For a long time I have been running a dual monitor system with a Full HD
22" and a "less than" smaller monitor (Dell 1505FP) off my Nvidia GeForce
710.

I am used to this, and would like to retain the extra footprint.

The obvious step would be a 4k monitor which works well for me off my
laptop, as 4k monitors seem relatively cheap at the moment (or at least
TVs are) but my graphics card won't support that resolution.

Any recommendations for a suitable graphics card?

Cheers

Dave R

--
AMD FX-6300 in GA-990X-Gaming SLI-CF running Windows 7 Pro x64

David <wibble@btinternet.com> wrote:
> For a long time I have been running a dual monitor system with a Full HD
> 22" and a "less than" smaller monitor (Dell 1505FP) off my Nvidia GeForce
> 710.
>
> I am used to this, and would like to retain the extra footprint.
>
> The obvious step would be a 4k monitor which works well for me off my
> laptop, as 4k monitors seem relatively cheap at the moment (or at least
> TVs are) but my graphics card won't support that resolution.
>
> Any recommendations for a suitable graphics card?

Any 10 series nvidia card.

Chris <ithinkiam@gmail.com> wrote:
> David <wibble@btinternet.com> wrote:
> > For a long time I have been running a dual monitor system with a Full HD
> > 22" and a "less than" smaller monitor (Dell 1505FP) off my Nvidia GeForce
> > 710.
> >
> > I am used to this, and would like to retain the extra footprint.
> >
> > The obvious step would be a 4k monitor which works well for me off my
> > laptop, as 4k monitors seem relatively cheap at the moment (or at least
> > TVs are) but my graphics card won't support that resolution.
> >
> > Any recommendations for a suitable graphics card?
>
> Any 10 series nvidia card.

It's worth checking outputs - some older/lower end cards will do 4K on
Displayport but not HDMI. Some TVs need HDMI 2.0 rather than HDMI 1.4, or
will only do 4K at 30Hz over HDMI 1.4.

But these were the problems in the ~2014 timeframe, so I expect just buying
a new enough card (10 series sounds good) will probably avoid them.

Theo

Theo wrote:

> It's worth checking outputs - some older/lower end cards will do 4K on
> Displayport but not HDMI. Some TVs need HDMI 2.0 rather than HDMI 1.4, or
> will only do 4K at 30Hz over HDMI 1.4.

Yes, I got bitten by that earlier in the year, had a 27" 3K monitor but wanted
more screen real estate, went for a 32" 4K, I use a DP KVM, but laptop would
only work at 4K@30 on HDMI, tried a USB3 DP dongle, but it was slow and flaky.

Have had to live with it like that for a few months, but now replacing laptop
with a thunderbolt4 model (and probably a suitable dock, though the monitor can
power the laptop over the USB-altmode connection) ... it's the fuchsia.

On Wed, 16 Nov 2022 07:21:43 +0000, Chris wrote:

> David <wibble@btinternet.com> wrote:
>> For a long time I have been running a dual monitor system with a Full
>> HD 22" and a "less than" smaller monitor (Dell 1505FP) off my Nvidia
>> GeForce 710.
>>
>> I am used to this, and would like to retain the extra footprint.
>>
>> The obvious step would be a 4k monitor which works well for me off my
>> laptop, as 4k monitors seem relatively cheap at the moment (or at least
>> TVs are) but my graphics card won't support that resolution.
>>
>> Any recommendations for a suitable graphics card?
>
> Any 10 series nvidia card.

I was afraid of that.

Around £170.

Then £2-300 for the monitor.

The mother board is PCI_Express 2.0.
The cards are PCI Express 3.0
I assume that they would run but at reduced performance, which leaves the
maximum resolution in question.

Looks as though I may have to suck up the loss of the screen (perhaps it
can be fixed) or look for a 15" monitor.

Cheers

Dave R

--
AMD FX-6300 in GA-990X-Gaming SLI-CF running Windows 7 Pro x64

David <wibble@btinternet.com> wrote:
> The mother board is PCI_Express 2.0.
> The cards are PCI Express 3.0
> I assume that they would run but at reduced performance, which leaves the
> maximum resolution in question.

