Need an AGP Video card for dual 2560x1600 monitors

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OzoneJunkie

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Apr 28, 2005
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Ultimately, I want to run dual 30" monitors at 2560x1600 each.

Currently I have a single 24" (1920x1200) monitor, and would like to add a 30" monitor. I know that I need a dual-link DVI card. The card must be AGP for me.

Looking at the GeForce 7600GT 256MB (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814150210)

I see it has 2 Dual-Link DVI ports. So, I know this will definitely run a single 30" monitor. But what's required to run dual 30 inch monitors? Will this do it?
 
as with any gpu purchase nowadays one must think if they want to be dx10 compliant. then its all about the $.
 
The only AGP card that I would even consider for your application right now would be the X1950pro... if you must have it, as I said, right now...

Will there be a DX10 AGP card? I think so, but honestly, I would not consider it written in stone based on the link given above... you have to consider the source;)
 
digital_exhaust said:
The only AGP card that I would even consider for your application right now would be the X1950pro... if you must have it, as I said, right now...
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I'm curious about to your strong preference towards the X1950pro, vs. an nVidia based card such as the one I linked. I'm definitely open to going the ATI route, if that's the right choice. Care to elaborate?
 
For AGP, the X1950 Pro is the fastest, expecially if you want to game on it. But if you are looking for Dual monitor support the 7600GT should be fine.
 
OzoneJunkie said:
I'm curious about to your strong preference towards the X1950pro
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Higher core/mem clocks.

And personal experience... I have absolutely nothing against NVIDIA at all, it's not just a !!!!!! thing, but I can tell you from my experience with the X1950pro that it is a great card, and if your sticking with AGP, right now, it is the fastest card you can get..... right now.
 
Ok. I certainly can wait it out a little bit and see if we get a DX10 AGP card. If it doesn't show in a couple of months, I'll probably go with the X1950pro.

Thanks all for the replies. Very helpful.
 
merlin704 said:
For AGP, the X1950 Pro is the fastest, expecially if you want to game on it. But if you are looking for Dual monitor support the 7600GT should be fine.
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Gaming at 2560x1600 with an X1950Pro and dual monitors? Maybe he can play Counter Strike 1.6.:D
 
Actually, it's more about audio production for me. The only gaming I still do on PC is Quake 3 (Defrag mod) and Trackmania (original). I recently played through HL, HL2, and HL2:E1 again (2nd time for all of them). But I think I'm kinda done with PC gaming...
 
OzoneJunkie said:
Actually, it's more about audio production for me. The only gaming I still do on PC is Quake 3 (Defrag mod) and Trackmania (original). I recently played through HL, HL2, and HL2:E1 again (2nd time for all of them). But I think I'm kinda done with PC gaming...
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Then whatever you do, DON'T get the X1950Pro. It's a jet engine even at idle. Trust me, I had one and it was painful to have the card installed because my PC was inaudible before I plugged the card in. I sent it back and got a passive cooled X300Se and quit gaming.

In your case, since you are doing audio production, you want to have a quiet PC and the X1950Pro is not the way to go.

I don't even know why people recommended the X1950Pro to be honest. I thought it was stupid to buy a more expensive card that will do the same thing as the lesser card but in a much less efficient manner.
 
Ok. In this case, I think I'm just going to go with my original choice of the 7600GT. Fortunately my case is lined with padding for noise reduction, so hopefully the noise level of my PC won't change drastically...
 
why not go for the gainward 7800gs+ 512mb? its effectively a 7800GT pci?? its OC to run on par with a real 7800GT!!!!!!!

ITS OFFICIALY THE FASTET AGP CARD EVER
 
jonneymendoza said:
why not go for the gainward 7800gs+ 512mb? its effectively a 7800GT pci?? its OC to run on par with a real 7800GT!!!!!!!

ITS OFFICIALY THE FASTET AGP CARD EVER
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Actually, the gainward bliss 7800gs+ (plus sign is the key) is the model that is, technically, the same specs as a 7900gt. Even better! :)
 
I 2nd the x1950pro. Dual 2link DVI... It is the card to beat for this application.

On AGP... you are not going to have that many options. The x1950 512mb card is the best you are going to get for this application period.

