Good card for picture editing and video editing?

[sickcamry]

I recently built a new PC for my father and bought him a new monitor to replace his old Dell setup. He is using an Abit NF7-M motherboard with integrated GeForce4 MX video, and an NEC MultiSync FE990 monitor. Although the PC performs flawlessly, he is not satisfied with the quality that his photos and videos are being displayed. He states that the Dell displayed photos more crisply and with better resolution. I have played around with monitor settings, and display resolutions and refresh rates. I have also updated everything to the latest drivers. Although the display looks fantastic to me, he is still not happy with it. He wants me to go out and purchase a video card that will produce the best 2D possible for his photo editing and video editing. He doesn't care about the 3D capablities of the graphics card, as he won't be playing any games on this machine. He also doesn't want to spend very much money. Can anyone help me out with this? Thanks.

 

[Jeff7]

Did the monitor change as well, or did he keep that?

 

[sickcamry]

Monitor changed as well. Went from a Dell Trinitron 17" to a NEC MultiSync FE990 19".

 

[Huma]

get a matrox g550. not much can compete with it in 2d and they're pretty cheap now too.

(a g400 would do fine as well)

 

[vshah]

well why don't you just pop in whatever videocard was in the old dell, if it looks better problem solved, if it still looks bad then go back to the old monitor...

unless of course the old vcard was onboad.....

-vivan

 

[cindy22]

get matrox or ati , although I don't own matrox but I've heard good reviews on them.
I know for a fact that ati has excellent image quality also specially for movies and or working on graphics .

here's a review on ati's image quality :

image quality

 

[sickcamry]

Okay thanks guys. I'm going to go with the Matrox G550.

 

[sickcamry]

Okay, I told him about the Matrox and surprisingly he asked me about the 3D capablities of the card. I told him they would be practically non-existant compared to the newer ATI and NVIDIA cards and now he doesn't want the Matrox. He wants a card with awesome 2D capabilites and good 3D capabilities (if such a card exists). So once again I need your guys' help.