They should be fine running at the slower Gen2. It won't affect the maximum
resolution, but might affect the maximum FPS when gaming.
(although quite possibly not, in real use)

> Looks as though I may have to suck up the loss of the screen (perhaps it
> can be fixed) or look for a 15" monitor.

I'd look for monitor options, then see what kind of inputs they have. Then
you know whether you need Displayport or HDMI, and what versions are expected.
Then see what kind of GPU you can set. What's the budget?

Another wrinkle is that HDMI has various chroma options - 4:2:0, 4:2:2,
4:4:4 - which are about the amount of colour information sent with each
pixel brightness. 4:4:4 is 'full resolution' while the others involve some
merging of colour across adjacent pixels - this tends to cause a smeary
effect especially on small coloured text (like terminal windows where you
might have red text on blue background - it ends up unreadable brown).

Going to lower chroma reduces the bandwidth, so for example you might do
4K@60Hz on HDMI 1.4, but at 4:2:2 chroma which causes the colour smudging.
If told to do 4K@30Hz it'll be able to do 4:4:4 and have clearer colours.

For nvidia stuff, most of the GTX?50 series (650, 750, etc) and above can do
4K@30Hz 4:4:4 on HDMI 1.4, and I think Displayport has a bit better support.
I don't remember when they started supporting HDMI 2.0 - that likely gives
you more options.

I get the impression AMD cards supported HDMI 2.0 earlier and even a lower
end card could do 4K with no issues, but I haven't much experience with
them.

TL;DR: look for a card with HDMI 2.0 and see if that supports what you want.

Theo

On Wed, 16 Nov 2022 07:21:43 +0000, Chris wrote:

> David <wibble@btinternet.com> wrote:
>> For a long time I have been running a dual monitor system with a Full
>> HD 22" and a "less than" smaller monitor (Dell 1505FP) off my Nvidia
>> GeForce 710.
>>
>> I am used to this, and would like to retain the extra footprint.
>>
>> The obvious step would be a 4k monitor which works well for me off my
>> laptop, as 4k monitors seem relatively cheap at the moment (or at least
>> TVs are) but my graphics card won't support that resolution.
>>
>> Any recommendations for a suitable graphics card?
>
> Any 10 series nvidia card.

Just started looking.

<https://www.palit.com/palit/vgapro.php?
id=2719&lang=en&pn=NE5105T018G1-1076F&tab=sp>

Offered on eBay for not a massive amount compared to the 8GB 1070s.

Does this look a reasonable solution to my needs?

HDMI 2.0b

Cheers

Dave R

--
AMD FX-6300 in GA-990X-Gaming SLI-CF running Windows 7 Pro x64

David <wibble@btinternet.com> wrote:
> On Wed, 16 Nov 2022 07:21:43 +0000, Chris wrote:
>
> > David <wibble@btinternet.com> wrote:
> >> For a long time I have been running a dual monitor system with a Full
> >> HD 22" and a "less than" smaller monitor (Dell 1505FP) off my Nvidia
> >> GeForce 710.
> >>
> >> I am used to this, and would like to retain the extra footprint.
> >>
> >> The obvious step would be a 4k monitor which works well for me off my
> >> laptop, as 4k monitors seem relatively cheap at the moment (or at least
> >> TVs are) but my graphics card won't support that resolution.
> >>
> >> Any recommendations for a suitable graphics card?
> >
> > Any 10 series nvidia card.
>
> Just started looking.
>
> <https://www.palit.com/palit/vgapro.php?
> id=2719&lang=en&pn=NE5105T018G1-1076F&tab=sp>
>
> Offered on eBay for not a massive amount compared to the 8GB 1070s.
>
> Does this look a reasonable solution to my needs?
>
> HDMI 2.0b

I'm not sure how many monitors you're planning to connect, but that has HDMI
2.0 and Displayport, so that should be good for at least two. Dual link DVI
is only good up to about 2560x1600, so that would be a limitation if you
needed a third port.

Assuming you have the right connections to the monitors, that card looks
fine to me.

Theo