G450 or G400 MAX (dumb question time)

[cputnam]

Sorry, but the Starbucks hasn't kicked in yet.

I'm planning on swapping out the GeForce2 card in my system for either a G450 or G400 MAX. The GeForce is great for games, but try looking at it for 8 hours a day and getting work done - furgitit. Image quality is mediocre at best.

System is a Gateway Performace 850 w/ 384mb RAM and running Win2000 Pro. Primarily use MS Office and WordPerfect along with several photo rendering applic's. An occasional game or two (primarily D3D based games).

Seems that the G400MAX has the edge (based on performance tests) on business benchmarks and D3D benchmarks. Can anyone advise if there's a real advantage of the G450 over the G400 MAX (therh than price)?

Thanx!

[Rob M.]

The 2nd head has a higher-quality ramdac and can therefore support higher resolutions on the G450.

Don't know of any other improvements, but if you've got dual large monitors, the ability to go higher than 1024x768 (in win2k) may be nice.

[Greebe]

The G450's second head can do higher resolution than a G400 (Max) with it's 230mHz ramdac. Image quality is also a tad better. Other than that the G400(Max) is faster.

[ayoub_ibrahim]

I'm in agreement with Rob & Greebe!

[Venturer]

However even the normal G400 is faster than G450!

[Brian R.]

Forgive me if I'm heretical, but I had the same experience that cputnam did. I bought a Prophet II for gaming and was severely disappointed in the display quality. After some G400 MAX time (my favorite card BTW) I tested a card for my son's computer and found the ASUS V7700 was great. Without testing it and the MAX side by side, I don't know which one is better for display quality.

My point is: You might want to take a chance on the ASUS V7700. I got mine for $195 from
http://www.neutronet.com/

and there are some places selling them for $189 in Pricewatch. Excellent card. Made my gaming computer happy. (sorry guys...)