The video card with the best 2d output?

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by Sterling, Feb 2, 2010.

  1. HI

    Im kinda behind on computers. There was a time when Matrox produced the best image for numbers and letters for business users. Does this still hold true?

    thanks
     
  2. Nvidia Quadro NVS is the market leader. Matrox is a distant(?) second.
     
  3. GTS

    GTS

    I used to believe that any recent video card would be fine for 2D but a Tom's Hardware article I read yesterday actually said that some high-end video cards actually suck at 2D, it appears they have been focusing all their effort at 3D...not sure what to make of that except to stay away from Radeon 5000 series cards for now.

    Here's the article, there is a lot of background info on the differences in the graphics subsystems under XP, Vista and Win7 that may or may not be interesting to you:

    2D, Acceleration, And Windows: Aren't All Graphics Cards Equal?
    http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/2d-windows-gdi,2539.html

    I think the article's authors were really pounding these cards with special benchmarking software; for all "normal" Windows activities I'm bet even the poor performing cards in the article are probably fine.

    Edit: If you are talking about the quality of the output rather than speed/performance then I don't think it matters with today's digital monitors (LCD). Its not like the old analog CRT's with difference refresh rates, with digital output all video cards are going to produce the same image all else being equal.
     
  4. dont waste you time with esoterica. any decent gamer card using dvi will give you superb 2d.

    i use nvidia cards, so I cant vouch for the others.
     
  5. ken__0

    ken__0

    I agree just ordered a new system 2 nvidia 9500gt 1 gb card's any modern pcie card 3d or not with its gpu could obviously handle 2d ...
    dont cost much at all just make sure it has dual heads.
    Hell even the onboard motherboard graphics if so equiped can handle 2d just fine,, hey another monitor .......
    Just make sure your card has enough mojo so that it, not your system at large is doing the majority of the processing for that graphics which isnt much with 2d trading apps.
     
  6. got news for you, Windows 7 actually runs my GTS 250 in 3d mode 100 % of the time.

    2d aint what it used to be.