Will I have any probelms or loss of image quality using a Maxtor P650 with a modern high-end 1600x1200 digital LCD display? I hate to buy a newer video card since the board is AGP and I will completely rebuild the computer early next year and need a new card. Of course I don't play any 3D video games or watch pron movies, etc. Thanks.
Older Video card?
- Thread starter LunarMist
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Tannin
Storage? I am Storage!
Maybe you mean Matrox, Lunar One. Last I heard, Maxtor were still making hard drives.
Matrox, for all their silly pricing and lack-lustre performance, used to make video cards with superb output quality. So far as I know, they still do. I think you will be flat-out telling any difference in picture quality between the Matrox and a brand-new card running DVI.
Notice though that I don't have any LCD screens that run at 1600x, and it's possible that your Matrox will run out of steam at that point. But there is certainly no sign of image degredation at 1280 x 1024 on any of my motley collection of much-loved old Matrox cards: all 32MB G400s or G450s. Oh, and I used to have some still older ones which are, I think, now retired. But they worked beautifully on the screens I had back then.
Note also that you will be relying on your monitor to get the A-D conversion right too. If the monitor's A-D converter is so-so, then you will lose quality. Ditto the cable. But, knowing you, you won't be running some cheapo screen, it will be a good quality unit, and even at 1600 it will probably cope just fine.
Remember that the degree of difficulty for analogue video transmission is determined by the combination of resolution and frequency. For any given video card, cable, and monitor, there is a certain point beyond which quality starts to degrade. What I'm geting at here is that even if your Matrox card starts to struggle at 1600x on (say) a 22 inch CRT where it is running at 85Hz, it may well be perfectly OK at that same 1600x on an LCD where it is only being asked to run at 60Hz.
Bottom line: yep, no worries. People make far too much fuss about DVI anyway. And for the sort of stuff you do, performance will be a complete non-issue. The Matrox will be just fine.
Matrox, for all their silly pricing and lack-lustre performance, used to make video cards with superb output quality. So far as I know, they still do. I think you will be flat-out telling any difference in picture quality between the Matrox and a brand-new card running DVI.
Notice though that I don't have any LCD screens that run at 1600x, and it's possible that your Matrox will run out of steam at that point. But there is certainly no sign of image degredation at 1280 x 1024 on any of my motley collection of much-loved old Matrox cards: all 32MB G400s or G450s. Oh, and I used to have some still older ones which are, I think, now retired. But they worked beautifully on the screens I had back then.
Note also that you will be relying on your monitor to get the A-D conversion right too. If the monitor's A-D converter is so-so, then you will lose quality. Ditto the cable. But, knowing you, you won't be running some cheapo screen, it will be a good quality unit, and even at 1600 it will probably cope just fine.
Remember that the degree of difficulty for analogue video transmission is determined by the combination of resolution and frequency. For any given video card, cable, and monitor, there is a certain point beyond which quality starts to degrade. What I'm geting at here is that even if your Matrox card starts to struggle at 1600x on (say) a 22 inch CRT where it is running at 85Hz, it may well be perfectly OK at that same 1600x on an LCD where it is only being asked to run at 60Hz.
Bottom line: yep, no worries. People make far too much fuss about DVI anyway. And for the sort of stuff you do, performance will be a complete non-issue. The Matrox will be just fine.
Tannin
Storage? I am Storage!
An afterthought: I have always considered that for photography work a good CRT beats a good LCD hands down. You just can't be sure of the actual brightness of the image on an LCD. Is that picture a little too dark? A little too light? Move your head an inch and the answers change. I always used to try to do my photo editing on a CRT (I have several good ones).
But as I started spending more and time away in the bush where the only screen I had available was on my laptop, I gradually started getting used to using an LCD. (I've been using LCDs on desktops for years, since a 12 inch TFT screen was a good one and the K6-233 was state of the art — but in the main only for text-based work.)
These days I do nearly everything photo-related on a 19 inch LCD. I no longer feel that I'm getting brightness levels wrong all the time. Have I just got better at it? Or is a CRT still the best?
But as I started spending more and time away in the bush where the only screen I had available was on my laptop, I gradually started getting used to using an LCD. (I've been using LCDs on desktops for years, since a 12 inch TFT screen was a good one and the K6-233 was state of the art — but in the main only for text-based work.)
These days I do nearly everything photo-related on a 19 inch LCD. I no longer feel that I'm getting brightness levels wrong all the time. Have I just got better at it? Or is a CRT still the best?
Yeah, I'm sure that an LCD is not as good in some ways, but CRTs seem to be dying out. I don;t want to get something that might need service. At this point I am not willing to physically move the CRT since they are all over 60 lbs and too bulky for me to handle. If an LCD fails I could handle and pack it for shipment. I was planning to get a 21" Ezio Nano, which was recommended in some of the photo forums. Of course I always calibrate monitors regularly.
Bozo
Storage? I am Storage!
If the Matrox card can handle the 'native' resolution of the LCD, you should be fine.
