Radeon 8500 2D text quality vs. GF4

[mitchelt]

After reading Anand's latest video card article, I see that the GF4 pretty much beats the Radeon 8500 in every benchmark.

My concern is that I work on my PC designing web sites and doing database programming for 8 - 10 hours a day and I need crisp text.

I run at 1280 x 1024 on a Dell/Sony 21" trinitron.

But! I also like to play games, so I would like a video card that will be able to handle the latest and greatest games, and a few future ones

The video card will be going in my new P4-2.26Ghz PC.

So, does anyone have comments on 2D text quality for the GF4?

Thanks!

Mitch

 

[Bad Dude]

I think the Radeon 8500 is better in 2D.

 

[snow patrol]

Depends what sort of geforce 4 you get.

Take a look here.

 

[jaybee]

I was disappointed by my Abit GF4 at 1600x1200. I had an 8500 in for a couple weeks before the GF4, and although I only ran at 16x12 for a bit as a test, it was probably significantly better.

jaybee

 

[Mingon]

I have never had a problem with the 2D quality on more than 8 nvdia cards, but I have seen major differences between monitor. At work we used TNT cards, the same card on 2 same model monitors would show major differences due to the 'guns' being misaligned.

 

[snow patrol]

Originally posted by: Mingon
I have never had a problem with the 2D quality on more than 8 nvdia cards, but I have seen major differences between monitor. At work we used TNT cards, the same card on 2 same model monitors would show major differences due to the 'guns' being misaligned.

what res are you running though? At more 'conservative' resolutions Nvidia cards are ok really, it's only for hi-res work that things have tended to suffer in the past.

 

[mitchelt]

In my case, I would never go higher than 1280 x 1024 @32bit color on my 21" Dell/Sony.

 

[snow patrol]

so what card do you have at the moment?

 

[mitchelt]

I currently have a Gainward GF2 Ti500 Golden Sample on my P3-850, the new card is going in a system I am purchasing in a week or two.

To be honest I think my Matrox G400 handled the text better, but games play better on the GF2.

I have never owned an ATI card, so I can only go by what people and reviews say.

The link to Tom's Hardware review talked a lot about 2D quality and it was helpful.

I just wonder how picky people are when writing the reviews, sometimes people get all bent out of shape because there card only does 150fps instead of 155fps like the other card.

I guess I should look for a local shop that has an Nvidia GF4 card and an ATI up and running.

Mitch

 

[snow patrol]

It's highly likely that the 2d of a decent (gainward/leadtek) geforce 4 will be superior to a Geforce 2 though.