Faster RAM-DAC --> better 2d image quality?

[kaytwo]

Hi... I'm sure someone has answered this before, but I can't find it... so... What's the correlation between performance/quality of a graphics card, and the speed of the ram-dac? The one thing that discourages me is that the nforce has a 300mhz ramdac whereas the piddly little quadro2mxr (gf2mx w/opengl in hardware... but you know that )has a 350mhz ramdac. So what's the difference going to be? And will this have absolutely no bearing on my dvi-i output to an lcd, seeing as the videocard never has to do a digital to analog conversion? That's what I'm thinking but I could be wrong...
k2

 

[ADxS]

The maximum rating on the DAC specifically indicates what the maximum resolution and refresh rate the card is capable of outputing.

Nothing more...

It does NOT tell you what the quality of that output will be, and it certainly has nothing to do with performance as that's usually measured (FPS, etc.).

Consider this: the SiS 315 has a DAC rated at 375MHz, but it looks miserable at 1280x1024x85Hz. The Kyro DAC is rated at only 270MHz, yet it is razor-sharp at that resolution and refresh rate.

 

[uknemesis]

<< The maximum rating on the DAC specifically indicates what the maximum resolution and refresh rate the card is capable of outputing.

Nothing more...

It does NOT tell you what the quality of that output will be, and it certainly has nothing to do with performance as that's usually measured (FPS, etc.).

Consider this: the SiS 315 has a DAC rated at 375MHz, but it looks miserable at 1280x1024x85Hz. The Kyro DAC is rated at only 270MHz, yet it is razor-sharp at that resolution and refresh rate. >>



Grrr, you covered everything, nothing left for me to say!

I agree about the Kyro, it's got very good 2D quality better than my old geforce2 mx that is for sure!

Nemesis

 

[RadioactiveCPU]

well the RAMDAC is the Random Access MEmory - Digital to Analog Converter, so as ADxS said, the DAC doesn't define output qulity. What is does do is detemine the refresh rate of the card to monitor. Therefore, form my knowledge, when hooked up to a Flat-Panel with the DVI out, there is a higher refresh rate, because there is no conversion.

 

[ss284]

the g200 only had a 250 ramdac, yet looks better than any other geforce 2 based card, which has a 350 ramdac.

-Steve