Best "2D-only" video card

[Cryption]

I just purchased a Dell 20.1" Widescreen LCD literally 5 minutes ago and now I'm looking to get my hands on a 2D-only card that is known for producing the most amazing, flawless DVI output on the planet, which these days should only cost about (less than $50) on ebay.

Any suggestions?

Note: I know there must be some posts on the forums that cover this questions but I haven't had any luck with the built in search or googling (site:forums.anandtech.com).

 

[Anubis]

Matrox G450

the G550 is better but you arnt gonna get one for 50$

 

[saltedeggman]

agreed, matrox

 

[Cryption]

Could you list a quick rundown of the differences between the two?

 

[Anubis]

the 550 is newer has a faster chip and more ram

550 is AGP the 450 is PCI
http://www.matrox.com/mga/work...s/products/gseries.cfm

 

[Cryption]

I'm wondering how big a difference 16MB vs 32MB of RAM really makes if you're only doing 2D work.
What exactly is the video card loading if it's not running textures in a 3D game?

And as I understood it, the faster the RAMDAC the higher the max resolution and refresh rate.
With LCDs your refresh rate is stuck at 60Hz so again, why would this matter?

By the way, the G450 comes in AGP...

Quote from Matrox's site:
"the Millennium G450 is a feature-rich graphics accelerator available in AGP and PCI versions"

And it comes in a 32MB flavor as well.

 

[ponyo]

Just get cheap ATI card. DVI is all the same as it's digital. DAC doesn't play a role as no analog is involved. I would just get ATI card since they seem best with DVI compliance.

 

[Cryption]

And it gets better, upon further inspection I found that the RAMDAC processors in both the G450 and G550 run @ 360MHz! I would assume they are the same.

So why does a G450 sell on ebay for ~$20.00 and G550 sell well over $50?

I believe the answer lies in the fact that the G550 SUPPORTS DVI. This is cryptically referred to as "third-generation" dual-head technology on their site.
Other than the more compatible feature set of the "third-generation" dual-head technology (analog, dvi, tv-out) there seems to be no other difference.
That and the use of the words, "superb, explosive, and extensive" on the G550 page.

Note: The G550's page says it supports WinXP. I would guess that since both cards are almost identical that the G450 would also. Can anyone confirm this?

 

[Cryption]

Originally posted by: Naustica
Just get cheap ATI card. DVI is all the same as it's digital. DAC doesn't play a role as no analog is involved. I would just get ATI card since they seem best with DVI compliance.

That sounds like sage advice Naustica.

Anyone have suggestions for a good ATI +DVI card?

 

[rbV5]

The Matrox g400/450/550 DVI is limited to 1280x1024, so probably not the best choice for a larger panel.

 

[ponyo]

I would avoid Matrox G450 and G550 as these cards have maximum DVI resolution support of 1280x1024. 1600x1200 might work via DVI but isn't officially supported.

Matrox G450 and G550 are great if you're planning to use analog VGA connection. DAC on these are very good and you'll get crisp 2D at 1600x1200 VGA. But for DVI, these DACs are worthless.

 

[Cryption]

Right about now I wish I'd splurged for that Analog+DVI model on my GeForce3.

I've never seen the difference between analog and DVI in person. How much of a noticeable improvement is there?
In other words, how much should I be concerned with DVI vs. Analog?

I could just wait until I buy my next "latest, greatest for a minute" video card and get DVI on it.

 

[Anubis]

i had a G450 PCI for a long time it had a DVI & a CRT output on it, ran win XP fine, i use it mainily as a Dual head card for Linux

i use a DVI-CRT adapter and ran my monitor at 1600x1200 @ 75Hz i actually ran dual 1600x1200 @ 75Hz from it

 

[ponyo]

I would get something from built by ATI. I would avoid third party ATI cards and any Nvidia cards.

Based on this old ExtremeTech article, your best bet is probably ATI Radeon 9600 but Radeon 7000 would probably work.

ExtremeTech DVI Compliance Shootout

Recent DVI compliance article by Toms Hardware

Most likely any modern ATI, Nvidia, or Matrox card will work but if you don't want to take any chances and not worry about cable length, go built by ATI.

 

[Anubis]

Originally posted by: Naustica
I would get something from built by ATI. I would avoid third party ATI cards and any Nvidia cards.

Based on this old ExtremeTech article, your best bet is probably ATI Radeon 9600 but Radeon 7000 would probably work.

