Please note that I had to spend $80 in hardware also. But the good news is, I didn't buy a "special", "fixed-frequency" card.
If you are REALLY brave, and have a lot of experience with electronics, you may choose to rewire your monitor, as per directions at http://members.nbci.com/keywire/convert.html
Please also note: The restof this file is currently only under Xfree86. I'm still working on trying to convince the Sun X server to be happy with it
Please READ the comments therein, and install to /etc/XF86Config, and then adjust for your own graphics card.
The odd thing is, there is a Linux how-to, on converting xfree86 configs to
"Xinside" specifications. Which is what I think the solaris x86 X server is
based on. Unfortunately, it doesnt seem to work for this :-(
But just in case you want to try,
here's a local copy of the howto.
Random monitor related info:
http://www.fabricdirect.com/acatalog/fabric_calibration_guide.html has a
simple monitor calibration picture that you acn use as a reference,
to tweak the colours on your monitor.
I saved a copy of their image
here just in case their site goes away
someday.
Pertinent info: