# Figuring out what resolutions X supports

## Gooserider

I'm trying to find someplace that will tell me what resolutions a given card / driver combination will support in Xwindows (on Gentoo of course).

My GF's parents want to give us a pair of LCD screens to replace our aging CRT's.  We have decided that if we can use them with our current hardware, the best option for us is the ViewSonic VG2230wm, which is a wide-screen model that has a native resolution of 1680x1050.

This is a different aspect ratio from the standard VGA format that we all are used to, and I'm trying to determine if the open-source (I don't use proprietary drivers!) X-windows drivers for the cards we have can be set up to support this format.

I've looked several places, and haven't found anything useful, if someone knows of a good reference, I would appreciate a pointer.

The specific cards I'm looking at are:  (Please don't laugh, I know they're antiques, but so are the machines they are in!)

1. NVidia GeForce 2 MX 100 DDR / 200 DDR Rev. b2 

2. ATI 3D Rage Pro AGP 1x / 2x Rev. 5c

3.  NVidia Riva128, w/ 16Mb RAM 

4. an old Diamond S3Virge card, I forget the exact specs on it off hand, and I don't have the box powered up at the moment to check.

What I need to know (I believe) is whether or not X can be set up to drive each of these cards at 1680x1050, and what color depth I can use when doing so.

 Thanks

Gooserider

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## mjbjr

Determine which graphic cards support that monitor, narrow it down to few (price/performance),

ideally, you want a minimum of 85Hz at that resolution...

then check this page:  http://wiki.x.org/wiki/VideoDrivers

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## Gooserider

Thanks for that pointer, mjbjr, it has been interesting but doesn't seem to quite answer what I'm looking for.  

My issue isn't picking a card, as all of the cards I mentioned are ones that I already have, each installed in a box that pretty much is not able to use much better than what is already in it.  (Each box is one that I built and installed the most appropriate card available at that time, and has only limited ability to even install a better one)

The Xorg site unfortunately doesn't seem to have a definite way of determining what resolutions the different drivers / cards are able to support, or at least I haven't found it yet.  (indeed it gives 404 errors for two of the driver man pages   :Sad:  )

Gooserider

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