Guess what else? The x1950pro can possibly be modded to a fireGL. The drivers can be modded and the card will run as a fireGL. The only part that isnt working right now is the fireGL 3dstudioMAX driver, however if you do not run 3dsMAX you don't have a problem. Actually... 3dsMAX 9.0 does not need a fireGL or quadro to get full speed, so the max driver shouldn't be a problem unless you run an older version of 3dsMAX (and a fireGL without the max driver is still alot faster then the gamer version).

I am not sure what your applications are that need this kind of screen space... but I don't see any other AGP card out there other then the x1950 that will work for you. Modded to a fireGL, you will even get those advantages if you are into 3d modeling or video work or something.

You should really consider upgrading your system to PCIe though... hehe... I hate to say that too since I am on AGP, but I don't run dual 30" flatscreens either.
 
It's a shame - I basically bought a new machine right around when PCI-e was really coming of age. Didn't think that they were going to do away with AGP so quickly the way they did. I've got a 3.4Ghz machine (not dual-core), and it runs really well for my audio production needs. I just can't justify a new machine, or even a whole mobo/ram/chip upgrade. Now, if the machine were to die... well, then.. ;)
 
HIS Hightech H195PRQT512DDAN-R Radeon X1950PRO 512MB GDDR3 AGP 4X/8X IceQ3 Turbo


My choice:)
 
Didn't think that they were going to do away with AGP so quickly the way they did.
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I felt the same way. I have an AGP amd dual core system and bought the 7800gs since I figured that was the best I was going to get. Then the x1950pro came out, and now I want to sink more money into this old system.

I do audio production work too so I can see why you would want those big screens. I run my desktop 1600X1200 and I don't have much room at all to work with. It makes it hard to keep track of effects, it is hard to work on the piano roll, and also the sequence playlist. It sucks too in adobe audition where I wish I could see more of my waveforms at a time and more tracks/resolution on the tracker.

I would still get the x1950pro though. That is alot of screen resolution for the card to work with, and usually 2d is easy for most all modern cards, but then most people have one display at 1600X1200 or less. ATI is known to have better 2D performance than nvidia, and I can say that I have noticed this myself too.

I will say this though. If you truly do not plan to do much 3d work, I would possibly look into a Matrox card. They accelerate 2D better then ATI and nvidia and have no problems with high resolutions and multi-displays.. They have some neat 2D features that are unique to Matrox cards and would possibly give you some advantages. They aren't for 3D, but for 2D work they offer alot.
 
Yashu: yeah, more screen real-estate is always in demand when doing audio production. Like I said, I'm running a 23" Sony LCD at 1920x1200, and still want/need more.

"Sequence playlist"... what host(s) you use? Wouldn't be FL would it?

btw, do you frequent kvraudio.com?

I think at some point I'm just going to go huge and get the 30", keep my 23" for now, buy a new desk, and a nice 88 key midi controller. Right now I use a 48 key controller, and it's not enough for doing orchestral work (I use the EastWest QL Symphonic Orchestra libraries).

I thought I was done buying monitors when I got the 23" screen. It's a great change over the 1600x1200 I was running, but again, still not enough ;)
 
Wouldn't be FL would it?
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I use it sometimes. I have been doing this since FL 2.something... back then I tested alot of different apps. I made two albums on FL 3 and CoolEdit Pro, and then I lost most of my work in an accident. It was such a setback that I didn't go much further. I still mess with FL, now FL studio, and Audition replaced CoolEdit, and mess with some other stuff... wave surgeon, various VSTs in FL, Midi, ect.

Back when I was doing the mastering work on my last album I was beginning to look into max/MSP and Reason (that was new then). I probably would have moved some of my work to max/msp, but I lost all my samples, all my working files, all my mastered mixdowns, even my software and licences... everything except the unmastered mp3s I did for some demo discs...

Anyway... I have tried to get back into it... and though I have the CPU power to do a lot more then I could then, the screen fills up so fast it is hard to work.

