Pixel-Churners: A round-up of Radeon 9700 PRO cards

Image Quality

But first, let's look at the cards individually. Since there are hardly any performance differences among these cards, we'll focus on the extras. For many buyers, image quality is another main selling point; even though the boards may have the same design, there are differences caused by the varying quality of their components. After all, these cards weren't all made in the same factory. To compare image quality, we hooked up two IBM P260 20" monitors to the cards and assessed image quality for both monitor ports at 1280x1024@85Hz and 1600x1200@75Hz. Please note that the cards may produce considerably better or worse images with different monitors.

The results reflect a subjective appraisal of the image quality displayed by the test monitors. Results may vary considerably with other models (see text).

And there's the rub. Since each manufacturer and monitor transforms the analog VGA signals differently, it's hard to derive conclusions from measurements of the cards' output signals. You can measure certain indicators and the edge steepness, but that won't reveal much about the display quality with your particular monitor. In fact, some monitors even have problems with edge steepness levels that are too high. The only way to be absolutely sure of your purchase is to check the display quality with your own monitor. Of course, you'll first have to find a store that installs the card in a test computer and allows people to bring their own monitors. And that's an almost impossible task, considering the influence of the Internet on shopping habits and the tendency to focus on low prices and gloss over sales advice. Anyway, it's about time that creaky analog transmission was dumped and that CRT monitors were only controlled digitally. The digital input could be converted to analog within the monitor and optimized for its picture tube. Some monitors already use this design.