Hello again and recommendations?

[Holerith]

Hello to all! Been a while since I've frequented these boards. Life intrudes, what can I say?

I'd like to request recommendations on a new video card. At the moment a new system is in the planning stages so the interface isn't quite nailed down yet as to whether it will be AGP or PCIe.

It will be required for general business applications, some basic graphics design and manipulation, and maybe the occasional game.

Initially it will be driving CRT monitors but may do LCD's in the future.

Video card budget has yet to be determined but I doubt if it will handle the solid gold models

Cheers!

[Kurt]

Maybe you should define your needs better, you're looking for a card that does everything, cheap. Doesn't exist.

The new P650 PCI-E might be interesting for you (64MB version), then again, you might as weel try a decent Sapphire ATI based card with LCD screens in DVI, you won't see much difference (if at all) and it'll be faster for 3D games.

The first thing you need to do is define your budget.

[Mikko]

The phrase "occational gaming" makes me wonder; is anything else but Matrox Parhelia? If you want to play games also, you should probably consider Matrox Parhelia 128MB (agp-8x). There is some info about upcoming product "Matrox Parhelia APVe" too (, witch is PCI Express), but nobody really knows it's suitability for gaming yet...

http://www.matrox.com/mga/corp/enterprise/products/parhelia_series.cfm

http://www.matrox.com/mga/workstation/video/news/press_rel/2004/parhelia_apv_e.cfm

If you don't play games, then I'd suggest either Millennium P650 or P750 Series depending on your monitor setup. P650 can handle up to two monitors and P750 up to three monitors.

http://www.matrox.com/mga/corp/enterprise/products/pseries.cfm

Of course, we would need to know your business to know what's best card for you. There are many application that require some sort of plugin to support TV-out preview, for example. Many of these plugins are specifically made for Parhelia only.