2D Qualty: Matrox v. ?

[Zach]

I want to upgrade from a Matrox G200, what other cards will give me good 2D quality? I have a nize 19" (I think it's nice anyway ), and larger monitors aren't out of the question. 3D is needed, but nice..

I'd like to keep the cost down, but I'll pay for a G450Maxx if I have to.

 

[Shmorq]

Other than Matrox, I hear that the 2D of the Radeon (the versions with the 360 MHZ RAMDAC) are top notch. So basically, all the radeons except for the VE I believe...
Also, I believe that the Voodoo's have good quality too, but it will have minimal future support...

I personally have the G450, and it's great on my 21" monitor. I upgraded from a Diamond Viper 770 so the difference is astounding.

 

[Mem]

Stick with the Matrox or ATi Radeon range for best 2D quality.

 

[KarlHungus]

Go with the G450. ATi and 3dfx are a small step down in 2D quality. Nvidia is right out, unless you're handy with a soldering iron.

 

[Deeko]

The Voodoo cards are next in 2D quality, after Matrox.

 

[arod324]

I would say to go with the Radeon DDR LE because it has almost the same 2D quality, but gives MUCH more gaming performance than the Matrox 450.

 

[Big Lar]

I've tried several vid cards and this is IMHO: #1 in 2d= Matrox G400 or G400 Max, #2 Asus v7700 Gts,#3 Geforce DDR,#4 V5 5500, I have not tried the ati cards, and am not trying to start a flame war, but I found that the v5 5500 had not too good of a screen. I tried 2 seperate cards btw.

 

[han888]

big lar, i am currently own asus v7700, and the 2D quality is like sh!t on 1024 X 768 above, and also i am own voodoo5 and i can say the voodoo5 more better than my asus on 2D quality

 

[Flash]

I have 2 G200 cards which are good but not excellent with 2D Quality. My very best card is a Diamond V770 TNT2 Ultra, than a G400. But the Diamond is much better than the G400. Maybe there are also production tolerances.

 

[EvilDonnyboy]

haha. Flash is funny.

 

[hans007]

there are slight production differences but overall nvidia ones are just $hit,, not the $hit, but $hit.

from my recent cards, this is what i'd say is my ranking of 2d quality which were tested on either a vs19sn kds before it broke or my newer kds av195tf.

g400 32mb/ 16mb and radeon LE tied for first, really the LE looks just as good
voodoo4 4500

voodoo5 5500, wasnt quite as good as the 4500 in my opinion, but it was barely different

geforce v6800 ddr asus 32mb

v7700 32mb and v6800 64mb , oddly these were good amount worse than the 32mb ones, i had multiple v6800 32mb and 64mb so i tested a bunch

elsa erazor x , just not very good at all

creative labs geforce2 gts, by far the worst 2d i've seen in a while, worse than my 4mb pci matrox was.

 

[Mr. Burns]

Big Lar -- I've owned a geforce DDR and Without any doubt the 2d was a downright embarrasment. It couldn't even run anything above 1024x768 without producing a blurry mess. I've also used voodoo2/3 matrox, and ati radeon. Like everyone else, I can tell you that the matrox is the best 2d, followed by ati/3dfx. Geforce is a distant last by any account. And I'm not basing these opinions on just one card for each company either, I have seen many of each card in action on many different monitors. Those people saying that their nvidia cards produce great 2d should lay off the crack pipe.

IMHO of course...

 

[Shmorq]

I guess these geforce people aren't running their monitors at high resolutions since 2D is virtually the same at 1024x768 and under for all cards. I believe the quality of the 2D begins to differs at resolutions higher than 1024x768.

 

[Yoshi]

My recently purchased Radeon looks just as good as my old Matrox G100. Nice vivid colors and razor sharp text. Looks much better than my GeForce256 DDR does.

 

[Zach]

I run at 1280x1024 usually.. 800x600 is good enough for gaming though, sometimes 1024x768.

I'm surprised about the NVidia differences, definetly staying away. I have to admit that I have always liked ATI, for whatever reason. My general impression is that the drivers are bad, but I see posts going on extremes either way.. but more recently it seems to be clearing up for Win2K. ATI Radeon LE sounds like my choice, next to a Matrox.