Jaap said:
Can somebody answer this question?
My computer (OS XP Pro) has a K7S41GX Ashrock motherboard. The display
adapter on this motherboard has only 64 Ram. I want to connect a 19 inch TFT
monitor to this computer, but somebody told me that I first have to install
a graphical card with minimal 128 RAM. Is this true?
Thanks in advance for your reply!
There is a table here. Even if there are multiple frame buffers, they
still fit comfortably in 64MB.
http://www.pcguide.com/ref/video/modes_Buffer.htm
Considerations for a new monitor:
1) Enough RAM for frame buffer. Most modern graphics meet this
requirement. Devices which lack local memory, share the system
memory. This is not usually a limitation. If your video card is
6 years old though, you might want to do more research. Older video
interfaces may limit your options.
2) Video DAC bandwidth. This is the internal analog DAC output bandwidth.
Many modern graphics cards have 400MHz DACs, and the video card
might be listed as supporting 2048x1536 resolution on VGA. At least
this spec is not limiting your options.
3) The actual GPU analog output drivers, the PI (interference) filters
on the RGB signals, the connector quality, the quality of VGA cable
used, all affect the practical resolution limits. Some video cards
have excellent DACs, but the analog output is bad even at 1280x1024,
forcing the user to use 1024x768 to avoid eye strain. Since a number
of factors affect final display quality, reading customer reviews of
the product you are interested in, may warn about image quality problems.
4) The video drivers. They play an important part too. One important issue,
is what resolution settings are available in the driver. Wide screen formats,
like 16:9, are not standard. Things like 4:3 or 5:4 are more standard.
If you want 16:9 wide screen resolutions, the best way to get it, is with
a Nvidia or ATI video card. Nvidia has a custom resolution box, for their
driver. Things like integrated motherboard graphics, may not support
custom resolutions, and even tools like Powerstrip (entechtaiwan.com)
cannot be used to fix integrated motherboard graphics. This is probably
the single most important reason to consider buying a graphics card, if
your new monitor uses a wide screen format.
5) DVI digital drive for an LCD, comes in single link and dual link type.
For super high resolution LCDs, with DVI digital interface, you may
want to make sure there is at least one dual link connector on the
video card. Dual link can cost the manufacturer more money, because
a chip is added to the video card, to drive the second link. High end
video cards are usually a better choice for finding dual link interfaces,
but the feature has steadily been moving down into lower cost cards.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual-link_DVI
HTH,
Paul
