Looking for a DVI Video Card for my Flat Panel...

[GDoes]

I recently got a new flat panel and am looking to upgrade my video card.
I currently have an old Matrox Marvel G400-TV that I kept for a while, since
the TV tuner built-in right on the card allowed me to watch TV in a window
on my desktop. Since the card has its own processor, the TV didn't take
any processor power away from my system and at the same time I never
suffered from crashes.

It seems that there is no single option as the Matrox Marvel. The TV tuner cards nowadays
seem to be add-ons that attach/hook to your video card.

So what are my options out there to upgrade?

1. ATI All-In-Wonder 9800 Pro

2. NVidea Personal Cinema

It seems the 9800 is a faster card, however at the same time ATI seems to have quite bit of problems
with their drivers. NVidea seems to have better drivers, but they are still running on DirectX.
Now my question, has any had personal experience with the above cards and using them
with a flat panel display?

-Glenn

 

[Peter]

So? TV cards STILL do their own thing, pushing the decoded image to the graphics card's memory directly, without involving the CPU. In fact, ever since PCI TV cards first showed up, it's ever been that way.
Those all-in-one cards have one sole benefit: This data transport is local on the card, not travelling any system bus, thus not costing any I/O bandwidth.

ATi's AIW cards, on top of that, use a noticeably more capable video decoder chip. The image quality there is quite a bit better than with other stuff.

 

[MDE]

Take a look at the AIW 9600 Pro (not available in US yet, for lighter gaming) and the AIW 9700 Pro (cheaper than the 9800, almost identical performance)

 

[ProviaFan]

If you trusted just what you read from the titles of the posts in this forum, you'd think Nvidia's drivers were perfect and ATI's drivers were the worst sh!t in the world. FWIW, both of my systems use ATI video cards (and obviously, ATI drivers for those cards also), and I have absolutely 0 problems with stability. Yes, zero.

I'd suggest something in the ATI AIW series, like the AIW 9700 Pro.

 

[BoomAM]

Originally posted by: GDoes
It seems the 9800 is a faster card, however at the same time ATI seems to have quite bit of problems
with their drivers.

USED to have major problems with their drivers. Now their drivers are about the same as nVidias.

NVidea seems to have better drivers,

Debatable

but they are still running on DirectX.

Every driver does DirectX, and they all do OpenGL as well.

Now my question, has any had personal experience with the above cards and using them
with a flat panel display?

I use a 9700pro with a TFT, via DVI. Which is basically the same as a 9800pro but slightly slower.

 

[GDoes]

>>Every driver does DirectX, and they all do OpenGL as well.<<

I meant to say that they are on an older version of DirectX v8
and are not compatible with DirectX v9, which can be problem...

-Glenn

 

[GDoes]

>>I use a 9700pro with a TFT, via DVI. <<

Do you see any difference using the DVI connector vs the standad
VGA/analog connector? Is the DVI running faster since the card no
longer needs to convert from digital to analog?

-Glenn

 

[BoomAM]

Originally posted by: GDoes<brI meant to say that they are on an older version of DirectX v8
and are not compatible with DirectX v9, which can be problem...

Every driver out is DX9 compatible. And ive never heard of any problems.

Do you see any difference using the DVI connector vs the standad
VGA/analog connector?

I havnt done extensive testing, but it is slightly sharper.

Is the DVI running faster since the card no
longer needs to convert from digital to analog?

It has no effect as the Digital to Analogue conversion is near instant, and has no impact on the GPU/VPUs rendering speed.

 

[GDoes]

"ATi's AIW cards, on top of that, use a noticeably more capable video decoder chip. The image quality there is quite a bit better than with other stuff. "

Peter where did you get the above info from?

-Glenn

 

[BoomAM]

Its common knowledge that ATi AIW card kick a$$.

 

[Peter]

Originally posted by: GDoes
"ATi's AIW cards, on top of that, use a noticeably more capable video decoder chip. The image quality there is quite a bit better than with other stuff. "

Peter where did you get the above info from?

-Glenn

Personal experience, side by side comparison on the same system. The ATi RageTheater chip has excellent deinterlacing and other image enhancing filters. The usual Conexant/Brooktree and Philips suspects used on standalone PCI TV cards come nowhere close.

Watch something that has fast horizontal movement and/or fine detail, and you'll know what I mean. If the TV card doesn't give you a perfectly (!) readable side-scrolling stock ticker, it's not as good as ATi's.

 

[GDoes]

When you get this PCI TV card, how is the connection? Is this using the PCI bus or do you need to jump a cable from one board to the other: with my Matrox TV card, I had to connect my soundcard to the TV card.

-Glenn

 

[Peter]

Sound goes through a sideband cable into whatever sound unit you have there (onboard, PCI card). Video is actively pushed by the PCI TV card, over the PCI bus directly into the graphics card's video overlay buffer. The graphics card then combines the overlay with the primary surface (vulgo the computer's own display) as the data are going out the DVI, TV or VGA port.

AIWs do the exact same thing, only that the video data don't travel the bus. Instead, the TV decoder has a dedicated connection directly into the graphics chip.