Best 2D Video Card?

[w9design]

OK, here's the scoop. I've got an OEM Creative TNT2 card that I've had for a couple years. I don't play 3D games very often at all.
What I do often is 2D stuff ... Office, Photoshop, Flash, Dreamweaver, etc. So my first and foremost requirement is razor-sharp 2D and superb quality. 3D is a distant second.
I currently have a Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 900U, which is a Diamondtron-NF flat 19" CRT.


Which graphics card will provide the sharpest 2D and best quality? Is my TNT2 adequate? I run at 1280x1024 resolution.

EDIT: Lest I forget, I'm running Windows 2000 primarily, with WinME as a dual boot very infrequently.

Thanks
nate@laferle.net

 

[snow patrol]

No contest, the Matrox G400 MAX. Almost everyone on the board will tell you it has excellent 2D quality, and it's 3D performance is reasonable as well. Good luck

 

[w9design]

wow... thanks for the fast reply.
Is the G450 any better/worse than the aforementioned G400MAX? I realize that the 400MAX is higher clocked.
But for my needs, is it worth the extra cash? I mean, $65 is nothing to sniff at.

Will there be something new and exciting in the new future?

Will I notice any difference from my TNT2? (I know that's subjective, but you get the point)
Sorry about all the questions.

 

[hans007]

the g450 is probably a better buy. the max is clocked at 150/200 and the 450 is at 125/166. I used to have a plain g400 and that was 125/166. Its decent enough for most games and since you dont play games might as well get the 450. The plain 400 has a 300mhz ramdac, so you might want to go with the 350mhz one on the 450 or 400max

 

[Goc]

A G400 has the best image currently on the market. But TNT2:s picture is definately not bad. In fact, there is not very much difference between a G400 and a TNT2, even thoug the picture generated by the g400 is a little better.

I would stick with the TNT2. I don't see the point in spending 200 - 300 dollars on a new card, when the old one work just fine.

 

[han888]

yup, G400, i have G400 on my system and the 2D quality is excellent

 

[hominid skull]

Another vote for the G400..

 

[Greeboog]

I would go for the G450 because you don't need the "power" of the G400 MAX. Also, i think there is a cheap version of the G450 with only 16 megs of ram, and not of the DDR kind. If you play some games, go for the best G450. If not, go for the cheapest G450. For applications like Dreamweaver, with all of those pop-up windows all over the place, having a second monitor attached to the G450 is great, but with your 19' monitor you should be okay with just one! ...plus you're using Win2000 so the two monitors must be in the same resolution/refresh rate/bpp. Otherwise you could add a little 15' monitor in 800X600 and use the "dual desktop" mode (or something like that) which is really sweet in Dreamweaver and Photoshop (depending on what you in Photoshop). But the G450's image quality is way better than the TNT2, especially with your monitor and in 1280x1024.

 

[rosarian007]

G400 and the ATI's Radeon are very good 2d cards.

 

[w9design]

ARGH. I forgot to mention that I'll be using BeOS for video editing on this computer.
I know there's a G400 driver in very early beta, but will the G450 work with it, or will I be stuck with the 400 series?
I know I'm asking too many questions, but i'd rather find these things out now then to find out about them after I buy the card.

 

[w9design]

^