3007 30' - which graphics card? please help

Question

hi, i recently bought the new 30' 3007 monitor. i have a dell xps 600 and was told by dell tech support before i bought it that my nvidia geforce 6800 graphics card would support it completly. i got it today and its working perfectly except the max resolution i can select is 1600x1200 and not 2560x1600 (which is what i need and my reason for buying it). i have a feeling this is because of the card i am using. do i need to upgrade it to a 7800 GTX or is my one fine? what could be the problem. any help, much appreciated. :)

staring_elf · Answer

thanks, i suspected so. so irritating. at least i know now. thanks for your help. appreciated.

GreatBarrier86 · Answer

You need the GeForce 7800GTX/7900GTX because the monitor requires 2 DVI ports. That tech was incorrect. Because of the extremely high rez, you need two DVI ports and that can't be found on the 6000 series. He most def. should have been a little clearer about this issue.

Message Edited by GreatBarrier86 on 05-25-200607:39 AM

staring_elf · Answer

yeah i called them, spoke to a guy named stuart who, to be fair, was very helpful and he said that because it was dell's mistake they'll send me a new card for free. nice to see good customer service like that. it'll keep me coming back to dell in the future. can't wait to get the card. the new monitor is cool. its a beast. thanks again :)

GreatBarrier86 · Answer

no problem. Call them back and mention that the rep said that the 6800 would work. If you get lucky, they may upgrade you to the 7900GTX for free. I say this because Dell fouled up, they should pay.   Do you have a Dell rep? Call and talk to him/her directly. Also, with this, don't call tech support. Call Customer Care.

GreatBarrier86 · Answer

I've had nothing but good service from dell. I remember back when i bought an 8200, i broke the case. They sent me a new 8250 with specs 2x as good as the 8200.

Which card are they sending you?

Also, i was one of their $50,000 sweepstakes winners from 2002 so they've got my business for a while!

Message Edited by GreatBarrier86 on 05-25-200609:53 AM

GreatBarrier86 · Answer

So you are saying that it is not dual DVI that is necessary but instead a single dual link dvi? that's odd because the dell tech told me that there are two cords attached to it that are supposed to be plugged into the vid. card.

HughR · Answer

@GreatBarrier86 wrote:

You need the GeForce 7800GTX/7900GTX because the monitor requires 2 DVI ports.

Not quite right. The monitor requires a single dual-link DVI port.

The only main-stream PC video cards that I know of that have dual-link ports are the 7xxx series from nVidia's partners and the X1xxx series from ATI and its partners. When I bought my 3007, Dell's web page was pretty clear about requiring dual-link.

Dual link was needed in the Mac world before the PC world. One card that supported it was the ATI Radeon 9600 pro PC and Mac PC Edition http://www.ati.com/products/Radeon9600/Radeon9600propcmac/index.html
This might be the cheapest PC card supporting dual link, and it is AGP.

Several "workstation" cards support dual-link.

Note that many cards with dual-link DVI ports have only one. If they have two DVI ports, only one supports dual-link. But there are cards with two dual-link DVIs.

Dual link is touched on in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvi

HughR · Answer

@GreatBarrier86 wrote:

So you are saying that it is not dual DVI that is necessary but instead a single dual link dvi?

That is what I'm telling you. Imagine the driver oddness required if it took both DVI ports.

If you want to check, look up the manual.
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/3007WFP/EN/index.htm

GreatBarrier86 · Answer

Can you explain dual link to me? I'm a little fuzzy on what it is.

HughR · Answer

@GreatBarrier86 wrote:

Can you explain dual link to me? I'm a little fuzzy on what it is.

Read the wikipedia entry I pointed at in my first message.

Summary: you need dual link to support the 3007. This means a dual link cable (comes with monitor) and a dual link port on the video card (my card has two DVI ports, but only one of them is dual link).

Dual link just means that instead of one "channel" of pixels in the cable, there are two channels. Notice the pin assignment table near the end of the wikipedia article. Some pins are labeled "Link 1" and some "Link 2". The "Link 2" ones are only used in a dual link configuration.

ncsmitty · Answer

I note that the previous comments were posted over three months ago. I can attest that Tech Support, as of last week, still doesn't recognize what's going on with this monitor and the proper card.

(Please note I had posted by entering a new item before finding this discussion.)

I have also purchased the 3007 with assurances that my current GForce 6800 card was totally adequate. Plus I'm now not sure my Dimension XPS is compatible. My sales rep (this is for my business, which includes a number of other Dell products) now tells me the card will cost around $900 or he would beat any other price I can find (and document) on the Internet.

I have a 25lb doorstop sitting on my desk and am very ticked off. I went through at least 4 hours with several "experts" installing and re-intalling drivers and none of them thought it was the card. I don't even know who "up the ladder" to complain too. Unless some miracle happens tomorrow, I plan to return this (it's a lease) and start fighting for a full refund.

