• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

New graphics card with DVI dual-link needed

Blue407

Blue407

Blue407

Associate
Joined
2 Aug 2011
Posts
28
Hi Guys

Just bought 2 new monitors for work, hadn't realised that they need dual-link compatible graphics cards :rolleyes:

So need to replace the 2 AMD FirePro 2270 cards that are in my Dell with 2 reasonable graphics cards that support this.
Either 2 x new cards or one decent one that will cope with 2 monitors.
The AMX Firepro's only give a Win 7 rating of 4.4 whereas the Processor and RAM are the next lowest at 7.6, so a better graphics card should make a big difference :)

Any advice/recommendations?


The monitors are 27" Hazro HZ27WC from Overclockers.
Thanks in advance for help :)
 
Last edited:
Do you need graphics card(s) just to provide a display or are they used for any processing etc?

If they're only used to provide a display then the Win 7 rating is immaterial.
 
Surveyor said:
Do you need graphics card(s) just to provide a display or are they used for any processing etc?

If they're only used to provide a display then the Win 7 rating is immaterial.
Click to expand...

I do sometimes do HD video processing, but its not the primary purpose!

I tried the monitor on a couple of PC's but it hasn't worked with any of them so far. I assumed it may accept a DVI input and just run at a lower resolution, but that doesn't seem to be the case!
 
I'm a bit in the dark with these FirePro cards.

From what I can see they have a DMS-59 connector with breakout cables for DVI, DisplayPort etc.

Do you have breakout cables for dual link DVI?

Have you tried using these with the dual link DVI cables supplied with the monitor?

A single link DVI cable, if that's what you've been using before, doesn't provide the necessary bandwidth for 2560x1440.
 
I guess I should also add that replacement card(s) should not be too high power as the PSU is not massive in this Dell! (265w)
 
Surveyor said:
I'm a bit in the dark with these FirePro cards.

From what I can see they have a DMS-59 connector with breakout cables for DVI, DisplayPort etc.

Do you have breakout cables for dual link DVI?

Have you tried using these with the dual link DVI cables supplied with the monitor?

A single link DVI cable, if that's what you've been using before, doesn't provide the necessary bandwidth for 2560x1440.
Click to expand...

Yes, each card had a fly-lead which converts from the special connector on the graphics card to 2 x DVI. So I could run 4 x DVI monitors

Googling the cards show's that dual-link is not possible for them. Hence considering new cards. Although I would have thought I would have been able to get a 1920x1080 pictire, but no joy!
 
Last edited:
mickyflinn said:
Even a 6450 its reccomended 400 Watt or greater power supply, so you may have to upgrade your psu.
Click to expand...

not sure how possible that is on a Dell......

Mind you, the existing cards say a 350w PSU minimum and I have 2 cards installed!!! LOL
Primary system is SSD, so low power requirement there.
 
The cards you have at the moment consume around 15W at full load.

The lowest power consumption/cheapest card I can see is the HD 5450 here.

The slightly more expensive card having GDD5 memory instead of GDDR3.

The cards are by no means a power house but they have a dual link DVI output so a pair of them would run your 2 monitors at 2560x1440.

Power consumption is higher than your current cards, see here, but you may get away with it.

There's no point in looking at higher model ATI cards as where they have 2 DVI outputs one of them is only single link.

The lowest power Nvidia cards with 2 dual link DVI outputs, such as the GTS 450, will still require more power than a pair of HD 5450's.

The HD 6450 would work for you in a similar fashion to the HD 5450 and may have marginally less power consumption.

The best option I can find for a low price is a pair of HD 5450's.

A pair of HD 6450's might offer slightly less power consumption but would cost more.

Unless someone has a better idea?
 
Last edited:
Surveyor said:
The cards you have at the moment consume around 15W at full load.

The lowest power consumption/cheapest card I can see is the HD 5450 here.

The slightly more expensive card having GDD5 memory instead of GDDR3.

The cards are by no means a power house but they have a dual link DVI output so a pair of them would run your 2 monitors at 2560x1440.

Power consumption is higher than your current cards, see here, but you may get away with it.

There's no point in looking at higher model ATI cards as where they have 2 DVI outputs one of them is only single link.

The lowest power Nvidia cards with 2 dual link DVI outputs, such as the GTS 450, will still require more power than a pair of HD 5450's.

The HD 6450 would work for you in a similar fashion to the HD 5450 and may have marginally less power consumption.

The best option I can find for a low price is a pair of HD 5450's.

A pair of HD 6450's might offer slightly less power consumption but would cost more.

Unless someone has a better idea?
Click to expand...

Massively comprehensive reply, thanks :)

I don't mind spending £75-£100 each on card(s) if necessary, if they are better than the £23 options ;)
 
Blue407 said:
I don't mind spending £75-£100 each on card(s) if necessary, if they are better than the £23 options ;)
Click to expand...

The problem is that typically the more you spend on consumer grade cards the higher the power consumption.

A GTS 450, here, consumes around 18W at idle and 121W under load.

It has 2 dual link DVI outputs so will run both monitors.

The worry is that if you put it under load it would be too much for your PSU.

It also requires a PCI-E 6 pin power connector which I'm not sure you have. You can make one up using molex adapters though.

A pair of HD 5450's/6450's would use more power at idle than a GTS 450 but less under load.

It's a tough one given your PSU.
 
You're welcome.

I hope it works out OK.

Remember that as long as you're buying mail order you can return the cards for a full refund under the Distance Selling Regulations if it doesn't work out.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom