upgrading hardware - new dual monitors and video card
 

I have to change my setup (dual 1600x1200 monitors with a nvidia 210) - one of my monitors is dying.

I was thinking of buying dual Dell UltraSharp U2412m (1920x1200) monitors with a new video to support the monitors. But I have no idea what nvidia card to buy and (most important) I don't know which will work with openSUSE 12.1.

I don't play games. So just a video card that will support the resolution of the monitors will work (I mean both at 1920x1200).

I do a lot of text editing (programming) so I need the 1200. I see more of the text than the standard 1080. Also (I'm guessing here) that a supported faster refresh rate would be best for reading.

Thanks in advance,
Johnf

If you plan to buy a new videocard for those monitors any card that has either two DVI, two DisplayPort or a mix of both will do. Any modern card will be able to run those monitors and as long as you use the proprietary drivers any card will work with openSuse 12.1.
Regarding the refresh rate: On LCD monitors a faster refresh rate than 60Hz doesn't make sense for readability. Those monitors don't refresh the picture, they display it constantly. If they run with 60Hz refresh rate it means that they are able to change the content of the display 60 times a second.

You might not have to upgrade your video card.

Dell UltraSharp U2412m has analog VGA, DVI and display port connections.

Most of the G210s I've seen have VGA, DVI and HDMI connections. So you should be able to run 1 x 1920x1200 on DVI, and 1 x 1920x1200 on analog VGA. Or if you want digital, with a HDMI-> DVI or Display port adapter. The only possible digital video problem is if you wanted a dual-link DVI connection to both monitors (I cant recall if the G210 dual video output with dual link DVI). But you only need dual link DVI on 1920x1200 for high refresh rates. Standard DVI does 1920x1200 @ 60Hz, dual-link DVI on 1920x1200 does refresh rates up to 120Hz. U2412m is a 60Hz monitor, so thats not a problem at all.

As far as refresh rates go, I agree with TobiSGD. The way that LCD/LED screens work isnt like the old CRTs. With CRTs, higher refresh rates do help with readability. With LCD/LEDs, it doesnt matter.

BTW...if you do a lot of programming and prefer 1920x1200 just for the extra vertical room, have you considered trying rotating the monitor from 'landscape' (screen is wider than it is tall) to 'portrait' (screen taller than is it wide)? The U2412m does rotate, and there are lots of cheaper 1920x1080 monitors do as well.