Bigger monitor/Video card strength?

[Wakefield]

I have an older Gateway E-4000(?) that used to have a 15" monitor and no video card. It has an Intel D845GRG motherboard with an AGP 4x slot. I got it to accept an FX 5600 GeForce video card with a DVI outlet.
I just got a HP 2310m monitor hooked up to it. The monitor papers say that optimum resolution is 1920 by 1080. The display settings will only turn up to 1600 by 900. I assume that is a limitation of the video card,not Windows XP and there don't seem to be any new drivers available. Nevertheless,the picture is better than with the small monitor,interestingly my picture is much better/sharper than a similar 23" monitor that I saw in a Staples store but that one was connected to a small computer without a video card,with a VGA plug.
I wonder if a GeForce 6200 card would produce 1920 by 1080? I wonder if there is any better way to look for AGP 4x (and I think AGP 8x will fit but run at 4x on my system)cards than looking on Amazon.com?
You have to be careful to find out whether video cards offered for sale are AGP or PCIx or whatever fits in the computer and I think some card models came in seperate AGI and PCIx flavors.
Do new video cards usually get marked down in price after they have sat on the shelf for a couple years? And do only video cards for playing games(which I am not interested in,only a good picture as in watching video streaming or movie disks)make you need a huge power supply? Would any plain PCI (not PCIx or PCIe) video card support 1920 by 1080?

[bitman]

You're just at the beginning of the 20[,000] questions that buying such an old video card can create. This is especially true with AGP, since 4x/8x is just the first of many differences that include voltage, slot type (supposedly defined by voltage, but not always correct), connector(s) and others. You're really in the wrong place here, since there are much better forums that discuss hardware and specifically video and they're easy to find by doing a search.

Your basic question about the resolution is limited by the amount of memory that the video card has, though I can't recall if 1920 x 1080 requires 256MB, 512MB or more. Any good advertisements for such relatively high-end AGP cards should include this info though.

As for how to find these, you could do a general search again, but I went with an online vendor named Newegg, since they have a good reputation and I'd used them for many other separate items like drives and memory before. Just go to the following general link for video and then scroll down on the left-hand side looking for Interface, AGP 4x/8x and you'll get a list of over 25 cards with various manufacturers, memory size and cost.

http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCateg...cs-Video-Cards

The brand names have changed since I bought an AGP 8x card for an old Sony Viao with 4x on the MB, but there's still a fair number available. Cost doesn't really change much online until the cards are no longer available, though you might find a deal at a local store if they have any, but this is hit and miss. I went with Newegg because I needed it now, with a good selection and I knew I could return it if it didn't work.

Remember that the more video memory you have, the more it works the PC itself, so look for one that offloads the PC processor as much as possible. This is what gaming requires too, so in general you do want one that supports the highest DirectX revision possible. This is why I was buying the card I got, for Windows Vista which required at least DirectX 9.0c as I recall, as well as shading and other features.

So find out what the programs you'll be using for watching DVD video require or recommend for support and then look at the cards and compare any voltage or other specs with those for your PC. To be sure, find a forum where the kind of cards you like are discussed and ask them the specifics, there just may be someone who did something similar or at least knows the requirements well.

Turns out that the AGP 8x w/256MB card (XFX 6200?) I got also supported the DVI connector on an extra Dell 23" monitor I got, so I have a similar setup to your's on the Sony now. I think it supported 1920 x 1080, since the monitor does, but I'm not sure and it's in another town so I can't look.

Bitman

[Wakefield]

I made an interesting discovery today. I tried connecting the monitor to the computer(via video card) with the VGA cable instead of the DVI cable that came with the monitor-both the video card and the monitor have both VGA and DVI connectors.
Lo and behold,the display settings now allow and suggest 1920 by 1080 resolution instead of the 1600 by 900 that was the maximum that was offered while the connection was by the DVI cable. Interestingly,the DVI cable has the middle pins missing in the main group of pins,I think that is supposed to mean that it is a single link,not a dual link cable. The female DVI plugs at both the video card end and the monitor end appear to have all the pins in the main group (do not have the extra 4 little pins on the end as in DVI-I). So I guess I will e-mail HP to see if that was the wrong cable-it is if the monitor supports dual link DVI which is supposed to carry the higher resolutions as I understand. Perhaps some devices use the dual link sockets even if they are only capable of using single link mode? So that either single link or dual link DVI cable will fit even if only single link function is available?
But now Windows Media Player refuses to play my videos,gives a message that analog copying is prohibited. Strange that Windows played the videos with the old VGA monitor. BAD "Digital Rights Management"? Actually I don't think the 1920 by 1080 looks that much better than the 1600 by 900. Media player worked for the videos when the DVI cable was the connection.