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Owen,
The Matrox G450 has long been king of the hill for budget dual display video
cards, primarily because it was the pioneer. But its role has recently been
challenged by the ATI Radeon VE, which has been in the market for about 6
months only. Anyone interested in dual display cards should read both of the
following articles and then make an informed decision:
1) http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1423
2) http://www6.tomshardware.com/graphic/01q1/010316/index.html
Note that all dual display cards, at the present time, are intended
primarily for 2D graphics - if you use your trading computer also for
gaming, then think twice before switching as these cards have limited 3D
capabilities!!
I read both of the above-mentioned reviews and then purchased the ATI Radeon
VE and am quite happy with it. Both cards are very similar in their basics,
and just differ in minor details; choose one depending on which features are
important to you - you can't go wrong with either. I can summarize the main
advantages of the ATI Radeon VE as:
- cheap
- its HydraVision software is developed by Appian Graphics (which rules the
higher-end dual monitor video card market)
- (this point you are apt to miss even after reading all the technical
details of both cards!) The Matrox G450 only supports analog LCD monitors
whereas the Radeon VE supports both analog and digital LCD monitors. Why is
this important? - in future, most LCD monitors will have the DVI interface
(supported natively by the ATI card) and there is always some loss of
information when converting from digital signal to analog signal (all video
signals are digital; in digital LCD monitors, the signal remains digital
throughout its course so there is no loss whereas in analog LCD monitors,
the signal is first converted to analog and then back again to digital for
the display. I mean - DUH!! The only reason why analog LCDs are around is
because that way they can be connected to the standard VGA port which every
video card has).
Hope this helps.
Shashi
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Date: Thu, 16 Aug 2001 10:49:47 -0700
From: "Owen Davies" <owen@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: computer graphic card memory
> I also love my Matrox dual monitor card; and it is only the 16 meg
> variety. I understand that there are better cards (both dual, and
> single, but the Matrox is great for the price. ;^)
You are right, of course. Price really is the deciding factor. What
I should have said was that to the best of my knowledge there is
nothing that can touch the Matrox unless you are willing to spend
big bucks--starting at the cost of my entire computer and going way
up from there!--on a video card designed for CAD or high-end
professional graphics. Maybe when I'm sure my trading is bullet-
proof and have the cash to prove it. But, short of that, I really don't
know anything that compares with the it.
On the hardware review sites I look at, no one has offered a
reasonable alternative to the Matrox, for our purposes. The usual
suggestion is the ATI Radeon, for folks who care about 2D graphics
but want better speed for video games. However, it's always
conceded that they will get noticeably less 2D performance. "Good
enough" is the usual description, and for me, it might not be. I haven't
bothered to look at it, because I have not played a video game since
the Atari 400--and someone gave that to me. Like probably everyone
else here, however, I do spend a lot of time looking at 2D graphics.
Owen
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