ExtremeTech DVI Compliance Shootout

Recent DVI compliance article by Toms Hardware

Most likely any modern ATI, Nvidia, or Matrox card will work but if you don't want to take any chances and not worry about cable length, go built by ATI.

yes thoes a both good articles but they dont compair to any of the Matrox Cards, im sure the Matrox Parhelia, would clobber the ATI and Nvidia cards, nd teh G550 is more then capable, it will run dual 1600x1200 displays just fine

the P650 will do it also and it will cost less then the Parhelia

 

[Cryption]

I just did a quick check on the price of a Matrox Parhelia on ebay, and wow! Why are these cards selling for hundreds of dollars?!?

Matrox's site lists these features among others for the Parhelia:

16x Fragment Antialiasing
UltraSharp Display Output technology
10-bit GigaColor technology
Realtime Display Color Adjustment
PureVideo Preview

Are those technical or marketing terms?!?

Someone please explain what is so amazing about this card...

 

[Cryption]

Sorry for branching the thread like this, but there are so many interesting questions I'm salivating to have answered...

Originally posted by: Naustica
I would get something from built by ATI. I would avoid third party ATI cards and any Nvidia cards.

What's so bad about Nvidia's DVI outputs? Have I just been living under a rock the past few years?

 

[Anubis]

because of their amazing multimonitor support in 2mon + situations, its also a workstation card and thoes always cost more like the Nvidia Quadro cards

 

[Cryption]

Originally posted by: Anubis
because of their amazing multimonitor support in 2mon + situations, its also a workstation card and thoes always cost more like the Nvidia Quadro cards

Besides having the multi-multi-monitor support what classifies a card as a "workstation" card?

 

[ponyo]

Originally posted by: Anubis

Originally posted by: Naustica
I would get something from built by ATI. I would avoid third party ATI cards and any Nvidia cards.

Based on this old ExtremeTech article, your best bet is probably ATI Radeon 9600 but Radeon 7000 would probably work.

ExtremeTech DVI Compliance Shootout

Recent DVI compliance article by Toms Hardware

Most likely any modern ATI, Nvidia, or Matrox card will work but if you don't want to take any chances and not worry about cable length, go built by ATI.

yes thoes a both good articles but they dont compair to any of the Matrox Cards, im sure the Matrox Parhelia, would clobber the ATI and Nvidia cards, nd teh G550 is more then capable, it will run dual 1600x1200 displays just fine

the P650 will do it also and it will cost less then the Parhelia

Yes, both Matrox Parhelia or P650 would be fine choice but it wouldn't give better DVI picture than ATI or Nvidia card. As I said in my first post, DVI is digital. It's either On or Off. If you can get a signal, then picture quality will be the same on any of these cards. We're not talking about analog.

 

[ponyo]

Originally posted by: Cryption
I just did a quick check on the price of a Matrox Parhelia on ebay, and wow! Why are these cards selling for hundreds of dollars?!?

Matrox's site lists these features among others for the Parhelia:

16x Fragment Antialiasing
UltraSharp Display Output technology
10-bit GigaColor technology
Realtime Display Color Adjustment
PureVideo Preview

Are those technical or marketing terms?!?

Someone please explain what is so amazing about this card...

This card is good because it supports triple monitor support and has great 2D DAC for analog along with great analog technology. Had decent 3d performance for its time too.

 

[Cryption]

The only question that remains then is why Nvidia has a bad-rap when it comes to DVI compliance.

 

[ponyo]

Originally posted by: Cryption
Sorry for branching the thread like this, but there are so many interesting questions I'm salivating to have answered...

Originally posted by: Naustica
I would get something from built by ATI. I would avoid third party ATI cards and any Nvidia cards.

What's so bad about Nvidia's DVI outputs? Have I just been living under a rock the past few years?

Nvidia used cheap subpar TMDS transmitter on older Nvidia cards. ATI TMDS trasmitter is much superior to Nvidia.

 

[Cryption]

Has Nvidia started using comparable TMDS transmitters? Or is their DVI output still considered subpar?

 

[ponyo]

Originally posted by: Cryption
The only question that remains then is why Nvidia has a bad-rap when it comes to DVI compliance.

Crappy on-chip TMDS transmitter and possible crappy external TMDS transmitter for second DVI.

BTW, just because it's not DVI compliant doesn't mean it won't work. It can use reduced blanking mode to work and also shorter cables will help.

BTW, I currently use Nvidia FX5900 DVI for my 2001FP and just bought BFG 6800Ultra OC dual DVI as replacement. Like I mentioned, most likely any modern DVI card will work fine. These articles and my comments are just for information purposes only.