question about monitors and max. resolution

[powerpcg5]

My old Samsung 213T monitor is broken again. I fixed this last December doing component level repair, but now it's broke again. I think it's time to retire it for good.

So I'm thinking of getting a new 2nd monitor. I'm looking at a Dell U2525H monitor, with native resolution of 2560x1440.

My question is I have an AMD 6870 card, and I know it can do 2560x1440.

What I'm unsure about is can I run 2 monitors (ACD @ 1920x1200, and the Dell U2515 @ 250x1440) using my 6870 card?

I'm connected to the ACD using a DVI adapter, and previously connected to the 213T with a mini-DP to DVI adapter (1600 x 1200).

Primary use will be for coding, and some photoshop work. Very rarely video editing.

My eyesight has been poor lately so I'm also worried about the 2560x1440 resolution being too small, and I'm also debating if I should just get a 2415 running at 1900x1200 native resolution.

Thoughts?

 

[Fl0r!an]

Your 6870 is able to drive both screens concurrently. Make sure to connect the new Dell screen natively through DisplayPort, as DP adapters tend to be troublesome on resolutions above 1080p.

1440p @ 25" is going to result in a notably smaller image than your ACD is providing, so you might not have a lot of fun with this display... (I own the same display and to me it's okay, but I'd consider my eyesight as "normal").

 

[bensge]

Hey powerpcg5,

While I don't know your specific graphics card and can't help you with that, I thought I'd give you a little advice on the display resolution. I have a retina MacBook 15" with a resolution of 2880x1800. One might think content would look tiny on this display, but it's not true. OS X (macOS) has an integrated scaling technique that allows you to choose the content size.



Behind the scenes the OS will render the content at double the resolution if necessary and everything will be crisp and clear! You might have to enable this "retina-scaling" for your display, but there's software available for that.

EDIT:
Here's an article on how to enable HiDPI mode on normal displays, this might be for you: https://www.tekrevue.com/tip/hidpi-mode-os-x/

Greetings!

 

[Fl0r!an]

@bensge: Apple doesn't offer any usable HiDPI resolutions on non-Retina and non-4K-displays. All he'll get on his U2515H is "1280x720 (HiDPI)") which is completely unusable.

You need some more hacks (e.g. using SwitchResX) to enable more usable HiDPI resolutions, e.g. "1920x1080 (HiDPI)". They involve interpolation though, so they won't look as good as Microsoft's vector based scaling.
Additionally, many old GPUs refuse to render on such high resolutions internally, so I don't know if his GPU is able to do this.

 

[powerpcg5]

Thanks for all the responses. Appreciate it.

I saw some comparison videos on youtube, and dang the 2560 text size looks so small when viewing webpages.
I may visit BestBuy to actually see for myself if text size is going to be too small for my eyes.

But since I intend to keep my ADC, now I'm doubting if on a 2-monitor setup with different resolutions/dpi will be irritating to work with.

 

[Fl0r!an]

now I'm doubting if on a 2-monitor setup with different resolutions/dpi will be irritating to work with.

IMHO it is irritating, but that's personal preference. Unscaled 1440p is quite a lot screen real estate, you might be happy with just a single screen.

 

[powerpcg5]

Well, I guess I won't be buying a new monitor... yet.

Managed to fix my old monitor by replacing a $0.03 part.

 

[kiiroaka]

Okay, tech. How did you solder that in-line (?) surface mount cap? You did good. Congrats.

 

[powerpcg5]

Thanks. It's an SMD fuse... but since I don't have a fuse, I just used a 0-ohm resistor.
I just used a fine tip soldering iron. Removed the old part, suck up the old solder using a braid, dab a little fresh solder on the pads, put the 0-ohm resistor on top, then heat the ends one at a time, while pushing down the resistor. Using a tweezer, to keep part in place.