G550 best of all for 2D?

[chaoliang]

Could G550 be the best card for 2D ever? (was, is and will be?) If so, I'll buy one. It seems to be better than Parhelia and R9700Pro in 2D and it is much much cheaper. The retail version costs about 150€ here in Germany. I work much with graphics and only play 2D games (AOM, Anno, NWN and so on). 2D quality has the absolute priority for me.
What do you guys think?

[Novdid]

NWN wasn't a 2d game last time I checked.

[knirfie]

nope, in definite need of a good 3d card there, doesn't run too bad on a g400 max though

[chaoliang]

Sorry, that was my mistake. I thought about Baldur's Gate2.

[Chrono_Wanderer]

150 euros is a rip off lol... i paid 150 canadian (around 0.7 per 1 euro i think) for my G550 2 years ago. at that price i also got myself a radeon 8500 128MB a few months back

[chaoliang]

It's the funny price policy of Matrox. The list price for America is not much better: about 125$.

[Pace]

Yep, Matrox don't really cut the price - until they realise that it really is crap and they can't sell them (M3D). Parhelias for $30 anyone?

[Chrono_Wanderer]

if i remember correctly they are selling m3ds for around 40 bucks canadian

[Indiana]

If all you care for is 2D, you might as well get a used or refurbished G400Max. They have a damn good 2D and should be cheaper than the G550 and even abit faster in 3D with working EMBM.

I'd say you only need the G550 if you need the DVI.

[chaoliang]

Where can I get price lists of refurbished G400Maxs? I checked in ShopMatrox but didn't find it.

[Maggi]

if you're working in high res, the G550 could be too slow due to its 64bit memory bus ...

[chaoliang]

Originally posted by Maggi
if you're working in high res, the G550 could be too slow due to its 64bit memory bus ...

Does it affect much? Is there any alternative?

[Maggi]

example:

- independant DH in 1600x1200 for each display
- load a high res picture into Photoshop
start dragging the picture around
-> you'll get a delay in movement of the picture, compared to your mouse

dunno how much this would affect your daily work, but I found it quite annoying after a while and ever since I run a Parhelia, this delay is completely gone, ie. everything is really sticky to the mouse.

The only alternative I could think of, is a Parhelia, but I cannot recommend it, in case you'd be affected by the reported issues with the current chip revision.

[Rags]

I wouldn't hesitate to recommend a Parhelia for 2D work at all.

In fact, I would recommend it even if you do gaming too.

The Parhelia is a very capable 2D card, it's the fastest I have used yet in windows.

EDIT:
Even in triple head, it's plenty snappy. Triple head is a must for me now

Rags

[GNEP]

Ditto to Rags. It's still expensive though.

Gnep