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Is it worth buying a ATI just for text quality?

M

miri

Diamond Member
I keep hearing about how good the text quality is with ATi. I'll be playing less and less games here soon and using my PC for other things. Would it be worth it to get a ATi just for text quality? I'd hate to buy something and return it if it wasn't.
 
well first we need to know:

1) what video card do you have now
2) what's ur budget
3) what's your current CPU
4) what do you use it for

if you only need it for reading text, a better moniter is needed rather than a video card. even a TNT2 will do reading text good.
 
I don't know, you'll hardly notice the difference IMO, 9600 pro is just an extra $200 hole in your budget. Get a better video card when games start to struggle on your comp.
 
2d is slightly better on Ati cards than most Nvidia Ti Cards, the FX's and certian Ti cards have better 2d that is in general pretty close to Ati's, although both get destroyed by Matrox in the 2d arena, w/ a Ti 4200 w/ agp 8x, I'd wait to upgrade, their isn't really anything that will give you better performance and much better 2d for anything under about $200 U.s. if you do upgrade I suggest an Ati Raedon 9700 non pro as that seems to be the best bang for the buck w/ high end cards atm. Hope this helps.... 🙂
 
I have never seen a Geforce card look as good as a Radeon on the same monitor. Not an ATI fanboy here (I have both nVidia and ATI products), just my honest opinion.
 
Well, if you won't be playing games or anything, just get the 8500 64MB card or something. I haven't seen any hardware site mention differences between the 2D output of the 8500 vs 9x00's line.
 
I had a friend who went from a Geforce 4 mx to a 9500. I was on the phone when he started up and he said he could see a difference on the desktop. I think ATI is worth it for the tv out alone but thats just me.
 
I believe Gainward and I think Leadtech have comparable if not better 2d, but it mainly comes into play at higher resolution/ refresh rates. The problem is with 3rd parties using cheap rf filters. You can often find revues on the 2d quality of the various brands.
 
DVI levels the playing field in the 2D arena. If you're still in the ANALogue realm, your mileage will vary by a shocking amount!

-DAK-
 
eh, text is fine for me on my geforce2.... but on a tnt2 hooked up to an LCD... it seems so much easier on the eyes... i just need to find a way to buy an lcd w/o going deeper into debt 😛
 
IMHO ATI cards sport better 2d than Nvidia's. I just got a DVI cable for my LCD today and I'm shocked at how crisp web pages appear now. I don't notice a difference in gaming but for text an LCD with DVI is the way to go...
 
Well because miri edited the post I guess we will never no but Matrox has the best 2D IMO followed by ATI who bought out TSeng with their great 2D and then there's NVidia who seemed to have snatched 3DFX's so the latest and greatest of all these Mans are good enough for me 😉
 
I've had experience owning a matrox g400, an ati 8500 and 9700, and a geforce 2 card, and i can confirm that matrox has the best 2d output, then ati, then nvidia. the only trouble is that the matrox was terrible when it came to 3d work and gaming. the 9700 comes very close to the g400 in 2d output, and may even be better.
 
It's not between nVidia and ATI! It's the manufacturer of the cards not the chipsets when we're talking 2d text at higher resolutions/ refreshes! Prove me wrong!
 
geez since OP edited his post i guess he found out and go bought a S3virge 2mb or something.

IMO all video card has decent 2D with very minor difference!!! if you really feel that there is such a big difference just turn the resolution to 640X480 on a 22inch CRTand you'll see everything VERY CLEAR!
 
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