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Best GF2 for 2D quality?

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  • Best GF2 for 2D quality?

    A friend of mine is looking to upgrade his current video card (a terrible Rage Pro) and since he wants 3D gaming about as much as word processing, I cannot really suggest him to go with a G4x0. The Radeon is out of picture, with ATI's driver support for the Rage cards he has developed quite a hatred towards ATI. A GeForce2 MX card seems to be the ideal choice, but he may still want to go for the faster GF2's.

    Which brand is the best for 2D quality? Price is also a concern for him.
    Is ASUS any good?

  • #2
    Asus and Elsa are said to have the best 2D quality.

    However, I had a Asus TNT before and while I was quite pleased with it's performance I ditched it for my current G400 mainly because of it's blurry 2D, Asus' crappy drivers (the NVidia reference drivers were VERY good, but didn't support the TV-Out on the Asus. DOH!) and the annoying unflexibility of the TV-Out.

    A friend of mine has a Elsa Geforce256 DDR and it's image quality is, erm, acceptable - nothing spectacular, but not THAT bad, either.
    If your friend wants a TV-Out, I'd still go for the Asus, because the Chrontel chip Asus uses has much better/sharper image-quality (it was even better than that of the G400!) than the Brooktree most other NVidia-cards including Elsa use.
    The crappy Asus-drivers are no hold-back nowadays as the newer NVidia reference-drivers support the Chrontel TV-encoding chip and the Overscan-issues can be solved with a third-party tool.

    [This message has been edited by Indiana (edited 14 January 2001).]
    But we named the *dog* Indiana...
    My System
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    German ATI-forum

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    • #3
      I would go for an Elsa.

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      • #4
        Now, I'm as big an NVIDIA fan as the next guy, and I know some people don't think there's a problem with the GeForce series' 2D output. (Ray Charles, Helen Keller, etc. ) However, SUMA, a Korean NVIDIA OEM with a habit of straying from the reference design, has produced a GeForce2 MX with a daughter board specifically designed to address the nonexistent *cough* 2D problem:

        http://www.suma.co.kr/product/produc...de=view&pid=47

        Most of the page is in English. I doubt it will help right now, although I think Suma intends to try to penetrate Western markets with their GeForce Platinum series.

        Paul
        paulcs@flashcom.net

        [This message has been edited by paulcs (edited 14 January 2001).]

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        • #5
          Don't buy an Elsa. Most of the GF2 Elsa's were outsourced to Visiontek. (Reference design)

          I personally would recommend the Annihilator 2. The 1024x768 is identical to the G400max's. At 1280x1024 I notice a slight difference though...

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          • #6
            I have an ASUS V7700 (no TV out), a Herculese Prophet II 64 MB, and a number of G450, G400 and G200 cards. Stay away from the Herculese products as the card I have has terrible image quality. Must be a crapshoot to get a good one.

            The ASUS 7700 has very good image quality, and I can recommend it. I have not compared the V7700 directly with a Matrox card on the same monitor, but the image quality from my V7700 is good enough I don't feel the need to reinstall my G400 MAX in my gaming computer. I don't believe the ASUS has as good a display quality as the MAX, but it is good enough for me.

            The G400 MAX is a very good gaming card and would recommend it for anyone who does not need every available fps. I got lucky and bought an excellent ASUS card. The next one may not have the image quality mine does. I will never buy another.

            I have used around 10 Matrox cards including 3 MAXs, a G450 32 MB, 4 G200s of varying designs, a Millenium II and a Millenium. None of those cards performed below my expectations. Every one of them had the best image quality available at the time I bought it.

            Bottom line:
            Matrox makes their own cards, and nVidia doesn't. Buy Matrox unless there is a compelling reason not to.

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            • #7
              My monitor is 17'. At 1024x768, the 2D image is terrible either with my G200 or Geforce2 MX from Hercule ( so returned it). So I assume it's my monitor limitation (it's cheapest one)!!!
              Now I'm thinking geting ASUS V7700 (Geforce2 GTS) but I'm not sure if its 2D quality at 800x600 is either as good as my G200 or even better? I don't bother using higher resolution.
              Someone can comment this, please..
              SuRGV
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              • #8
                The ASUS 7700 that I have has at least as good an image quality as my G200. I don't have two identical monitors with which to compare them side-by-side so it's a tough call. However, I won't guarantee that you'll get one as good as mine.

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                • #9
                  i myself have one aspect which makes using a geforce 2 ultra gts 64 meg ddr card ok for the 2d -- very bad eyesight with slight colour blindness so i do not notice it as much.

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                  • #10
                    I put a Asus V7700 in my friends computer and I used my monitor to do all the set up on his system and test it. I was running a G400 MAX at 1280x1024@85hz on a Optiquest 19in Monitior. I Ran the V7700 at the same res and I was getting major eye strain and head aches looking at it. I had to turn it down to 1024x768 so I wouldn't be tearing at the computer after an hour. I spend the better part of the day looking at computers since I'm a computer/network tech at a school system with 300+ computers on my side of the district and we run ATI Rage 2 cards or S3 based cards and I can see a big difference between all them if they are all set up right....I would have to say that the ATI cards are a close second to Matrox products in viz quaitly with the Nivida and S3 stuff bringing up the rear.

                    Scott


                    ------------------
                    Abit BH6 rev 1.0 Celeron 2-566@877mhz,256mb RAM,ATI Radeon AIW,SB Live! with Klipsch Promedia v2-400, Optiquest V95 19in montor, Asus 40x CD-ROM, Aopen 5x DVD-ROM,HP9110i 8x4x32 CD-RW,SupraMax 56k modem,WinME on Western Digital 30GB drive
                    Why is it called tourist season, if we can't shoot at them?

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                    • #11
                      I've recently been switching between a G400 Max and Asus 6800 (GF1-DDR). On a Mitsubishi 2040u 22" monitor, there is literally no difference between the two cards at lower than 1600x1200. At that resolution and higher the Matrox starts showing its advantage. But in general I'm amazed at the 2D quality of the Asus 6800, and in 3D it blows right past the Max.

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                      • #12
                        I think either Frank got a really good 6800 or his eyes are just too worn

                        Rags

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                        • #13
                          Well, maybe the former but definitely not the latter. I was fully expecting the Max to outperform the 6800, but even with a hypercritical eye I can't see any difference at 1152x864 or 1280x1024. No bluriness or ghosting.

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                          • #14
                            Sorry, I don't buy it
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                            • #15
                              All I know is that my Geforce 256 here at work sucks big DONG in 2d. I certainly hope that the Ultra's got better.

                              <font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">...since he wants 3D gaming about as much as word processing, I cannot really suggest him to go with a G4x0.</font>
                              Why not? My G400 rocks in all the 3D games I've played on it. UT, Q3, Rogue Spear, etc. Beautiful rendering and plenty of speed.

                              amish
                              Despite my nickname causing confusion, I have no religious affiliations.

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