Upgrading 2d image quality....

[88637]

My girlfriends machine currently has a MSI GF2 MX which hurts both of our eyes after a while. She doesnt want me to spend very much to upgrade this and she doesnt play any games (except solitare and spades which doesnt really count...). 75 Bucks is pushing the budget since I have to replace the motherboard on the thing too (its a piece of crap computer...). I would like to be able to game on the thing a little bit but its not a major factor. On the other hand I dont want downgrade in speed. I was thinking maybe a 7500 but theyre still not as cheap as I would like (and I dont trust the OEM powered by ati stuff at all). Suggestions?

 

[Squisher]

I just bought a Matrox G400 32MB Single Head for $35 shipped off the forsale forum for my 2d machine and it has the best 2d of any Vid card I've ever had.

EDIT: This place has them for $38

 

[Rand]

If your buying purely for 2D visual quality... then there is little doubt a G400/450/550 would pretty much be the best your going to find... short of going Parhelia or a few of the 4+ monitor Matrox/Appian boards.

ATi's R7000/7200 might be worth mentioning alo however, while not quite as good as Matrox they;'ll still provide very good quality that is more then adequate for most while giving you fantastic DVD playback and TV-Out implementation also.

 

[JeremiahTheGreat]

you sure its the video card? Wack in another one (perhaps yours? or is that off limits..) and see, otherwise you may be wasting ur $50

 

[hans007]

the 2mx wasnt exactly a good 2d graphics card, neither was the gf2 gts for the most part. at low res it probably isnt the vid card though, i only saw problems with the gf2 series at 1280 x 960 and up.



radeon LE, or VE (7200/7000) are good choices, and probably cheaper than hunting down a matrox card.

i had an ECS l4s5mg with sis650 integrated video and that had suprisingly sharp 2d at 1600x1200 even (the sis 315 is what its based on and that has a 375mhz ramdac so that might have been it).

 

[sc0tty8]

You can aquire a GF3ti200 for about 75$ used in the FS/T forum. I had a GF2mx, a few of them, all sucked. You need to get a higher GF2 to get no fuzzy and no pain in the eyes....Matrox is spose to be great at 2d, but they are going to be the next 3dfx and go under.....I would get an ati 7200 if you don't want to play games or anytihng like that, otherwise the ti200....

 

[88637]

The ATI 7000/7200 is sounding pretty good and Ill check them out. I dont trust Matrox very much outside of the 2D arena and I would still like to "occasionally" play with this machine (Ive heard theyve had problems in the past with the G400 series in the opengl implementation). Ill check the monitor to see if its the problem, but I doubt it, Ive always had problems with this vid card (partially my own fault I suppose). Thanks for the input.

 

[sc0tty8]

What do you run for a mobo/proc/ram? If you run at least 800mhz and 256 megs of ram, the 7200 will suite you fine, in fact, the 7000/7200 was released to compete with the gf2mx. I had a 7200, it was great, just lacked what I needed for my gaming needs.

 

[rogue1979]

I vote for the Radeon 9000. At $65 shipped it is under budget. 2D quality is excellent, very close to Matrox territory, only unlike the Matrox, it is fully DirectX8.1 compliant and will play modern games smoothly at higher resolutions.

 

[BoomAM]

if the image is hurting both of your eyes, are you sure that the refresh rates arnt set to low, the reccommended refresh rate is 85hz, ive heard reports of anything below this hurting some peoples eyes and sometimes giving them headaches. you should also check the refresh rate in games as well, as in win2k/xp, by default its set to 60hz.
just a thought, that could save you a bit of money.

 

[88637]

Refresh is set at 85hz, res is 1024x768. Processor is a Duron 650@~790, 384 MB SDRAM, etc. As long as the replacement can play MOHAA at 8x6 alright I dont really care about speed.

 

[Deskstar]

I have Matrox G400 or G450s in several of my machines and, of course, the 2D is excellent and the gaming is poor. Because of this, I plan to switch next year to either a Radeon 9700 (non Pro) or to a NV30 (assuming it ever gets released). The GF4 mx 440 cards give me satisfactory 2D (not Matrox or Radeon quality), but acceptable and they can game to some extent. NewEgg has the GF4 mx 440 cards on sale in the refurb section a lot of the time for $50 or so. Don't buy the GF4mx 420, however. Better yet, look for a GF4 Ti4200 for $100. Lots of options really.