dell guy don't know the eSignal Advanced Charting software & I couldn't explain them that so I just put it in a layman's language that I need a dual monitor card and the sales guy came up with this ATI Radeon 256 MB X600 PCIe card & told me it would cost around $ 155 to $ 180 & I said fine.

Now since I am learning little more from you guys, can you tell me

(1) first whether this is the right card for our application and

(2) Can I use this card for other purposes like TV recording & home theator & song recording occasionally or do I need a better card for that ?

Here is the link for that exact card but it is too technical for me & it doesn't explicitely tell you what else can you do with it besides great graphics technology.

http://www.ati.com/products/radeonx600/index.html

Should I invest a little more for a higher end card to make it more versatile for future use as an entertainment support card ?

OR Just go even lower if I am going to use it basically for eSignal Advanced Chart application on two monitors ?


OR would it be better if I get a card that would support 3 or 4 monitors which I am planning on doing in the future?


Couple of years ago Trader's world magazine recommended a card called "Nvidia Quadro4 400 NVS Graphics Card" which supported 4 monitors & cost around $ 200.00 then.

http://www.tradersworld.com/nvidia/Nvidia.htm

How is that card different & is there a similar card from ATI because Dell offers only ATI Radeon card ?

Thank You
Robert

[FibbGann]

Robert,

I have alot of experience with vidoe cards for the same reason you are looking to use them.

I have the Nvidia Quadro card which is very nice. It will run you about $500 plus though.

I just looked at Dell's options and you are right they only offer ATI cards. I prefer Nvidia cards, but thats just me.

As far as geting a card that will support TV/Entertainment support you are looking at buying an expensive card. I would suggest not to use the same PC for that purpose.

Don't get caught up in all the hype about needing a high end video card for trading. Since I have written off ATI cards for any consideration in my PC's. (That's just me. )

The best suggestion I could make is buying:

Both of these should have dual monitor support, but make sure they due just incase.

For a AGP card:

PNY Verto GeForce FX 5500 128MB DDR AGP Graphics Card

For a PCI card:



PNY Verto GeForce FX 5500 128MB DDR PCI Graphics Card

I have purchased about 8 of these, some are PCI and some are AGP. The quality has been excellent and I have had no issues whatsoever with any of them.

AGP is simply the main video card slot in you PC for your video card. You want this one first and would purchase the PCI card later if you wanted to add an additional 2 monitors.

If you knew you were going to eventually go to 6 monitiors then I would get the AGP above then buy the Nvidia Quadro card. (Make sure the quadro is a PCI card!)

The FX5500 cards do have S-video which is used in some cases for attaching to T.V.'s. My experince with T.V. and PC interfaces are not that good. I have had even high end cards for this and have come to the conclusions that at this point the current technology is just not worth it. This technology needs more time to get it right.

I would just tell dell to put the el cheapo ATI card in and once you get the PC just pul it out and keep it for a backup.

NOTE: When using more than one vidoe card in one PC they must both be made by the same manufacturer. You cannot integrate an ATI and an Nvidia card in the smae PC. It will not work!

I hope I covered it all, If not just let me know.

I attached an image of my set-up using a Nvidia PNY FX5500 and the Nvidia NVS Quadro card.

Dan / Robert,

Robert's machine that he is getting has a pci express (PCIe) slot. This has twice the bandwidth of an AGP slot and reduces significantly the amount of throughput required by the motherboard as compared to a video card which is plugged into a regular PCI slot.

Further, the extra memory on the video card allows it to be more standalone and rely less upon the memory on the motherboard reducing the load even further, making up for any excess heat generated due to the speed of the processors or extra memory on the graphics card.

I think going away from the PCIe graphics card will likely have a negative impact on performance for this machine.

Just my thoughts.

[george65202]

Colorgraphic

You might also want to check Colographic's multi-monitor video cards.

www.colorgraphic.net

[buhrmaster]

My 2 cents. I have a Dell machine with of recent vintage (1-1/2 years old) with an AGP ATI Radeon 9800 with 128MB of DDR memory. I am using 2 monitors, both crts, one with VGA, the other with DVI-I. I didn't need an adapter. I use lots of apps, have lots of screens open and really don't have any discernible problems. The nice thing about the card is that when I switch to LCD panels the card will be able to handle it (or so I believe) using one digital (DVI) and one analog (VGA) output. As stated before the PCI Express is a step up from AGP.

I have used ATI for years and they run neck and neck performance-wise with nVidia, their main competition. If you want to go higher-end and have more monitors there are other more expensive options -- for example, I think there is a Matrox quad that is supposed to be good, but pricey. It doesn't sound as if you need that.

If you want to do the TV thing, there are ATI Radeon All-in-Wonders that fill the bill:

http://www.ati.com/products/multimedia.html

[robert3]

Lots of great inputs guys.

Since I am going to add one or two more monitors once I get the hang of Dual monitors would it be wise to get a 4 monitor video card now instead of adding another card later so that Dell would put in a higher Watts power supply & it will be ready for 4 monitors in future ?

Also it would take up another slot if I put in 2nd video card in future ?

Does ATI have a 4 monitor card & if yes which one ?

Dell guy told me they don't have 4 monitor card

The other suggestions about other brands are great too but where I live I don't have an option of buying a video card in open market because it simply is not available & this way Dell would take care of all the technical problems that I might run into if I bought the card outside.

Robert