[The CYPHER]

Ok...Here we go...

Which is the best video card for 2D(<cough> photo <cough> <cough> shop <cough> ) graphics...Right now I have a Voodoo3 3500, but I heard the The Matrox G400 series has better screen quality than any other card out there. This includes the new ATI's, the Savage 4's, and the ahem, (start ominous tone) Geeeeforce (end ominous tone)..

What do you all think...

And no, this isnt a question for my personal interest in upgrading...maybe.)
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The CyPHa

[This message has been edited by The CYPHER (edited March 28, 2000).]

[This message has been edited by The CYPHER (edited March 28, 2000).]

[coconutmonkey]

i've been looking at the Voodoo5 it's supposed to be released next month or something like that by 3dfx. In the product i'm working on we're gonna add support for the voodoo5 well because it kicks ass if you're into 3d and 2d it can handle 1000x1000 textures on models in real time. I'm sure it will kick in the 2d area because you can get either 64 or 128 megs of ram and it's hella fast.

[TICA]

i think there is going to be 2 versions
voodoo5 which is 64 megs of ram
and voodoo6 which is 128

oh yea and its going to cost about 600 american

[Frost]

The G400 is a good card, one of the best available for 2D both in quality and speed (also does very decent 3D at a good cost). 3DFX 'Voodoo' chipsets are only 3D-accelerators and do not support 2D (as far as I know), so getting a voodoo chipset for photoshop is pretty useless. (voodoo = games)

For those into 3D, you might also think twice about getting a Voodoo card, since it does not support Direct3D or OpenGL for MAX. I'm not sure if the 'mini OpenGL' drivers for 3dfx/voodoo will work with that -- i don't think so. Generally, Matrox and nVidia have good boards in this area, natively supporting Direct3D and have decent drivers supporting OpenGL.

If you have the money, I suggest going for Matrox G400, since it also supports two monitors on the same video card (the only card that does so). It is extremely useful as you can have a full-screen work area, and your tools on the other screen... I cannot stress how practical that is. -- or have MAX on one screen and photoshop on the other, etc...

frost.

[[Shizo]]

yep G400 is surely best 2d card.. also good for software mode in games (but who plays games in software mode these days? ha!)

------------------
Russia is power. You dont agree --> we nuke you!

[Dakkan]

umm.. voodoo3 and later models (like voodoo 4+5, soon to be released) all have 2d support.

so voodoo3,4,5=games+2d.....

[Ko]

I have an ASUS V6600 GeForce... (any brand will do) ...there's even faster GeForce boards around now!
And it's by far the best card available IMHO!
Very Fast 2d and mindblowing 3d.
The 3d speed of this card rivals/surppasses that of most high-end graphics-cards.
But you asked for 2d performance and this card delivers!

Ko

[This message has been edited by Ko (edited March 28, 2000).]

[Frost]

Thanks for the info Dakkan. =)

[sfr]

If you want to do any 3d modelling and animation, the GeForce is really the only card to consider, as the geometry (or T&L) unit provides a significant performance boost over all other gaming cards. This is at least true for Maya and 3DSMax, but I'd guess the same applies to most pro apps that use OpenGL.

If you only do 2d graphics, then you might want to choose only by image quality (from what I can tell, all modern PC video cards have pretty much the same 2d performance). Matrox cards are traditionally good in this respect.

Saffron / Sunflower

[Frost]

Hey Saffron.

I don't think applications or APIs use T&L yet. If you're using openGL for 3D support in your 3D app, I would be immensely impressed if drivers are up to date in using T&L under this API, also, I doubt apps such as MAX would support OpenGL calls to such functionality that has just been added recently (Native OpenGL on SGI had hardware T&L support, 3D hardware drivers only implement a fraction of the complete OpenGL calls, and since T&L was non-existent until recently, it shouldn't yet be used).

I could be wrong. =) (my job does not permit me to say "buy nVidia"!=)

frost.

[sfr]

T&L has been around on the PC for several years, it's just been called geometry acceleration and used to be restricted to $1000+ graphics accelerators like the top of the line 3Dlabs cards. So the support is there in pro 3d apps, and it does make a big difference compared to non-geometry accelerated chips. Which explains why companies like 3Dlabs are so scared of NVidia, who has now delivered better geometry performance for consumer price...

Saffron / Sunflower

[Ko]

Hi Frost

Maya takes full advantage of the T&L engine on the GeForce and Quadro cards from nVidia!
This means that the OpenGL API is fully supported and utilizes T&L...
Lightwave also runs fast as h*ll on a GeForce.
dunno if other applications such as MAX can handle the power

I had a VX1 (Permedia 3)on my dual PIII 500MHz and swapping it with a GeForce simply
blew my mind...

The VX1/GVX1 are 100% OpenGL certified for
all the major 3d apps. out there.

The GeForce doens't brag about this...
Yet it runs much faster than anyting I've seen!

Also the GeForce handles overlays just fine.

Ko

[Visigoth]

For 2D (Ie; just photoshop work) I would have to solidly cast my vote for the #9 Revolution IV 32mb AGP -- Alot of people debate the 3D quality of this card; But that's not what it was designed for, even though it has that capability. I have another system w/an nVidia GeForce 256, and a third system w/a 3DFX V3 3500 AGP -- None of them give nearly as clear image quality as the #9 Rev IV. The card is expensive; But for good reason. You won't find any other with as crystal-clear quality.

~{V}~

[Frost]

Thanks

[James]

GeForce256: everyone i know who has one, or knows about such stuff, says they are buggy as hell... we are getting new machines with tnt2 at work instead of geforce just cause its so unstable and unpredictable... may be ok for games tho im not sure..