I have a Matrox G450 16mb card (VGA dual head) with a 19" Hitachi 772 CRT. Have been considering upgrading to an LCD monitor---so I'm on a learning curve regarding good 2D video cards w/ DVI and LCD specs.
I do not game or overclock. 2D is the most important issue---surfing, email, some basic photo editing. 1280 x 1024 is the highest resolution I'm comfortable with on this 19" CRT. My card and monitor will do 16 x 12 at an 85 refresh, but I just can't get used to the text size/quality even when I adjust it larger.
Saw an HP system at Sam's tonight---the monitor stopped me in my tracks. 19" LCD with an ATI X600 card, 1280 x 1024 . I don't remember seeing HP LCD monitors as being super great in my research--was the card the difference? The text was sharper than anything I've seen on any LCDs at OD or Sam's before--and better than my current setup. I hadn't even heard of PCI-Express until I looked the card up when I got home.
Since I don't game, I doubt upgrading my entire system to have PCI-Express capability is necessary. AT least my wallet hopes you agree with that statement. If I'm upgrading my card to have DVI and later add an LCD:
1) Which 2D option is best--Matrox G450 (w/ DVI), Matrox P650 or maybe the ATI 9600? I figured the 8 bit 360 RAMDAC with the G450 wouldn't be really less than the 10 bit 400 RAMDAC of the P650 and ATI would make that big a difference at this resolution until I saw that monitor tonight. Heck, I wasn't even sure RAMDAC was as big an issue with DVI as with VGA.
2) If ATI is the choice, do I only consider cards made by ATI or are the ones that use the chipset just as good?
3) Wait for the 8 ms response time LCDs in the Spring or look for a good deal on a 19" LCD w/ DVI in the next couple of months (I think most 19" are 25 ms)?
Thanks for any input. I'm sort of getting a headache trying to navigate this---it's much easier to find reviews on cards and LCDs if the focus is gaming, but 2D info is pretty scarce.
I do not game or overclock. 2D is the most important issue---surfing, email, some basic photo editing. 1280 x 1024 is the highest resolution I'm comfortable with on this 19" CRT. My card and monitor will do 16 x 12 at an 85 refresh, but I just can't get used to the text size/quality even when I adjust it larger.
Saw an HP system at Sam's tonight---the monitor stopped me in my tracks. 19" LCD with an ATI X600 card, 1280 x 1024 . I don't remember seeing HP LCD monitors as being super great in my research--was the card the difference? The text was sharper than anything I've seen on any LCDs at OD or Sam's before--and better than my current setup. I hadn't even heard of PCI-Express until I looked the card up when I got home.
Since I don't game, I doubt upgrading my entire system to have PCI-Express capability is necessary. AT least my wallet hopes you agree with that statement. If I'm upgrading my card to have DVI and later add an LCD:
1) Which 2D option is best--Matrox G450 (w/ DVI), Matrox P650 or maybe the ATI 9600? I figured the 8 bit 360 RAMDAC with the G450 wouldn't be really less than the 10 bit 400 RAMDAC of the P650 and ATI would make that big a difference at this resolution until I saw that monitor tonight. Heck, I wasn't even sure RAMDAC was as big an issue with DVI as with VGA.
2) If ATI is the choice, do I only consider cards made by ATI or are the ones that use the chipset just as good?
3) Wait for the 8 ms response time LCDs in the Spring or look for a good deal on a 19" LCD w/ DVI in the next couple of months (I think most 19" are 25 ms)?
Thanks for any input. I'm sort of getting a headache trying to navigate this---it's much easier to find reviews on cards and LCDs if the focus is gaming, but 2D info is pretty scarce.
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