Need recommendation for cheap/good 2d/XP compatable vid card

[Squisher]

I'm building a computer for my sister and trying to do this super cheap. She never plays games so 2d quality and stability was my only concern. I first was thinking about a TNT2 Ultra, but if she ever upgrades to XP I was thinking she would be SOL. Any ideas?

 

[WHipLAsh13]

The TNT2 Ultra uses DetonatorTM XP Unified Driver Architecture so XP would be fine with that vid card. You can find on www.NewEgg.com a Geforce 2 GTS-v for like 70 bucks though which may be a better solution. Linky

 

[Squisher]

Thanks, I was wondering about the detonator drivers, if that would be the only issue with XP or if there would be any hardware issues. As for the Geforce 2, I would think the TNT2 would have superior 2d and be much more stable.

 

[Rand]

The TNT2 will work perfectly fine under WindowsXP, and is totally supported by XP natively.
Personally, I'd prefer the GTS-V over the TNT2 for 2D. The GeForce series is somewhat reknowned for their poor 2D image quality, but even so it is far better then the TNT2 in that respect. The TNT2's biggest failing was in 2D image quality and therein it had among the worst 2D available on a consumer graphics card.

If you don't need gaming performance, and 2D and stability under WinXP is pof the prime importance I'd look for a Matrox G400 or G450 ideally.
The 2D would be far beyond that of any nVidia based board, and Matrox's WinXP drivers are extremely reliable.

 

[MrCoyote]

I don't know if I'd recommend the TNT2. Nvidia already dropped support in their drivers for the original TNT. It probably won't be too soon they drop support for TNT2 too. If your plans are to built a cheap computer, why not pick out a mainboard with on-board video? That's the cheapest usually, instead of add-on cards. Especially since no games will be played on it.

 

[Rand]

<< I don't know if I'd recommend the TNT2. Nvidia already dropped support in their drivers for the original TNT. >>



I'm not sure where you heard that but it's entirely false. The original nVidia Riva TNT is still 100% fully supported by nVidia under all Windows 9X and NT core operating systems as well as Linux.
Even the latest DetonatorXP drivers are 100% compatible with the TNT.
For confirmation you can look in the .inf for the latest DetXP's if you wish therein you will find the supported graphics chipsets among them the TNT1.

Additionally here is a link to the supported chipsets for the latest DetonatorXP drivers under Windows 2000.
Linky
Among which, is listed the TNT1.

The TNT2 is little more then a die shrunk higher clocked and slightly modified TNT core, if nVidia was to drop support for the TNT1 they would need to drop[ support for the TNT2 also, as they are both based around the same core architecture, the TNT2 just being an improved TNT.