The best card for clearest TEXT in Business Apps.

[sterling]

HI

I need a dual monitor card with the best quality 2d output. I work at home with spreadsheets and word processing documents and need the clearest picture i can get. Someone told me Matrox cards have the best 2d output on the market. But, on the other hand their 3d sucks. I also read a review and the author said the NVIDIA cards text is hard on the eyes if used all day. Anybody have alot of experience with cards care to suggest a video card??

thanks

 

[pulse8]

I believe the basic order is:

Excellent 2D = Matrox
Good 2D and Good to Excellent 3D = ATI (depends on which model for 3D)
Excellent 3D and Not as good 2D = Nvidia

 

[Mockmaw]

My Matrox Parhelia had unbelievably clear text on a 15" digital LCD; very crisp text across 3 - 17" CRT's as well. Too bad I couldn't justify the price of keeping it.

 

[AnAndAustin]

Very few would argue that Matrox are clearly tops for '2D' image quality. The cards aren't well priced though esp considering the 3D perf. Parhelia is undoubtedly the champion and has triple monitor support, although you do get GF3/Rad8500 3D perf inc DX8 hw the price is high. Otherwise it's G200-450 territory and settling for very poor 3D (as in barely GF2MX perf). Matrox have always been very good for dual display.

ATI have always been known for having very good IQ and pretty nifty 3D too. Rad7200 -> Rad7500 -> Rad8500 -> Rad9000 -> Rad9700 show a progressive improvement but even the Rad7500 is known to be very good. As a rough guide 3D-wise you're looking at Rad7500=GF2GTS, Rad8500=GF3TI500, Rad9000PRO=GF3TI200 and Rad9700=well above GF4TI4600! All Rad9xxx cards sport dual display as standard but the other cards vary with manu, just because they might have CRT+DVI/CRT does not mean they can run dual display, you need 2 RAMDACs so do check.

nVidia have certainly improved significantly in the IQ and dual display dept. GF2 -> GF3 show a progressive improvement from bad to slightly better (for those picky enough to notice) although manu is known to make a diff here with Leadtek, Gainward and Visiontek being tops but still well below Rad8500 IQ. GF4 cards and GF4TI in particular added dual display as standard and significantly improved IQ, again do check as there is the odd one which only comes with 1xCRT but anything CRT+CRT/DVI is a safe bet on GF4 as found on 99% of them. GF4TI certainly up until 1600x1200x32 @ 75Hz+ offer IQ as good as Rad8500 which is meant to be very near Matrox G450 quality. Opinion on all this esp GF4 varies and some still swear manu makes a diff on ALL nVidia cards, it is a subjective area which is hard to quantify and reviews are also hard to come by but it is clear GF4 have improved considerably and the diffs in IQ between Matrox, ATI and nVidia has never been smaller.

Of course you need a decent monitor(s) to really profit from the better IQ, so don't forget to factor this in too! It all really depends upon budgets, what res and refresh rates the monitor(s) can handle, what res you'll be using and any specific reqs you have as to whether you should go Parhelia, Rad9000, GF4TI etc.