Widescreen Gaming Forum

I am about to buy an 30" Apple Cinema Display

As far as I know the 30" model is Mac only and needs a particular Mac only edition of the 6800 Ultra card with dual channel DVI output (or something). Apparently high end graphics workstation cards for the PC such as the FireGL *might* work as they have a similar dual channel thingy.

I'd check into this if you're up for PC gaming. Also the native resolution is incredibly high. I think that even 1920x1200 on the 23" model is pushing it a bit for todays hardware at reasonable framerates.

Just some things to think about. Sorry if you know all this already.

Hi DrAnubis,
Thanks for the warnings ... worth a look into ...

From the apple display pdf ... under the heading PC compatibility
"... the 30-inch apple display requires a dual-link DVI connection"

I understand the PC version of the GeForce 6800 Ultra does have dual-link DVI.... I will double check !

Do games look bad when you don't run them at there native resolution ?
Currently I have 3x19" TFT's running as one large widescreen using the Matrox Parhelia and any games that I play that aren't at the native resolution look just fine.

Thanks again.

CRT's can do 'non native' resolutions without a problem. While they have a certain pixel pitch, the pixels themselves are not individuals. On a TFT display, the reason why some of them do 'non native' resolutions so badly is because the pixels are a fixed size, and cannot be changed. Do a google search on the subject for more info. :)

Hi DrAnubis,
Do games look bad when you don't run them at there native resolution ?
Currently I have 3x19" TFT's running as one large widescreen using the Matrox Parhelia and any games that I play that aren't at the native resolution look just fine.

Thanks again.

IMO, not really. The picture is softer when in non-native res, but games already have blurry textures because of the small texture sizes (when viewed up close), so it's not a big deal.

I'm waiting impatiently for my BenQ FP231W (same panel as the Apple, also very similar design, but much cheaper in Europe, only €1750).

L.

Go into Display Properties, Settings, Advanced, Options and uncheck the "Alternative DVI Operational Mode" and your freaky shimmering will be gone.
Same happened to me when I first booted up with it but it's just a simple setting in the options.

As far as Doom3 is concerned, Hard|OCP has very comprehensive benchmarks up for combinations of cards and systems. My 3.0GHz P3 and the X800XT-PE will happily run it at 53 fps with High Quality settings, all options on and 1600x1200 resolution with 8AF. That will only get better with driver optimizations too.

I have a Viewsonic N2750w (just got it) running on my Radeon 9600SE...
And I have this red static. I'm using the VGA cable, as the DVI cable actually produces worse graphics....

What can I do?

J