Hardware Question

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Wed, Oct 31, 2007 at 12:29:50PM -0400, Stephen W. Clarke wrote:
> The current video card is a nVidia TNT2 (16MB) that I had kicking around.
> The system is an HP Vectra VL box (desktop model).

Hmm, the TNT2 usually had a pretty decent ramdac.  My 32MB TNT2 had no
problem driving 1600x1200 at 85Hz.  I suppose it is possible a really
really cheap 16MB card might have seriously skimped on the ramdac and
doesn't have the needed bandwidth (although 240MHz should give you
1600x1200 at 85Hz).  Modern video cards tend to have 400MHz ramdacs.  That
can drive 2048x1536 at plenty quite well.

Could you post your X log file.  Perhaps it will give some indication
why the refresh rate is sucking.

> Not sure why it didn't POST. My guess is either:
> 1) because it was a 64-bit card the system arch didn't understand it
> or

No it is a 32bit PCI card, with a 64bit video chip.  The Rage128 was a
128bit video chip.  That just means the memory interface is that wide,
or that it works on that many bits at a time.  It's just marketing
really.  After all the latest nvidia 8800GTX could be said to be 128
threads * 128 bits (assuming 4 32bit floast to handle RGBa with floats),
or maybe even 256 bits (I know there is at least work towards working
with doubles in the shader engines), which by some old measures would
make for a very big number of bits.

> 2) because it's power draw was so high it couldn't get to the setup screen

Much more likely.

> As for finding the card, looking at the brisk trade in low end video cards
> on eBay I don't think that will be too difficult. The challenge as I see
> it is to figure out which brand/model card to buy.
> 
> The thought of buying a new system had crossed my mind but I was hoping to
> spend $20-$30 on a new card instead of $100 on a new system.

The problem is finding one that can drive the screen while still being
that low end.

--
Len Sorensen
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