EDIT:

Ok I had to edit this because A LOT of people have lots of negativity towards FLstudio, and I want to say that I don't see it as a limitation at all. I think it has even some advantages over other software and when used in conjunction with other tools you can make great music. See I got used to the "stack and track" way of working. The defacto standard for photo editing, photoshop, is stack based so I don't think that type of workflow is a limitation. This is why I was hesitant about saying what software I used... hehe.

But more on topic, yes I would love a second display for the track view. That would help out so much, but I don't have the space in my Apt. for another 21" CRT.
 
Yashu said:
Ok I had to edit this because A LOT of people have lots of negativity towards FLstudio, and I want to say that I don't see it as a limitation at all. I think it has even some advantages over other software and when used in conjunction with other tools you can make great music. See I got used to the "stack and track" way of working. The defacto standard for photo editing, photoshop, is stack based so I don't think that type of workflow is a limitation. This is why I was hesitant about saying what software I used... hehe..
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FL Studio is the Gimp to Cubase/Logic's Photoshop. Both very powerful tools, both very different interfaces. Cubase or Logic have about as much of an edge on FL studio as Photoshop has on the Gimp.

Have you ever given Ableton a spin?
 
JackAshley said:
Actually, the gainward bliss 7800gs+ (plus sign is the key) is the model that is, technically, the same specs as a 7900gt. Even better! :)
Click to expand...

and it does have dual DVI. still is the x1950 faster than the gainward bliss +?

i use FL and all i can say is that its the best music software to use. this program can be used with almost every single vsti plugin you can think of.

heck you can even hook it up to cubase for that matter.
 
Hey, don't worry about feeling hesitant about speaking positively about FL. I know it's got a bad rap. But I love FL. It's not the only host I use (Sonar at times). But I totally dig FL for a lot of what it does and how it works, and how it looks. I love the slicer, the granulizer, the wave traveller, the piano roll, etc. There's a few things that keep it from being my only host.

I have a bunch of old tracks I wrote on my Kurzweil K2000 (my only hardware synth), and I need the ability, which Sonar gives me, to look at multiple tracks at the same time in the piano roll, and EDIT multiple tracks within the piano roll. Unfortunately this is a pain with FL, since you can show the ghost channels, but have to switch the root channel to edit the notes for the desired channel.

I've tried Live. I like it. It's got the same restriction, although even more so, in that you cannot even view more than one channel in the piano roll at a given time.

Keeping my eyes on Reaper, and Energy XT 2.

>> And Yashu:

I feel bad for you that you lost so much work. That's always hard - I've read other horror stories about people losing stuff. Let me, if I may be so bold, say that there's been times that I've thought about purposely deleting all of my old stuff. Often I've felt bogged down by old things; the feeling that I need to return to them, especially the unfinished stuff. As a matter of fact, that's what I'm spending my time on now - reworking/fixing/mixing/mastering a lot of stuff that I wrote 10 years ago. It's good and bad.

But again, if I may be so bold: look at the lost of old stuff as a new beginning. You are who you are, and what you've done and what you will do. But you are not what exists or doesn't exist on a harddrive.

Going to tangent a bit, show my soft side, but I'll keep it brief. I recently had a very long term (almost 17 years) relationship go south. This has been the hardest thing in my life. But, the only thing I can do is learn from the mistakes I made along the way that caused the hardship for my partner, and most importantly, to forgive myself, and to forgive her, and let each other lead happy lives. It's been extremely difficult at times, but at other times, it's been such an uplifting experience: to forgive myself, to allow myself to be a new person, without preconceived notions of me by another person, and more importantly to be a new person without preconceived notions of MYSELF.

I hope I can inject a little positiveness into your situation. That which is done is done. Onward.
 
Yes true. I had built myself a great path and it was very sad to see that go away. Towards the end I was doing some things musically that were cutting edge and now they might not be so much so. It was almost 2 years before I had built a set of samples, effects, presets, ect. that I was happy with. I would spend hours tweaking a single snare in a song sometimes out of the parts of 3 other snares. I was suprised at how much time it took to make good, unique, personal samples from the ones that you might be able to buy on CD or download. Making them from scratch was even harder... building/recording them, setting loop points... all of that. I think the hardest part was losing all of that work, not necessarily the songs themselves. It certainly makes me look at the music I hear differently. When I hear some generic house-of-the-day track using the same 909 samples we have heard a bazzillion times I kindof look down on the person that made it... hehe... I don't mean to, but to someone that knows what it takes to make tracks it makes them seem lazy.

