better than matrox!

[EvilDonnyboy]

Tuan Nguyen is the guy who wrote it. He's a new FS writer, he came from Tweak3D (which writes rather shit articles IMO). I don't think this guy deservers to work for FS. FS has really downgraded in the past few years. Ah the good old day's when Buck and Alan still wrote for FS, and Thresh hadn't become some soul-less company exuective.

[Shifter25]

So can one else confirm the image quality of the Geforce 3 Ti Cards? So far, Leadtek and Hercules are supposedly to have pretty good if not better 2-D than Matrox's latest. The reason I ask is that I'm in the market for a videocard myself without sacrificing too much of the sharpness from a G400 card. I'm currently leaning towards a Gainward Geforce2 Pro right now... Does anyone currently have this card in their system?

[Paddy]

I have not seen that particular card. However, I have yet to find ANY GF2 card that looks asa nice, crisp and 'deep' as my G400.

I assume as they use the same chipset they would all be pretty similar?

[Wombat]

It seems like some mfrs are doing better with the new GF3s than the GF2s. Gainward is probably the best 2D for a GF2, but that's kinda like being the smartest kid on the short bus.

[Gurm]

The BEST GF2's come close to but don't beat the Radeon, which is to say they're a close 3rd in image quality.

The WORST GF2's are hands-down the worst cards ever in display quality.

No card ever made (except another, older Matrox card *wink*) looks better than a G400. NOTHING.

- Gurm

[Bellyofthebeast]

Just received & installed the Leadtek WinFast GF3 Ti500. This particular GF3 card ROCKS! With the advanced & enhanced filtering technology that no other Ti500 card has, this card lives up to the latest reviews. (already mentioned in thread: http://firingsquad.gamers.com/hardware/winfastti500/) To be honest, I didn't expect this card to perform better than the Matrox400Max for 2D, on a practical basis. What a pleasant surprise.

All I can say for now is WOW! (Later, I'll post some substantial benchmarks/scores here, to show how it stacks up, as personal testing has just begun.)

As a long time Matrox fan/user, I need the best 2D card for graphis/work purposes. The well known Matrox G400Max WAS that card. In fact, for 2D purposes, the G400Max out-performs the G450, G550, GF2, GF3 (except OCZ Titan3 & Leadtek GF3 TI500), & any Radeon (including 8500). Until now, no other could touch the G400Max, in 2D quality.

It runs cool, very fast, smooth 3D & high quality 2D. The driver I'm using is the Nvidia version 22.80. My system is P4/WinXP/Sony GDM-F400.

Everybody knows Nvidia responds with great drivers & Radeon has lagged behind in this area. That's not to say ATI will create a driver for the 8500 which will finally outscore the GF3-Ti500s out there. However, until all those cards catch up with this latest 2D technology/quality output as well, the driver issue is certainly in Nvidia's favor.

I'm still a believer in Matrox, they are the pioneers of true quality 2D cards. In time, they will exceed the industry standard set by the G400.

For now, the Leadtek GF3 Ti500 is the most advanced card (under $1000), both 2D & 3D are amazing, & the intelligent bundle includes 2 complete full version games plus ALL cables you'll need! WinFox utility included is excellent. (ver2.0 beta also available, from Leadtek, for game/tweaker addicts)

Of course, 6 months from now, new Nvidia chipsets/drivers & matured Radeon drivers are bound to emerge & could change all the above. Finally, good integrated 2D/3D cards are coming our way.

[orangejulius]

How about the colors?
Are they as deep and rich as a Matrox card?

[Bellyofthebeast]

orangejulius,
Still testing, will reply again soon. The WinFox utility allows for color tweaks too, not to mention the numerous Nvidia tweaks!

So far, I'd say the colors are richer, or at least equal to Matrox G400 Max.

Perhaps of great interest is the overclock ability & its stability, of this Leadtek GF3-Ti500, even with their stock heatsink/fan. That is one beautiful & effective design.

[Gurm]

Colors = Bleh. No matter how crisp you get it via filters, the chipset generates poop for colors.



Additionally, their second display output is nowhere near as good.

- Gurm

[Novdid]

The Geforce3 doesn't have a second output...remember.

[Bellyofthebeast]

More info on recent purchase of Leadtek GF3Ti500. (In the past, ATI has burned me with driver problems, so Radeon 8500 will have to wait for now.)

Being essentially a Matrox user many years, I never found a card close to the G400Max in terms of superior 2D quality, including the newer Matrox G450/G550 or any other card under $1000. (2D is important to me for work/graphics purposes)

So far, testing with this new Leadtek, with supposedly better image quality (based on the latest filtering process technology, no other GF3Ti500 has yet), I find the 2D to be better than my Matrox G400Max. (Of course, the 3D is no contest for Matrox.)

Here are some 3D Mark-MadOnion scores I'm getting:
16bit-stock 240/500-2280-nVidia Drvs--7737--cpu2000
16bit-(ocl)251/561-2280-nVidia Drvs--7960--cpu2000
16bit-stock 240/500-2280-nVidia Drvs--8029--cpu2140ocl
16bit-(ocl)250/525-2280-nVidai Drvs--8148--cpu2140ocl

No special cooling used, just stock Intel P4 fan/hs & stock Leadtek fan/hs.

Image quality in both 2D & 3D is outstanding, applications or games. Color depth for 2D is equal or better than Matrox G400Max. Color depth for 3D is best I've seen, any 3D card. (haven't used the Radeon 8500 card on my system, so I cannot compare that one) The monitor used here is a Sony GDM-F400(dp 0.22), which is capable of diminishing subjective differences of color depth & overall image quality, because its own technology can compensate. (Image quality subjectivity is a problem for proper analysis.)

Still running tests, will try to give more data later. (P4,2000,AbitTH7II,2X512RDRAM,WinXP,SCSI-hds)

The big issue, R-8500 drvs vs NVidia drvs, still indicates to me, in spite of the latest 8500 drvs released (showing marginally better numbers, with much greater headroom technology-wise), that nVidia still rules. Also, nVidia tell us that we can expect approx up to another 20% performance increase (future drivers), from the current GF3 chipset! (The next big real jump in performance will involve faster vid mem anyway)

Will test an R-8500 in a few weeks, & report back on findings.

Where is Matrox with the R-8500 & WinFast GF3-Ti500 closing in on their hard earned ground??? (By the way, I'm still holding on to my trusty G400Max, for good measure.)

[isochar]

1600x1200?