Any ideas appreciated. Especially if it's true this monitor will only function with a Precision desk top.

Thanks in advance.

HughR · Answer

Don't worry: there are now lots of cards with dual link support. Mind you, I don't know what a Dimension XPS is nor what limitations there are on video cards.

Most dual link cards fit in a PCIe slot. If you have only an AGP slot, there are fewer choices. They exist, but I don't know the landscape.

I think that all 7000-family cards based on nVidia chips have dual link support on at least one of their DVI sockets. Certainly this is true of the higher-end ones, but I suspect it to be true of the lower ones. nVidia does not make any cards so it is possible for the actual board maker to leave out the feature, but I don't think that it is likely.

Similarly, all x1000-family cards based on ATI chips have dual link support on at least one of their DVI sockets. Again, board manufacturers can leave the feature out. I don't think that this is common because all the required hardware is built into the ATI chips (I think that this isn't quite true of the nVidia chips).

The cheapest such card is probably an ATI x1300. I had one for a while and it worked in MS Windows for our monitor, but not in Linux, so I returned it. Beware: I have seen a couple of reports of problems with this card and our monitor. In my case, a few pixel would sometimes be wrong; I never investigated because I returned it anyway. Probably a driver problem that has been fixed by now.

I use a Dell 7800GTX. Way overkill for my needs, but it was all that was available at the time with Linux support. I'll sell it to you and get a cheaper card it you want :-) One great thing about Dell's version: the cooling system is very quiet, even though the card generates a lot of heat. The heat sink and heat pipes are amazing (but the card takes the space of two slots).

Good luck. The lack of information is frustrating but the monitor is great and there are ways of getting it driven.

ncsmitty · Answer

Thanks for the response. My card through Dell has been backordered for about three weeks with no end in sight, so I got an nViDIA GeForce 7600 GT which matches the spec. Installed it last night. It 'almost' works. Clear picture but it's bigger than the screen -- as if it's expecting two monitors for the entire display -- I can mouse off the edge to get the rest of the display but can't 'shrink' it to fit. I cannot figure out where to look for improper configuration. (I installed the driver as instructed off their CD.) Also, there are two monitor outlets on the back of my Dimension XPS that appear to be identical and I don't know if it matters which I select.   This has continued to be a real blotch on my relationship with Dell. I will call their service people for help but thought I might as well ask here too.   Thanks in advance.

HughR · Answer

ncsmitty:
Odd symptom. I don't know what the disease would be.

I suspect Dell would be unwilling to support a non-Dell video card (I have no evidence, I'm just guessing).

Does it work OK while booting (eg. in the BIOS setup screens)? That might help you figure out if it is a Windows problem or a more general problem. Not definitive, but interesting.

What does Windows XP say the screen settings are? Is the resolution it is using correct (2560x1600)?

I'm not a Windows user, so I don't know my way around it for problems like this.

Since my most recent posting, I've learned that some low-end nVidia 7000 family cards do not support dual-link DVI. This page is typically uninformative: http://www.nvidia.com/object/7_series_techspecs.html
It says that 7000 family has dual link, with a tiny footnote saying "Feature available on select GeForce 7 Series GPUs only". They have a table comparing GPU models but it does not cover dual-link DVI.

Most (but perhaps not all) 7600 GT cards support dual-link DVI on one of their two ports. You didn't mention which brand of board you are using. Assuming your card has one dual-link DVI port, do you know that you are connected to the correct port?

Good luck.

ncsmitty · Answer

@HughR wrote:
ncsmitty:
Odd symptom. I don't know what the disease would be.

I suspect Dell would be unwilling to support a non-Dell video card (I have no evidence, I'm just guessing).

Does it work OK while booting (eg. in the BIOS setup screens)? That might help you figure out if it is a Windows problem or a more general problem. Not definitive, but interesting.

What does Windows XP say the screen settings are? Is the resolution it is using correct (2560x1600)?

I'm not a Windows user, so I don't know my way around it for problems like this.

Since my most recent posting, I've learned that some low-end nVidia 7000 family cards do not support dual-link DVI. This page is typically uninformative: http://www.nvidia.com/object/7_series_techspecs.html
It says that 7000 family has dual link, with a tiny footnote saying "Feature available on select GeForce 7 Series GPUs only". They have a table comparing GPU models but it does not cover dual-link DVI.

Most (but perhaps not all) 7600 GT cards support dual-link DVI on one of their two ports. You didn't mention which brand of board you are using. Assuming your card has one dual-link DVI port, do you know that you are connected to the correct port?

Good luck.

Max resolution shown on the computer is 2048 x 1536. I've found by reducing to 1360 x 768 I can bring the display into the screen confines. At least it's usable as I do have a business to run besides fooling with these toys.
I think you're correct that Dell won't help me. I'm going to leave my order standing and eventually, when it arrives, install and see if that fixes things (at least I'll be able to get some assistance).

Monitors

3007 30" - which graphics card? please help

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