Looking for best AGP video card for clear crisp 2D dispaly ... no gaming needed

[MowSow]

I am thinking Matrox makes something like that ...
I also need a lot of good features to do video editing and importing vidoes from a camera

 

[Dark4ng3l]

You answered your own question

 

[hans007]

if you need video editing, you can probably get a marvel g400 or marvel g200. ATI all in wonder series of cards is also good

 

[Keeksy]

I'd go with a Radeon AIW or G450 (If you have dual displays). I'm not sure which offers the best 2D (The AIW has fastest 3D), just DON'T go nVidia.

 

[ledzepp98]

why not go with nvidia? are the geforce series cards that much worse in 2D than ati or matrox? i know the g400 and the radeon are supposed to have great 2D, but how much worse can the geforce2 be?

 

[hans007]

i've had 6 different flavors of geforce cards in my system. They all were horrible at 2d 1280x1024 and up. Also he said he wanted video editing, which is why i suggested the AIWs and the marvel

 

[MowSow]

Not sure what is AIW .. any links !?

 

[tea217]

AIW is All-in-Wonder
link

An question asked earlier, how much worse 2D can the geforce2 be compared to matrox and ati????

 

[KF]

>are the geforce series cards that much worse in 2D than ati or matrox
I use a Geforce2 MX at 1280 by 960 on a 19" monitor. Anything higher and
the writing is too small with the large fonts. I have used larger fonts, but that puts less on the screen, plus using non-standard size fonts results in cut-off text in dialog boxes and titles in quite a few programs, with no scroll bars to get to the text. With my Matrox G400 the text was noticeably sharper. It's OK now though, and not hard to read, just a little soft. The slight softening has a beneficial effect on pictures, which look prettier IMO. I understand people who do graphic editing, especially professionally, want accuracy - not prettiness, but pretty is fine with me.
On monitors larger than 19" and resolutions over 1280 by 960, Matrox really had no equal in a consumer-priced product.

Games are OK on the G400, and not jerky, but the newest stuff is a little too demanding if you want to use them for all the detail you can get.

The G400 and G450 can be had for around $100. Too bad they don't make a PCI
version, and you could have both a G400 and Geforce2 installed. Better yet, they could make a pass through, like on the original 3DFx Voodoo, and you could use one monitor.

 

[Yoshi]

Matrox G450 would be my first choice with ATI Radeon LE coming in a close second.

Avoid nVidia based cards, IMO their image and color quality is sub-par. Text get fuzzy at higher resolutions and colors are washed out.

 

[Yoshi]

Ooops...I forgot.

If you are looking to do video editing Matrox has some nice high end solutions. If you are not so serious I would suggest getting a digital camcorder (Digital8 or MiniDV) and a separate Firewire digital video capture card with editing software.

 

[sharkeeper]

After modifying my GF2, the output is noticeably superior to anything I've owned including G200/400, ATi, 3dfx, Number Nine, etc.

Using the same monitor, I couldn't believe how fuzzy the Radeon was at 1600x1200 at 100 Hz.

The mod isn't for the faint of heart, but it's either ruin your eyes or use 1024x768 on a 22" monitor. Neither choice was acceptable to me!

Many nVidia cards vary from sample to sample. In the dozen or so Prophet II's that I tried, several were ok, two were horrible above 1024x768, and one (the one I have now) was very close to Matrox. I modified it and couldn't believe it could get better!

Cheers!

 

[Bartman39]

I tend to agree with Yoshi... A seperate capture card and maybe a G400 (non-Max) with 32megs can be had very resonable... ($100-$125 for both...)

 

[BrainSalad]

I would love to get a g400 32meg for that price but I can't seem to find any around. Did you see them being sold on the net anywhere? I found alot of G450s for about $80 for the 16meg and $130 for the 32meg. Also, I'm a bit nervous about getting the newer G450 because even though it has DDR memory it only has a 64bit memory bus. Its suppose to act like a 128bit SDR memory bus in theory and according to the review of it on this site. I'm still not sure about getting a card with a 64bit memory bus though. I'd rather get a G400 32meg for that price you mentioned.

 

[kwango]

I'm running the radeon on a sony G500 at 1600*1200 at 90+ hz and the text quality is superb. Havent tried it on my G400 though

 

[hans007]

i've run a radeon and g400 on my monitor (i upgraded hehe). 1600x1200 on a 19" crisp and clear. I actually think the radeon looks a little better than the g400 (it was a 16mb one).