New GEorce 4 4200 card, Image isnt as crisp as old Geforce 2 GTS???

[DarkFudge2000]

Folks..is it just me or did the quality of the 2d images in the new GeForce 4 cards take a slight step down??

I just got a new GainWard 4200 GeForce 4 and installed it on my system that runs a badass Sony 19" Pro monitor and the text on my 2d seems slightly ghosted compared to my old Elsa Gladiac Geforce 2 GTS.....Is there anything I can do?....new drivers or something or is this just a sacrifice of the new GeForce 4 cards?

 

[Actaeon]

I hear Elsa had great 2d quality while they were making cards.

Though, I hear the gainward also has great 2d quality.

*shrug* probally just one of the sacrifices of going to a new card.

 

[SunnyD]

You can do a search on removing the band-pass filter on the GeForce 4 which supposedly improves video quality - at the same time completely voiding your warranty.

I moved from a VisionTek GeForce 2 Pro to a Gainward GeForce 4 Ti4200 and 2d quality looks BETTER if anything (no modifications).

SunnyD

 

[hans007]

Originally posted by: Actaeon
I hear Elsa had great 2d quality while they were making cards.

Though, I hear the gainward also has great 2d quality.

*shrug* probally just one of the sacrifices of going to a new card.

elsa subcontracted all their cards to visiontek anyways. gainward might have too much filterning which has always been a problem on nvidia cards.

 

[AnAndAustin]

Although there are of course many manus of nVidia cards a general trend has always been apparent from both users and reviewers:

GF2 cards have poor image quality, GF3 cards have slightly better image quality but are still far behind the like of Matrox and ATI. GF4 cards have excellent image quality as good, if not better than ATI and Matrox cards (perhaps excluding the overpriced underpeforming P512). However, the majority of users use 15" monitors and even with larger better quality monitors would prob not notice the difference anyway, but that doesn't mean the differences aren't there. Obviously in DarkFudge2000's case his nice Sony 19" monitor should certainly not be the limiting factor, so it is a bit of a head scratcher. You are being sure to use the highest possible refresh rates and have checked that your monitor is correctly set in Windows? Also WinXP ususally resorts to default (60Hz) for gaming, but many fixes are available.

Other than that are you sure all other factors are the same since changing from a GF2 to GF4? No new hw, OS, drivers (Det v29 are best) or items such as speakers near your monitor? GF4 should certainly be a big leap forward in terms of image quality as well as the obvious perf benefits.

It is important to remember I'm talking image quality not 3D performance or quality (AA Aniso etc). Most people call it '2D quality' but because it is the quality of the signal (not to mention RAMDACs filters and all manner of other things too) being sent to the monitor it effects anthing the card displays from BIOS screens, to Windows and games, which is why I call it 'image quality'. It is what you personally find acceptible and can notice, just as an example many people find 70Hz refresh rates more than fine while others find 100Hz is needed to prevent headaches.

GF2 cards were notorious for poor image quality, that isn't anything to do with 3D ability, build quality, ports, AA, filtering methods etc but simply to do with clarity, stability and legibility of the final output which the monitor displays, esp when considering higher resolutions and refresh rates. There's a lot more to a clear sharp image than simple xxHz in the same way that there's more to a monitor than simple dot pitch and more to a CPU than simple mhz.

 

[DarkFudge2000]

Yes....thanks for the feedback. Yes I did check that indeed everything remained exactly the same since my replaced Geforce 2 card which was just yesterday. Perhaps I may be confused because maybe I am indeed seeing a better sharper 2D image than my Geforce 2 and I may just be misinterpreting what I am seeing. Maybe the text is just too much crisper than my old card which seemed softer and easier to read. With this new card it appears that the text leaves a slight white ghost to the right of text that is very noticeable with my black fonts.

I am using the default Gainward drivers which are not the new Detonator drivers that you all have advised...but do you think that would indeed make a difference?


Also I made sure to set my monitor in WinXP to the Sony 400PS from the selectable WINXP drivers menu and I also made sure that the refresh rate is set to 85hz which it was with the old GeForce 2

Maybe I just have to get used to the crisper display that appears to ghost the fonts slightly unless there is something else I can do?