Your concept of "performance" seems to be centered around speed. First of all, video speed is a non-issue for trading. Second, "performance" in a workstation card is about quality of display, stability, compatibility with other cards, and longevity... the maker keeps the driver updated. "Performance" cards usually have heat and noise issues from their cheesy GPU fans... both of which are unnecessary in a trading environment. Fans are OK for a gaming card as you'd have the audio blaring to drown out the noise, but a significant irritant in a [usually] quiet trading environment. I think your bias to "avoid workstation cards and buy cheap performance cards" is missing the point entirely.
I don't think the radeon 7500 does 1920*1200 and I cannot find a radeon 9000 without agp. Any other ideas?
If you're going to run multi-card, suggest you not get Sapphire... get Genuine ATI AGP card. Check ATI website for PCI card which will handle your desired resolution. However, I like nitro's suggestion of going with Nvidia Quadro NVS 285 for a trading rig much better than any use of ATI cards. http://cgi.ebay.com/NVIDIA-Quadro-N...ryZ40161QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
You might want to try analog on the NVS 280. I've tried both VGA and DVI on my 19", and the display quality is identical. I have chosen to run VGA over DVI on my trading rig.