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Hi all, I'm going to be buying my first Matrox card and I could use some advice. Which card do you think would be best for someone who has NEVER seen a Matrox card before? The 450 is $79 at Newegg, and the 550 is $92. Matrox has a refurbished 400 at $89 for 16mb, and $109 for 32mb. And finally, Matrox also has 400 Max refurb for $129.
I tried to help myself by reading reviews and this forum, but it just made me more confused. I was just going to get the 550 since it is the newest, but then I read how some people think the 450 looks nicer, and others don't, and that the 400 is maybe the best of all.
This card will not be used for gaming. It will be hooked up to a 17" Samsung 700NF monitor that usually runs at 1024x768x32. I want to use the card in my P3 box for office apps and surfing the web. And I will use it when I finally give Linux a try. I also have a P4 rig with an Asus P4B266 motherboard. It would be nice if the card would also be compatible with it, in case I ever wanted to switch the cards around.
I have mostly used Nvidia cards, so that is what I'm used to looking at. My gaming computer now has a Radeon 8500 oem card in it, and I noticed that text was sharper than the Nvidia cards. That is what got me interested in buying a card based on image quality instead of frame rates. ATI has some cheaper cards I could consider, but I figured why not spend a little more and get the best?
I tried to help myself by reading reviews and this forum, but it just made me more confused. I was just going to get the 550 since it is the newest, but then I read how some people think the 450 looks nicer, and others don't, and that the 400 is maybe the best of all.
This card will not be used for gaming. It will be hooked up to a 17" Samsung 700NF monitor that usually runs at 1024x768x32. I want to use the card in my P3 box for office apps and surfing the web. And I will use it when I finally give Linux a try. I also have a P4 rig with an Asus P4B266 motherboard. It would be nice if the card would also be compatible with it, in case I ever wanted to switch the cards around.
I have mostly used Nvidia cards, so that is what I'm used to looking at. My gaming computer now has a Radeon 8500 oem card in it, and I noticed that text was sharper than the Nvidia cards. That is what got me interested in buying a card based on image quality instead of frame rates. ATI has some cheaper cards I could consider, but I figured why not spend a little more and get the best?
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