What is the cheapest video card i can use for 2D?

[Cawchy87]

Would an ATI Rage 4mb card be fine? There would be no 3d applications. It is just a computer for school work.

Specs
Athlon XP 1800+ (Palamino)
ABIT KT7A-RAID
512mb pc133 ram
Windows XP Pro

Thanks for your replies!

 

[dc5]

it would work for office and internet but if your viewing dvd's i'd prefer something like a 64mb vid card. they're cheap as dirt anyways.

 

[Matthias99]

Having more than ~30MB of RAM is totally unnecessary for ANY 2D work, including watching DVDs (what the heck would more video memory do for you there?) 24-bit color at 1600x1200 requires only 15.3MB for the frame buffer, and if double-buffered would still fit on a 32MB card without a problem (and for 2D work, swapping to system RAM is usually not an issue anyway).

However, the ATI Rage is a VERY old card, and may not have much (if any) driver support these days, and the video output quality may be lousy. A cheap GF2MX, GFFX 5200, or RADEON 9200SE would be my recommendation for a bottom-of-the-barrel card these days.

 

[apoppin]

The old rage Fury 32 - if still available - is cheap as dirt and worked fine for DVD viewing.

and i think you mean the "cheapest" and not the "worst" . . .

:roll:

. . . some of the very early GF cards come to mind as "good" for gaming and "poor" for IQ.

otoh, ATI cards from Rage (fury) on have a very nice image quality

You might also try FS/T

. . . shameless self-sales plug . . . i have a Radeon 8500-128MB card that is almost brand new (from a RMA this year) . . . cheap . . .

 

[elkinm]

ATI Rage 128 or better would work Rage Fury would be a little faster.

But for best 2D you should consider a Matrox card like a G400 or maybe even a G200. It may be hard to find one for very cheep. Even a Matrox Millennium 1 will offer great and fast 2D but you can forget about watching DVDs or real movies with it.

Can you give us a price that you are looking for, it will make it much easier.

 

[Cawchy87]

under 20 dollars shipped would be what i am looking for. The movies is suggest are just streaming video clips off of the internet. I have decided against the dvd drive because it would be the 3rd dvd player in 2 rooms downstairs and isn't really needed. So basicly all this will be used for is microsoft office and browsing the internet.

Thanks for your help guys.

P.S. LOL appopin that really was a bad choice of words there - changed!

 

[Gamingphreek]

I have a G200 . However go for an old Matrox card, or just get a Geforce 2mx. Hell for that matter just get a TNT2.

-Kevin

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: elkinm
ATI Rage 128 or better would work Rage Fury would be a little faster.

But for best 2D you should consider a Matrox card like a G400 or maybe even a G200. It may be hard to find one for very cheep. Even a Matrox Millennium 1 will offer great and fast 2D but you can forget about watching DVDs or real movies with it.

Can you give us a price that you are looking for, it will make it much easier.

Matrox Mill. 1 cards aren't all that great, their 2D isn't that fast, and video-accelleration is basically non-existent. However, they do have exceptional analog image-quality, I had a set driving a pair of 20" Sony fixed-freq workstation tubes, and was actually able to run them at up to 1920 horiz., and still read text pretty well. I was surprised.

But playing back video files, or normal Windows' 2D acceleration, was kinda the pits. I would put even an AGP ATI RagePro against it any day. 10ns SDRAM vs 60ns WRAM, you decide.

If the OP wants to play back video content, stick with ATI, they have good 2D IQ (good enough to at least 1600x1200 with readable text), and even better video-acceleration. If you want to play 3D games, get a cheap NV TNT1 or GF2MX, but beware of the poor 2D IQ.

Edit: If anyone needs a collection of RagePro drivers for Win98se and W2K, PM me, I've got a bunch of them archived somewhere.

 

[Cawchy87]

Ok, thanks for the reaplies guys. looks like a cheap ATI rage pro or something along those lines is the way to go!

 

[jiffylube1024]

Do remember that current cards have better DVD hardware assistance features than older cards, so they will help improve performance.

Not to mention the fact that XP drivers for many ancient cards suck, or are inferior/less compatible than current cards.


Plus, on a system "just for school work," there is often an occasional game that you may want to play.

Regardless, I'd recommend at least a GF2 MX/Radeon 7000 class video card, preferably a Radeon 7200/7500 series, just for the great 2D and 'passible' (term used very loosely) 3d.

 

[Peter]

The old Rage cards with 4 or 8 MBytes are fine for office work with monitor sizes up to 17". For larger monitors, they lack the bandwidth to produce high resolutions with good color depth and detail. Besides, all those old cards mentioned above have been cut off driver updates.

The least I'd go for today is the Radeon 7000, still being made and maintained for exactly that target market.

 

[Kishan]

tnt2

 

[JeremiahTheGreat]

Originally posted by: Gamingphreek
I have a G200

hey, i've got one too! $5 from the computer markets

 

[Cawchy87]

http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5115524456

looks like a winner! I think i'll take this as long as bidding doesn't go up

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: Cawchy87
http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5115524456

looks like a winner! I think i'll take this as long as bidding doesn't go up

a radeon 7000 will be just fine . . .

now that i think of it, didn't the Rage chipset have problems with Win2K drivers? . . . not sure . . . . but the 7000 is fine and recent enough to work OK with XP . . .

good luck with the bidding

 

[SneakyStuff]

Text

 

[Cawchy87]

If i didn't live in canada i would be all over that.