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apple cinema display 23" - for windows xp - best video card for it

Hello,

Besides being a fan of the mac, I also have a windows xp machine. I use it for developing software using .net . I also use it for games like flight simulator and tomb raider.

I currently have an ati 9800 pro 128mb agp card. My monitor is a nec multisync xp17. Yes it's old and time to upgrade the monitor.

I know the issue with the ati 9800pro card and the intel bios not showing up on boot time, but are there any other issues.

I don't mind upgrading the video card... using AGP. I used to have an nVidia card in the prior windows machine and liked it better.

Any suggestions on the video cards... thanks in advance.

Also, is the apple cinema display the best choice for what I am wanting it for... more real estate for programming and more real estate for the gaming???

I appreciate all and any suggestions. Keep in mind I am also an apple shareholder!

Charlie Cooperman
imaccharlie@visitcharlie.com

imac flat panel superdrive 800 15 1 gig ram, Mac OS X (10.4.4), windows xp sp2 9800 pro 128mb

Posted on Jan 28, 2006 3:43 PM

Reply
9 replies

Jan 31, 2006 9:08 AM in response to Charles Cooperman

I've found that you can't generalize cards in terms of showing the BIOS or not; my card is a Radeon X1300 Pro. The first one I had showed the BIOS screen just fine, when I exchanged it due to artifacting, the replacement doesn't show it.

If you're planning on getting a Cinema anyway, try it and see if it works. For the person who asked about a comparable 30" monitor:
http://www1.us.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/monitor_3007wfp?c=u s&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs

Opteron 165, 1GB DDR400, Radeon X1300 Pro Windows XP Pro

Jan 31, 2006 12:34 PM in response to Paul Lohr

I love La Jolla.

If looking for a 30" display, I'd get the Apple. While Dell makes a great 24" LCD with more features than the Apple 23" LCD, I haven't read many good things about Dell's new 30" LCD. It doesn't have any more features than the Apple either. The 30" Apple display has its problems with noise/static appearing (owning to the bad display or bad video card), but its image quality once working appears to be better.

Feb 2, 2006 9:50 AM in response to Charles Cooperman

I use an eVGA 7800GT PCIe with my 20" ACD and it works wonderfully. Newegg had it for $299.00 during a one day only sale. Not sure about the current price.

But since your AGP, I'm sure an AGP 6800GT would work just a well.

Just install the latest nVidia Forceware drivers and install
these drivers:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/winacd

Home Built Gaming System Windows XP Pro

Feb 3, 2006 8:25 PM in response to Charles Cooperman

I haven't really compared the top end ATI Cards with top nVidia Cards but I'm guessing there is not much difference between them in performance and picture. At least nothing noticable to the normal user.

However some time ago I compared the out of the box picture quality of an ATI 9800Pro 128 with a GeForce 6600GT and I thought the picture quality of the ATI was better. But with a little tweaking off the nVidia driver settings, I couldn't tell the difference between the two.

I went with an nVidia card to power my system since I have an nForce motherboard (figuring nVidia hardware works best with nVidia hardware) but moreover, Apple recommends nVidia cards to power the cinema displays.

apple cinema display 23" - for windows xp - best video card for it

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