I'm lost........

LpV

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Feb 5, 2003
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Hi there !

I have a choice problem and everybody seems so game-and-3D-obsessed that I can't find any useful help.

I currently have a TNT2 based AGP card.

I don't really play games (very little demanding ones) so I don't care much about 3D. But I do have many windows open at once and I switch a lot, so I guess the card I need can't be slow.

All I want is perfect 2D, DVD Hardware decoding and a card that doesn't pull my PC down in terms of performance.

Could any of you please help me :

Is Matrox still what I need (I am talking about the old G550 as Parthelia is way too expensive for me) ?

Are other cards just as good in terms of plain 2D while also offering more (you never know, I might run one game someday or become an AutoCAD expert) ?

Help, help help !!!!
 

NE_Corridor

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Feb 5, 2003
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I would pass on Matrox at this time. Like you mentioned, the Parthelia is quite expensive and you can get similar 2D performance from much cheaper ATI/Nvidia cards. If the whole DVD/home theater setup is your thing, I would look for an ATI 8500 All-In-Wonder.
 

Conehead

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Feb 4, 2002
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Memory is what you need my friend...if games aren't important...then get an Nforce2 board with dual DDR...everything will run fine then.

"Hey!! Who's that hiding behind the bush??!...Well Wingding of course!"
 

Crashman

Polypheme
Former Staff
Your current card is fine, except it doesn't have any kind of hardware assist for DVD. You'll want to look for the cheapest Radeon card for that, I think. An old Radeon VE should cost around $35 and I'm fairly certain it has the Personal Cinema chip of it's siblings.

<font color=blue>There are no stupid questions, only stupid people doling out faulty information based upon rumors, myths, and poor logic!</font color=blue>