Widescreen monitor query

I would like to change my standard 1024 X 768 monitor to a widescreen monitor, but the resolution on them seems to be 1680 X 1050.

My problem is this - I have four oldish PCs (residue of many years upgrading/rebuilding) which share the same monitor via a KVM switch.

The two oldest have graphics cards which max out at 1024 X 768, whilst the other two less old ones can exceed this by a good margin, but do not specifically support 1680 X 1050 resolution. The nearest supported resolution seems to be 1280 X 768. I have no wish (nor the finances) to embark on upgrading the existing computers other than minor mods.

Am I right in assuming that as long as the Video Card resolution is less than the monitor, then it will still work, giving me two PCs with widescreen effect, but two others with the existing standard format. If this is correct, I would get two cheap graphics cards (PCI version) to bring the oldest machines in line.

My questions are these -
Are there any cards which specifically support the 1680 X 1050 format and if so, which? Must be cheap PCI cards or it is not worth the expense

Do monitors come with their own drivers that get round this problem?

Otherwise, is my logic correct and what problems am I likely to have?

Any advise would be much appreciated.

The monitor "drivers" just tell the computer the max resolution/refresh rate etc. In most cases the PNP will pick this up anyway. Generally, the only problem is when the graphics card is trying to drive the monitor at a higher resolution or refresh rate than it can handle. So you should have no problem. However, if your cards can only go to 1024x768, they are pretty old. It is still fairly easy to get AGP cards to drive modern wide screens but PCI cards died quite a long time ago. These must be pretty old machines! If you want some more modern boards that will take AGP etc, send me a PM. I am about to throw out a selection complete with graphics, memory etc. If you want to cover the post, they are yours.

Kim

Many a good tune played on an old fiddle

I will be in touch

Thanks

It will probably work, BUT, TFT's produce terrible quality when used with another resolution then their native resolution.
When you play a game it is not so much a problem but when doing other tasks it is not very nice to look at.
To produce a lower resolution a TFT will simply group pixels together to one big pixel.

I think that finding a PCI graphics board will be quite difficult, most shops don't even sell AGP boards anymore around here, everything is focussed on PCI-Express nowadays.

I have just started using my 20" widescreen with 1680x1050 resolution. I must say a widescreen is very nice. I am glad that I went for a widescreen instead of a normal monitor.

[edit] try to search ebay. I found this one which will easily handle that resolution and it is cheap.
http://cgi.ebay.nl/New-FX5500-FX-5500-Geforce-128MB-PCI-DVI-Graphics-Card_W0QQitemZ260175175023QQihZ016QQcategoryZ3762QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
[/edit]

Whilst PCI cards are not as common as they once were, there are still a few out there, as a last resort. I guess I just "go for it" and hope there are not too many "big pixels". If the worst comes to the worst and I cannot find any alternative then a small investment it will have to be, but I would rather spend the money on some SD cards or something

Thanks for showing interest.