New monitor required for ancient video card

grahamaked

Hi guys,
I’m hoping someone can help me.
I run an old G4 Mac with an ATI Rage 128 Pro, and I need a new monitor!
I’ve just had to return a Samsung I bought because it wasn’t compatible with my video card, I just presumed “plug and play” meant exactly that   Thankfully Argos felt my pain and refunded my money.
Does anyone have any recommendations for a 24” or thereabouts monitor which is capable of connecting to a dsub or dvi port, and will work with my video card which only gives me output options of 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x960, 1280x1024.
I know I’m not going to get hd images from my video card, I just want something that works with my existing setup, although an additional hdmi input would be a bonus for the future, but not essential.
Any ideas/comments/advice will be much appreciated.
Regards,
Graham.

noiseboy72

Ebay will probably find you a 1280x1024 square monitor for not a lot of money. I've just scrapped one as it was VGA only!!

You may be OK with this: Acer KG241Q 23.6" Full HD LED Monitor as it has a VGA input and I've found they will sync up to most signals. Its has HDMI as well, which will normally accept a DVI signal, but not tried it with anything quite so old!

EndlessWaves

Plug and play has always meant that no set up is required, it's not a guarantee of compatibility.

What video protocol is the Dsub port using, VGA? I wouldn't normally ask, but this is Apple so non-standard protocols abound.

The definition of the TV world's HD is anything over 720 vertical pixels, so 1024x768, 1280x960, 1280x1024 would qualify as HD. Although if you want it for video you probably want to stick to the latter two as HD video is typically 1280x720.

non-widescreen monitors never really made it over 21-22" so even 15-20 years ago a 24" screen for those requirements would have been a tall order. They ended up with models like this:
Eizo S2133-BK 21.3

Pretty close in size to a 24" widescreen, although no use to you if your card only supports lower resolutions.

There are plenty of 1280x1024 screens still around, in a choice of 17" and 19".
All Monitors, Gaming Displays and Touchscreens | CCL Computers

Unless you want the size to have it further away then getting a bigger monitor at the same resolution is not going to be of any benefit as it'll just enlarge stuff rather than letting you fit more stuff on.

What was the monitor you bought and why wasn't it compatible?

mjn

You might struggle with a new monitor but you could probably get an older 2nd hand monitor for not much money.