Video card help

[wikksmith]

Hello:
Sorry if this is a worn out topic, but I’m adding a 2nd monitor to my system (HP with Pentium D, 2GB RAM, 1 PCIe x16 slot) and need to upgrade the video card. Both monitors are VGA, but I want to be able to move to DVI in the future. I use Vegas 6.0 and Photoshop CS2. No gaming. HDTV output is not an issue. I know that 3D performance is next to meaningless with Photoshop and Vegas. I’ve heard good things about Matrox for 2D, but it’s not clear to me what a Millennium P650 would do that a $100 Nvidia-based card with dual DVI and nView (ex XFX 6800 XT) couldn’t handle.
Suggestions?
Thanks, wikksmith

 

[halcyon]

I used Matrox cards for a looooong time, and swore by them. The VGA signal they put out seems to be stronger than what I've seen on many nVidia and ATI cards. This tends to matter when you're looking at clarity of the image and especially if you're considering high resolutions (& refresh rates) or running the signal through a KVM switch. Matrox has always seemed strong in the VGA arena...heard once that it had to do with their RAMDACs...

Most contemporary cards you now are strong in just painting the screen in 2D...but I still think you may get better 2D out of the Matrox P650 than out of say a...GeForce 4xxx or 5xxx.

IMHO
:roll: