WOW! {Or Holy whatever}

[Tom Evans]

On Wed, 2007-05-09 at 22:04 -0700, Garrett Cooper wrote:
> Eric Crist wrote:
> > On May 9, 2007, at 8:34 PMMay 9, 2007, Gary Kline wrote:
> > 
> >> On Wed, May 09, 2007 at 07:18:52PM -0500, Eric Crist wrote:
> >>>
> >>> Gary,
> >>>
> >>> Most cards that might come with DVI output instead of the standard
> >>> VGA output usually include at least one DVI-VGA adapter, an
> >>> additional one could be purchased at most computer retailers or your
> >>> local Radio Shack.
> >>>
> >>> HTH
> >>
> >>
> >>     It does help, thanks, Eric.  I may have missed the cord adaptor
> >>     that was stuck in the box.  Need help to open/check.  Meanwhile,
> >>     I need to look at the specs for this Dell 8200 to see what kind
> >>     of card is in there.  What's there is a jack with two rows of
> >>     sockets.  I'm guessing this is the standard Dell "DVI" connector,
> >>     yes, no, other? :-)
> >>
> >>     Also, in your opinion, since I'm not a gamer and just want to
> >>     display at extreme most 1600x1200, do I need anything seriously
> >>     upscale?  I've seen and skipped past lots of questions about lots
> >>     of drivers.  So let's say that I went totally ape and bought some
> >>     AGP card with 256M of memory:: do we have a driveer for those
> >>     kinds of very high end cards?
> >>
> >>     thanks again,
> >>
> >>     gary
> >>
> >>     PS:  Does anybody know of a website that 'splains VGA, SVGA,
> >>          EVGA, and all the rest?  I've been seriously guilty of being
> >>          lazy; I'm fessing up!  ....
> > 
> > 
> > Gary,
> > 
> > A DVI connector has 3 rows of 8 pins and a set of 4 hole is a box shape 
> > next to it:
> > 
> > +------------------------+
> > |  o o o o o o o o  o|o  |
> > |  o o o o o o o o --+-- |
> >  \ o o o o o o o o  o|o /
> >   +--------------------+
> > 
> > There's also a mini-DVI format that's kinda like this:
> > 
> > +-----------------+
> > | o o o o o o o o||
> > | o o o o o o o o||
> >  `---------------'
> > 
> > I'm sure you know what a VGA connector looks like, so I won't draw that 
> > for you. ;)
> > 
> > At work, we're using the GeForce 7600 GS AGP cards, which have 256MB of 
> > RAM and dual DVI output.  We're using the FreeBSD Binary driver 
> > (available in ports) and running dual monitors with full Open GL support 
> > pretty seamlessly.  I'd recommend that setup to anyone.  It's a feature 
> > called Twinview which allows your desktop to span multiple monitors, and 
> > most programs that support xinerama(sp?) are 'aware' of the physical 
> > border between monitors, so you don't end up with windows popping up 
> > spanning both monitors. (i.e. maximize doesn't cross both monitors, just 
> > one).
> > 
> > HTH
> > 
> > Eric Crist
> 
> Eric,
> 	That's one flavor of DVI; memory serves me correctly there were 2: 
> I-DVI and some other kind (I think the one you have pictured above is 
> I-DVI).
> 	I gave my old box to Gary, it's an HDMI ATI 7000 series card, and the 
> card has an HDMI to Dual VGA plug along with it. I forgot that all the 
> items were still in the box (did that to ensure that everything was put 
> in the box and made it through shipping all right).
> 	Anyhow, getting back to the video thing at hand, if Gary was to 
> purchase a card he should purchase an nVidia card. It's the only brand 
> with OpenGL support properly enabled in Linux and FreeBSD. 5000-6000 
> series would be sufficient.
> -Garrett

DVI comes in 3 (almost 4) flavours, DVI-D (digital data only), DVI-A
(Analogue data only) and DVI-I (Integrated, both analogue and digital).
The almost flavour is DVI-D dual-link, which carries more data than
DVI-D (twice as much, who'd-a-thunk..)

DVI cables can be any of the three types, the difference being which
pins are hooked up. Most cables support the full pin-out, and therefore
all the flavours.

All graphics cards these days output either DVI-D dual-link, or DVI-I,
depending upon the resolution you ask the graphics card to display.
DVI-I can be converted to a VGA DSUB using a simple dongle. Any card
that comes with a DVI port also comes with the dongle.

I'd also recommend an nvidia card. The amount of memory available on a
card limits the amount of 3D textures that can be loaded onto the card.
If you aren't worried about gaming or 3D, then even a 32MB card should
be able to handle two double buffered 1600x1200 displays. A 128 MB card
will perform the same as the equivalent 256 MB card (or 384/512 MB, or
even some cards now with 640 MB).

Cheers

Tom
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 187 bytes
Desc: This is a digitally signed message part
Url : http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-questions/attachments/20070510/a9ceab5f/attachment.pgp