Matrox G450 vs. p650: Is there any difference in 2D picture quality?

[mshan]

Strictly for 2D picture quality (video editing, in particular), is there any difference in 2D picture quality between a G450 and P650?

In particular, do the 10 bit dacs in the P650 make a perceptible difference from the 8 bit (?) dacs in the G450?

 

[OdiN]

I have a P650 running dual 20.1" Dell's and I think they look awesome. If you want high resolution support for DVI you are going to need the P650. The G450 is a good card, but the P650 is higher quality. I would say that although not a huge difference, the P650 is a bit better in 2D.

 

[mshan]

Max resolution needed would be 1024 x 768 (32 bit color depth) on two monitors (Adobe Premier Pro 1.0 with a Matrox RTX.10 hardware accelerator). Monitors will probably be two Dell P991 19 inch CRT monitors.

At those resolutions (or even at any resolution), is there better 2D picture quality on the P650 because of the 10 bit Dacs? (e. g. off colors and off textures because of rounding errors with 8 bit dacs, or are the G450 dacs of high enough quality that it avoid these rounding errors?)

 

[OdiN]

I don't know exactly the technical reasons for it being higher quality...I suppose the 10-bit DAC's wouldn't hurt...but for DVI I would go for the P650. It has better dual monitor support for video applications even with your CRT. Though they may have better drivers for the G450 than the last time I used one.

 

[mshan]

Hi:

Thanks for your insights!

If you weren't told which video card was being used, do you think you could see a difference between these two cards strictly for 2D graphics, at the resolutions I described above?

 

[OdiN]

Probably not. Like I said, there is a difference but it's not a huge one and you have to be pretty picky to notice it.

 

[mshan]

Good to hear!

I guess if there was a marked difference, it would probably be a common comment.

G450 is a lot cheaper than the p650 and is probably all that I need (guess I just have to sell my 16 MB g450 and buy a 32 MB g450.