Will my Mac Pro's GeForce 7300 support 1920 x 1080 DVI?

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Level 1

71 points

Will my Mac Pro's GeForce 7300 support 1920 x 1080 DVI?

My Mac Pro has two NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT cards (Apple MA567Z/A); each card has two DVI ports. The pair currently use DVI-to-VGA adapters to drive three monitors (2 at 1280 x 960, 1 at 1600 x 1200).

I'm about to replace a failing monitor with a new LCD DVI wide-screen monitor, most likely one with a native resolution of 1920 x 1080.

Before I buy the monitor, I'd like assurance that the two NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT cards will support ...

Initially, the new LCD monitor + two remaining VGA monitors.
Eventually, three LCD monitors.

What I don't know is the max resolution of each DVI port and whether the GeForce will match the native resolution of any LCD monitor up to that limit.

-- Ward

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Jun 30, 2011 7:44 PM

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Answer 1

Ward Clark Author

Level 1

71 points

Jun 30, 2011 8:23 PM in response to Ward Clark

After posting my original note, I found an archived discussion with the max resolutions:

The single link DVI port supports 1920 x 1200 pixels.
The dual link DVI port supports 2560 x 1600 pixels.

That leaves the question about whether the GeForce card will match the native resolution of a specific monitor, e.g., 1920 x 1080.

-- Ward

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Answer 2

japamac

Level 7

24,400 points

Jul 1, 2011 8:23 AM in response to Ward Clark

The words "up to" are included with the supported resolutions, so it isn't improper to assume that the card will support the desired 1920x1080.

Modern graphics cards (PCIe are all modern) typically have 16:9 support in the firmware.

However, as resolution support is set in the cards firmware, it could be that without that precise resolution in the ROM, the monitors would default to a different resolution.

In those cases, software like SwitchResX allows the creation of custom resolutions.

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