good 2d card

I

intense99dak

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Sep 4, 2002
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I know this might seem like a strange request, but I'm looking for a relatively inexpensive graphics card that has emphasis on good 2d graphics. It's going to be for my wife's machine and she doesn't game. She'll need the card for web surfing, spread sheets/etc., and quite a bit of 2d rendering.

Her machine is an Asus P4T533-c that supports 4x AGP combined with a 2.53GHz cpu and 1gig of Kingston 1066 ram. The card will need a DVI output as she will be upgrading to a LCD monitor soon. TV tuner capability is not needed. I just started looking and ran across the following cards at relatively dirt cheap prices. If anyone has input about these cards or can offer advice on other inexpensive cards that meet her needs it would definitely be appreciated.

possible cards: Nvidia GeForce FX5200 or Nvidia GeForce MX400


Thanks,
Chuck
 
Matrox cards have superior 2d quality. Also, I like my ATI's 2d quality better than my nVidia. I dunno, seems sharper.
 
Originally posted by Lime
Matrox cards have superior 2d quality. Also, I like my ATI's 2d quality better than my nVidia. I dunno, seems sharper.
Click to expand...

the sharper graphics are probably the result of ur decent crt monitor.
 
I had a ti4200 on the same monitor, and the 9800pro's 2d seems better.
 
Yes ATi has nice 2d quality. I had a $40 ATi card and the 2d quality was superb compared to my 5600U
 
Thank you for the replies :)

I've never heard bad things about Matrox with regards to 2D (but I've also heard just as many bad things about their 3D) and she's been using Matrox for years with her current card being a G400 dual head. Besides it not having DVI outputs I can tell that the card is holding back the rest of the system and I don't think the card is much longer for the world.

I jumped on newegg and looked at both the Millennium P550 w/ 4X AGP / 32MB DDR and the Millennium P650 w/ 8x AGP and 64MB DDR . As I mentioned above the p4t533-c only supports 4x AGP, but I think the extra 32MB would come in handy.

Any further thoughts?

Thanks again,
Chuck
 
if shes just doing 2d, and needs dvi, thats the card for you. Matrox's 2d is 2nd to none.
 
Anything more than like 4 or 8MB is completely overkill for 2D-only operation. 16/32/64/128MB cards can only really use that RAM for 3D work, so it's really overkill.


The matrox cards are nice, definately, but you need to be sure that extra visual quality is worth the price premium on an otherwise underpowered card. Budget cards from ATI or nvidia would probably more than meet her actual needs.
 
Originally posted by Lime
Matrox cards have superior 2d quality. Also, I like my ATI's 2d quality better than my nVidia. I dunno, seems sharper.
Click to expand...
yes
 
Originally posted by jussA
the sharper graphics are probably the result of ur decent crt monitor.
Click to expand...

he is comparing the two on the same monitor.

if you use matrox you should invest in a quality screen. imo.
 
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