Which card for 20" Apple Cinema?

[David Ellis]

I'm considering buying an HP a950y series PC. HP's web site offers
only three display-electronics options: Integrated Intel(R) Graphics
Media Accelerator 900 , 128MB DDR ATI Radeon X300 SE and 256MB DDR ATI
Radeon X600 Pro.

My gaming interest is running MS Flight Simulator once or twice a
year. Main interest is digital imaging with accurate 24-bit (or
higher) color in Photoshop.

Is one of these options suitable?
Should I order the GMA 900 then add a card of my choice?

--David (video neophyte)

 

[Glitch]

Should I order the GMA 900 then add a card of my choice?

I think you should do that because both X300 and X600 are just modified
R9200 and R9600 in the PCI-Express package.
Basically they're old technology and you should be looking at the X700XT
, X850PRO , GeForce 6600GT or the 6800GT.But even the 6600GT or the
X700XT won't be able to run games on a 20'' display.
My reccomendation is the X850PRO (399$) or XL(299$).

 

[First of One]

Performance-wise, get the GMA900 then add in a X700Pro or XT. The options
offered by HP are all too slow for games.

One potential caveat:

What's the native resolution on the 20" Apple Cinema? If it's greater than
1920 x 1200, it will require a dual-link DVI port. I don't know of any
mainstream PC video cards with dual-link DVI ports. (Some Mac cards have it,
though.)

I am not recommending an nVidia card due to inconsistent DVI TMDS
transmitter circuitry, even on flagship 6800Ultra cards, see:

http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041129/index.html