Matrox G450 PCI or nVidia based?

[Silver Premium]

I'm having the following question:

Due to a motherboard that has no AGP support I need to upgrade my video card to either a Matrox 450 PCI or an nVidia based card. My new 19" monitor runs at a resolution of 1280x1024 pixels in True Color. Could anyone recommend me what card to choose? I only need 2D acceleration for my workstation. I do not play any games. Speed is the most important feature I'm looking for. DualHead functionality (or a TV-out) would be nice though.

Thanks in advance for responding!

[Greebe]

Without a doubt Matrox... you'll get the best quality 2D out and extremely fast in 2D. Dualhead functionality hands down beats all the competition.

[Tom]

Silver Premium,

Let's see...
PCI....2D acceleration....no games....speed...DualHead...T.V. out..
sounds like the Matrox G450 to me...

[Silver Premium]

Thank you for your advice! Does anyone know at which resolution the G450 (PCI) performs at its best?

Greetings,

Silver Premium

[Greebe]

Define what you mean by "best"

[Silver Premium]

Well, which resolution has the best acceleration performance. IE is fastest. Also at what BPP 24 or 32?

Thanks again

[Greebe]

Not having tested the G450 PCI per se (all AGP) I can't be for sure. But even when running 32 bit, 1600x1200 res is virtually as fast as 1024x768 in the tests I've run. Of course what you need 24 or 32 bit for also depends on what the intended use/need is.

In many cases I use 16 bit (which is better than most others cards at 24 or 32 bit) cept I do this for TV viewing with my Hauppauge WinTV card or DVD's... tho 32 bit also works.

Since I also run games and 24 bit res isn't accelerated in 3D, I don't use this color depth (99% don't).

Bottem line: you won't be unhappy with it's performance.


What CPU/speed are you running?

[Silver Premium]

I have an older Pentium MMX 266 system.
I mainly use this for graphics IE. Photoshop under Windows NT 4.0

Greetings, S.P.

[Dogbert]

Since you'll be using it for graphics work, nothing can beat Matrox in features.
After using PixelTouch a few times during your work, you won't be able to replace it with anything else. It's faster and much more convenient than any software zoom out there. Lately nvidia succeeded in matching and even passing matrox in 2D speed tests, but still for the best 2D image quality - especially for graphics where clarity and accurate colors are a must, nothing beats matrox.

Good luck and have fun.

[Silver Premium]

Thanks Dogbert, This was the last bit af convincing I needed to go for the Matrox G450 PCI Card!!

Also thx to Greebe & Tom

Greetings,

S.P.