New
#1
vid card shopping for an older PC
I have a Dell Optiplex 745 desktop model(motherboard info- Dell MM599/0MM599 OptiPlex 745 Desktop Motherboard) that seems unwilling to support low resolutions. The TV supports 640 x 480 and 800 x 600, but it seems the video drivers do not- any game I try to run at 640 fullscreen gives me an "invalid" error and even 800 doesn't seem to work(same blue TV screen with "invalid" error). I can't use Intel's own drivers as only the Dell package will install on this PC. This is a strong problem for running many older games, and even games like Cave Story only run at 640 x 480. I can run them windowed but it's too small a screen to play properly.
Likewise, while the TV supports various resolutions, the PC only supports a few of these, and certain resolutions only work at certain settings- 1280 x 1024 only works fine at 75Hz, whereas at 60Hz the screen has to refresh constantly after switching modes. 800 x 600 only works at 75Hz. It seems to prefer to be set at 1920 x 1080.
I'm thinking a way to bypass this is with a video card. Preferably cheap, something I won't need to slap a new PSU in. It also has to be a low profile PCI slot type card. Can I reasonably get a new video card that will offer better resolution support? HDMI/DVI out would be nice but not 100% necessary.