Re: [9fans] dell 2001fp vgadb entry

[Russ Cox <russcox@gmail.com>]

> I have a Dell 2001FP on my desk at work now, and so am interested in
> any progress you make with this.  The machines came with built-in i810
> graphics, so no DVI output, but we're likely to fix that with a
> replacement vga card next week.

The important point is that you need a card capable of
driving the DVI at a 165MHz pixel clock (the standard
1600x1200 at 60Hz requires about 162MHz).  Some Nvidia
cards (and maybe others) skimp on this and the only way
they work is by reducing the blanking times drastically,
but Nvidia hasn't released details on how to program the
card for this.  I tried for about a day and eventually gave up.
Under Linux the proprietary binary-only Nvidia driver can
do 1600x1200 at 60Hz (presumably using the reduced 
blanking times) just fine.

The MX440 chip seems to work well in this respect.  The 
Geforce4 MX 4000 does not.  The MX 440 are on their
way out -- stock up now.  My guess is that you have to go
high end to make it work nowadays.

Russ