I think that if I did get back into it, I should not try to totally recreate my old style, however the music... the chord progressions, melodies... they are a part of me as much as the fingers I am typing with. I don't think I could pretend they did not exist.

I think when I am farther down in my career I will give it another shot. I have done a LOT of listening and studying since and can bring alot of new experience to the old tunes.

Hehe... and maybe then I will have a desk big enough to hold two monitors... hell... probably then we will be talking about the last few remaining PCIe cards that could possibly drive a pair of 10000X5000 pixel displays.

Or maybe next year's RPM challenge... it sounds like that was fun.

I do like FLstudio, it has alot of things that I consider essential rolled into one, and that is important to me since I don't have alot of money to spend or extra time to spend trying to set up the same capability with several programs at once. I lost everything before I started making much money off of this and so had to go into another line of work. Now it is just a hobby, so I don't see needing some of the pro-oriented stufff that it may be missing. FL (some VSTs) and Audition are pretty much all I use now...

The positive encouragement is appreciated and I hope you make some killer tracks on the new monitors.
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On topic, I saw a post on guru3d that mentioned a GeCube x1950XT card that could be coming out for AGP. If you were into gaming, that would be the card to get, but I still think the x1950pro is the best choice right now. I would go with the Powercolor version because it is the only one with cooling that I think addresses all the problem areas of the card.
 
Thanks for the additional info on the graphics card. I'm close to making a final decision.

I know what you mean about making unique samples, presets, etc. That's important to me too. The funny thing about going back to my old Kurzweil tracks that I made, I realized that the sounds were important, yes, but it was so much more about the composition, and putting sounds/notes together in a meaningful way. I do use standard sounding sounds at times, especially when using orchestral instruments. I don't care, then, if I rolled my French horn sound from scratch, in those cases.

Also, I think that approaching things now, if I were in your shoes, I'd still go to what I know in respect to making unique sounds/presets, but I'd not worry about building a library, then writing. I'd write first. Then go back and replace sounds where necessary. Or built up a little bit before writing. But the point would be to make sounds for the time that you need them, for the track in mind. Not to have a huge library to draw upon.

There's a certain dichotomy about making your own sounds and using standard sounds. I've found myself sometimes getting too wrapped up in having to make everything super original. I've dwelled and over-analyzed things too much at times, and at those moments it's become an ego-thing that hinders progress.

Sometimes it's more about letting the music speak to you and through you, as opposed to representing you...

EDIT: I do want to say that I'm normally not this forward, about my own personal life, or making such personal suggestions to others. I don't know, I'm in a very strange, but good mood because of the huge shakeup in my life. Being with someone for 17 years, and having that crumble (although we're still very good friends), is a life-altering experience, and I can deduce, to some degree, that you've gone through something similarly deep and changing. I hope I haven't been too forward.
 
Thanks for the encouragement, nigerian_businessman. I agree, and I'm not ashamed. I just didn't want to assume that I could make such personal suggestions to Yashu. We don't know each other, and I hate to presume things sometimes. I like to give people the opportunity to say "thanks for the suggestions, but they're not needed" in a graceful manner. Again, I didn't want to be too presumptuous...
 
but I'd not worry about building a library, then writing. I'd write first.
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I know what you are saying, and I used to do that alot too... I would sometimes put down a melody quickly and then worry about attaching a good sound to it later... I still try to take notes when I come up with something in my head, however, in the style of music I enjoy making, the samples are pretty important too. Sometimes a melody sounds completely right with one sound and completely stupid with another sound... yet that same sound is good for a different one. Beats can be the same way, it's alot of trial and error. I guess it's different with different music styles... I enjoyed it as an engineering project. It is just a reflection of who I am and my personal style in everything I do. Art, music, computers, work, I am that way. I do some pen and ink artwork and sometimes after I am finished with a piece, I realize that it looks better upside down and that is how I hang it on the wall.

I don't have a complete kit yet, but I am at the point where I am making tracks again. I can always go back and change things later... as long as I don't lose the files this time around.
 
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