PCI graphics card recomendation?

[andraas]

Hi,

I would like to purchase a graphics card for my Shuttle Zen (http://global.shuttle.com/Product/ba...ew.asp?B_id=29) and Samsung SyncMaster 173P DVI capable LCD monitor(http://product.samsung.com/cgi-bin/n...d_id=DI17PSQAQ).

I have only a PCI slot for graphics card and I would like to use the DVI conection to my monitor.

It's not a gaming system, but I need excellent 2D performance, especially for reading text, as I have to spend many hours per day in front of my monitor and now I'm experiencing eyestrain problems.

Which PCI graphics card do you recomend?

Do you recomend Glyph anti-aliasing or the visual result is not better than ClearType? On my present setup ClearType is really ugly, but I've seen better results on some laptop computers.

A good PCI graphics card purchased today will be able to run also Windows Vista's demanding user interface?

Thank you for your attention!

Andras

[Dr Mordrid]

For that case: the Matrox P-650 Low-profile PCI.

http://www.matrox.com/mga/workstation/3dws/products/mill_pseries/p650_lowprofile.cfm

IMO no other card has the 2D image quality of the Matrox cards.

Dr. Mordrid

[rylan]

Except that its DVI, so the 2D image quality is going to be about the same from other manufacturers also.

[Marshmallowman]

And it probably won't be up to giving you all of Vistas bells and whistles

[DGhost]

And it probably won't be up to giving you all of Vistas bells and whistles

probably? it's well below the requirements for Glass...

[andraas]

probably? it's well below the requirements for Glass...

Will any PCI card fulfill the requirements?

[Nowhere]

Support for DX9.0 is a minimum.
But who knows how good will be PCI bus for this use (MS said somewhere something about very good timing of PCIe introduction, specifically regarding interface of Vista...but OTOH who knows how much of marketing speech was in that statement)

My take: why don't you buy the slowest/cheapest (used perhaps?) 2D card now with solid driver support (Matrox G series comes to mind...G450 exist in PCI/DVI version) and wait untill Longhorn will actually come out?

[andraas]

My take: why don't you buy the slowest/cheapest (used perhaps?) 2D card now with solid driver support (Matrox G series comes to mind...G450 exist in PCI/DVI version) and wait untill Longhorn will actually come out?

Yes, I was just thinking about this. Also because Matrox'support doesn't know yet if they will support Windows Vista on the Millenium P650 and because I could change the motherboard in the meantime and then go with PCIe...

But the Millenium P650 has also the Glyph Anti-aliasing and maybe it could help if results with ClearType continue to be not satisfying. In fact I would really like to get rid of this eyestrain problem...

[Nowhere]

P650 will for sure support Vista - in the sense that it'll work with it. (even my G400 will...) But you won't get the most fancy, fully hardware accelerated interface, P650 won't support this because it doesn't have neccesary features. So the interface will be on par with 2000/XP/2003 ones in that case...

As for Glyph...I wouldn't know, the only way is to see yourself how it looks (I've never seen it...)

[andraas]

Thank you ! I see.

And any direct experience with Glyph AA?

[andraas]

I found a good deal for a used G450 DH. Do you think that ClearType will look fine on this via DVI connection to my Samsung SyncMaster 173P? I cannot try myself as the vendor is not in my town, but for me the good font rendering to avoid the eyestrain I'm experiencing now is the reason for this purchase.

[schmosef]

I've used a variety of LCD screens and seen no real benefit of Glyph AA. ClearType is what I use.

[andraas]

My G450 Card arrived! It renders Cleartype via DVI better than the onboard graphics via VGA, but fonts are still too much coloured and blurry and I still experience eyestrain. Any advice to improve results? I've already tried ClearType Tuner and ClearTweak.

[Wombat]

If you've got eyestrain, then it's time to have your monitor or eyes checked. With a DVI connection, the displayed image should not be fluctuating.

[andraas]

If you've got eyestrain, then it's time to have your monitor or eyes checked. With a DVI connection, the displayed image should not be fluctuating.

Yes, you are right. I've also thought about this. I've went to check my eyes three times this year with different doctors and they all said that my glasses are OK. I have also a new quality LCD display, a Samsung SyncMaster 173P (quite expensive too). Anyway with the DVI connection I have no any visible flickering (while with the onboard VGA I could see flickering while processor/HDD under load). I have the impression that reading web page's texts on screen is stressing my eyes while looking on pictures there are no problems (but I need to read a lot of webpages' text). Without ClearType enabled the weight of fonts looks too light for me, with ClearType enabled font's weight is OK, but I find uncomfortable too look at fonts, maybe for their colored edges, they don't appear very clear for me at all...