Radeon <-?-> Matrox

[Yullin]

Howzit

I am going to buy my new video card this week.

Please help me with my final choice.

I am looking for - THE BEST - TV-out quality and i am going to use it to play DIVX on my tv.

2 Chioces:

1.Radeon 8500Le - Pro: very good balance between 2D & 3D, DirectX 8.1 and a new release, kind of.

1.Radeon 8500Le - Con: apparently it often will not go full screec with TV-out and has black borders around the picture on the TV, bad driver support

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-OR-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

2.Matrox G550 - Pro: Exellent 2D quality and TV-out abilities

2.Matrox G550 - Con: Apparently there is a problem with playing Divx on the TV with TV-out?


SO - Which one do you suggest ??????????

Thanks

[Novdid]

The tv-out is very good on the ATI boards. Haven't had any of the issues you are reffering to as you can adjust most of the size and position settings in the drivers tab.

The Matrox board do have a tad better tv-out support but that's mainly because it's more userfriendly (DVD Max).

If you plan to do some gaming too there's no logic in picking the Matrox.

Good luck with your choice!

[Dr Mordrid]

Whatever you pick get the cheapest thing you can get by with with a mind towards upgrade again before too long.

If you don't you'll be pulling your hair out sooner than you think

Dr. Mordrid

[Greebe]

I'll second that Doc

[Cobos]

Considering what Dr Mordrid and Greebe said I would consider getting a old/used G400 Max/or std DualHead if you are not going to play higher than 800x600 (or maybe 1024x768) or a Radoen 7500 if you are going to play a lot more....

Cobos

[MetalCartman]

Originally posted by Cobos
...I would consider getting a old/used G400 Max/or std DualHead...

I'd also recommend that, have a look at ebay...

My G400Max is doing its job quite well with my P4 Northwood 1.6@2.4 (150MHz FSB), I can even play Comanche 4 at 800*600*32....

Greetz,
Cartman

[Evildead666]

and there is NO problem playing DivX files on the TV out.
Only with playing Realmedia files and stuff...
and thats only in DVDMax mode. It seems to only pick up windows media player videos.
I haven't tried with the Playa, cos i don't use it.
If u put it in clone moee, u should be able to see Realmedia files too...

[kenobi]

I don't like either of your choices. I do like both options as far as vidcards go but there is only one solution for tv-out as far as I'm concerened. There is a program I use called TV-tool. It is only available for nvidia based cards, and I have never been satisfied with any other combination. It allows complete customization of possitioning, black boarders, flicker, colour bleeding, brightness, contrast, black boarders, allows you to mirror your display on monitor and TV. It has macrovision disable for recording DV's out to tape(and they look better then a bought tape!)
I would recommend a Geforce3 ti200 w/tv-out. With tv-tool it has fantastic picture out. Plays dvd's and divx just great and will allow you to play games @ 800x600 with 4xantialias out to you tv at frame rates the other cards could only dream of. I you are looking for something a little cheaper a nice geforce MX400 w/tv-out are so cheap and will also play dvd and divx without even coming close to breaking a sweat.

[Greebe]

as long as you don't care about going blind... sure pull a kenobi

[Kruzin]

yea...my parents always warned my if I pulled my kenobi too much, I'd go blind

[Yullin]

So why would the route that - kenobi - has gone, make me go blind?

[Sasq]

Because nVidea cards tend to come with nVblur™ technology

[superfly]

I second the opinion regarding the radion 8500 TV and DVD output,it's much better than what i have with my GF3(visiontek)...


2d display quality is marginally better on the radion as well,even though the difference isn't huge and i'm trying out the 128 meg version with the latest drivers for win2k(6071's) and i must say that performance is outstanding,especially when anisotropic filtering is enabled...

Tried games like nascar 4,tribes 2,independence war 2,dungeon siege,sof multiplayer demo,combat flight simulator 2 and in each and every one,the performance is at least equal to my gf3 when anisotropic filtering is disabled and much better with it on....


Here's my 3d mark scoreservice.madonion.com/compare?2k1=3365451...

Pretty impressive for a 250$ card and i am very tempted to keep it(just got it yesterday btw...)

[Greebe]

Super, aren't you going to update your benchmark results now that you've pushed your P4 a bit higher?

[superfly]

I could do it,but i'm still in evaluation mode with regards to keeping the card....It all comes down to the drivers themselves really and i'm trying as many games/apps as i can at the moment....So far the drivers could be considered pretty good overall,both direct 3D and opengl.


Though there a are couple of games where my GF3 is noticably faster but i'm guessing thats still related to driver issues,nothing more...

The one game where the radeon was really faster(about 30~40% no less) was tribes 2,even more so when anisotropic filtering was set to max setting in the game's control panel where the game was butter smooth,even at 1600*1200 32 bit...An opengl game no less....

The hardware itself kicks some serious butt with overall better 2d and 3d quality than my GF3 and killer Anisotropic filtering performance that'll put to GF4 4600 to shame.....


Even in the event that i don't keep the card,i have new found respect for ATI and will keep a close eye on their upcoming releases,that's for sure.....