Holy Crap! Image quality rocks!

[Gunnar]

I shipped out my Radeon in a trade, and I decided to dig up my old Matrox G400Max to tide me over until my new card came in.

I popped it in, booted up and I was blown away! I guess its been such a long time since Ive used the Matrox, and Ive had the Radeon for such a long time that I didnt really perceive the differences until today. My monitor hadnt changed, and neither did the settings, so I would guess the video card is making the difference.

After seeing the difference in quality, I'm considering going back to Matrox. Its too bad that there is no "in-between" product for the Parhelia. Its gaming performance is enough for a modest gamer like myself (warcraft 3), but I have no need for triplehead (though dual would be nice), and I wouldnt mind dropping down to 64MB either. If matrox were to create a model that fell in the 180 dollar price point, I'd jump all over it, most of the day Im viewing text or video. Unfortunately, you have to drop $325 to enter the Parhelia, or I can keep my current card at get better than G550 performance.

And its too bad the G400Max cant hold a candle to my Radeon in terms of basic gaming performance.... I guess its back to ATI for me.

 

[ElFenix]

i thought ati had pretty good quality?

 

[Markfw]

Yup ! I have a G400 I use for TV-out, so after I edit my home videos, I can send the output to a VCR to tape the results. The quality of the output, including the dual-head and DVD-max are great ! I have my Radeon 8500's and 7500 in other game boxes. Their 2d is better than Nvidia IMO, but not as good as Matrox. Great reason for multiple computers, each one does what it is best at.

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

Originally posted by: ElFenix
i thought ati had pretty good quality?

Compared to Nvidia it does, but matrox's bread and butter is image and color sharpness. That's the only reason they're still around is for making video adapters for professional artists and whatnot.

 

[Electric Amish]

I was using my G400 for gaming up until I bought a Radeo 9700 Pro a few months ago.

It is a sweet card.

amish

 

[Macro2]

I do a lot of graphics and purposefully bought a new Matrox G-450 for just the reasons you have stated.
Canopus might be a little better but Matrox is far ahead of ATI and Nvidia when it comes to picture quality.
Those fast cards only make sense for gamers and they compromise picture quality for speed, obviously.

Mac

 

[Gunnar]

I think I stated the obvious when I said that the G400+ series of graphics cards blow away everything else in 2d picture quality....


But my second point I think is a good idea. I am a marginal gamer, I dont need a Radeon or Geforce to play the games I play, but I would like a decent speed and resolution, without compromising my regular use. What is the possiblity of Matrox going after the marginal gamer, with a superior 2d product at a pricepoint that does not feel like a fleecing ($350 !!!@*&_!@$!)@$)?

Like I said, Matrox, give me a Parhelia that does about Radeon 8500(not necessarily beat it) with DVI-dualhead for $180.

 

[Macro2]

RE:"Like I said, Matrox, give me a Parhelia that does about Radeon 8500(not necessarily beat it) with DVI-dualhead for $180."

That would be nice. I'd pay about $125 for a Parhelia but I'm cheap.
I paid $72 for the G450. A G550 goes for about $95 so $125 is abut right for a Parhelia. Makes sense to me! LOL