I've set up numerous LCD screens using the motherboard supplied video without any problems. Again, these are 99% text and no games or movies.
Bozo :mrgrn:
I've set up numerous LCD screens using the motherboard supplied video without any problems. Again, these are 99% text and no games or movies.
Bozo :mrgrn:
Buck
Storage? I am Storage!
The P650 will handle digital and analogue resolutions higher than you are asking, so you'll be fine. I personally use the P650 in conjunction with a Samsung 192T and love the results. It's amazing what a quality 64MB AGP card can do with 2D stuff. I don't have any problems playing AOE II (and that's important).
Stereodude
Not really a
As long as the card supports Window's alpha blending in hardware you'll be fine. If not all the windows effects will be sluggish.
Tannin
Storage? I am Storage!
You mean all that eye-candy crap that is the first thing everyone with half a brain switches off? Or something else?
Stereodude
Not really a
If your computer accelerates the effect (which most nVidia and ATI cards do) the "eye candy" doesn't slow down the computer, so there's no reason to turn it off.Tannin said:
Santilli
Hairy Aussie
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Well, I can say on CRT's that the matrox P550, and P650 are simply stunning.
Running at Billions of colors, even on three screens, the P650 is simply incredible.
What it doesn't do well is High definition video becomes a slide show.
Games, at least my overall Quake 3, play favorably, but, to be honest, are a long way from the speed of the ATI 700-800XL series.
The ATI's are very good in 2d, but, simply not up to even the G550, and, not close to the P650.
Still, the cards stay expensive, and fairly hard to find.
The new games really need 128-256-512mb of vram to really run well.
But, I don't think this is your concern.
I just turned on the Dell, which has a P550 in it, and it is clearer then the ATI 800XL, but not by as huge an amount as it used to be.
As far as the LCD's, listen to the other posters in this thread.
gs
Running at Billions of colors, even on three screens, the P650 is simply incredible.
What it doesn't do well is High definition video becomes a slide show.
Games, at least my overall Quake 3, play favorably, but, to be honest, are a long way from the speed of the ATI 700-800XL series.
The ATI's are very good in 2d, but, simply not up to even the G550, and, not close to the P650.
Still, the cards stay expensive, and fairly hard to find.
The new games really need 128-256-512mb of vram to really run well.
But, I don't think this is your concern.
I just turned on the Dell, which has a P550 in it, and it is clearer then the ATI 800XL, but not by as huge an amount as it used to be.
As far as the LCD's, listen to the other posters in this thread.
gs
I will only use the P650 for three months at most. It will be a waste since an AGP card will be useless in my next machine, but at least it is not too expensive. I'm against almost all video games, and would not even risk installing them on my system.
I received the P650, but the blasted card will not work properly. 
When first connected the display functions in the nasty VGA mode as usual. When the drivers are installed and the system is rebooted, the display completely disappears after the loading settings/network connecting message in Win2K. The display indicates that no signal is connected. I downloaded the latest Matrox drivers to no avail. Any ideas?
When first connected the display functions in the nasty VGA mode as usual. When the drivers are installed and the system is rebooted, the display completely disappears after the loading settings/network connecting message in Win2K. The display indicates that no signal is connected. I downloaded the latest Matrox drivers to no avail. Any ideas?
Santilli
Hairy Aussie
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LunarMist said:I received the P650, but the blasted card will not work properly.
Virus, etc.? I've noticed on my machine, lately, that after folding@home is running, if I click something, the screen goes blank, then comes up again, and everything is fine.
Without Fucking@home(excuse me, sorry
:lol: :mrgrn: :wink Everything works fine...If all else fails, send the card to me, and I will test it for you, on a similar machine to yours.;..
gs
Tannin
Storage? I am Storage!
Matrox drivers are weird, Lunar Mist. (Sorry iGary, but it's true.)
You sometimes have to go into safe mode, delete the drivers, then reboot and hit the Matrox site again for a different driver. They typically have three or four different ones that will suit any particular card, so just buggerise aound till you find one that works. You always succeed eventually, and once you do they are solid, fuss-free and stable for the next ten million years, or the next OS install, whichever comes first.
But before you do that, go into safe mode and delete your monitor. (You might have to do this a couple of times in different ways.) Often blank display problems are caused by a video card (any brand, though Matrox and Voodoo cards seem to be the worst) outputting a wildly inappropriate frequency. Let Wndows redetect the monitor and all will be well. Unless it's some other problem, in which case see above.
Also, try installing on a different monitor and hot-swapping the cable till you get the drivers happy.
You sometimes have to go into safe mode, delete the drivers, then reboot and hit the Matrox site again for a different driver. They typically have three or four different ones that will suit any particular card, so just buggerise aound till you find one that works. You always succeed eventually, and once you do they are solid, fuss-free and stable for the next ten million years, or the next OS install, whichever comes first.
But before you do that, go into safe mode and delete your monitor. (You might have to do this a couple of times in different ways.) Often blank display problems are caused by a video card (any brand, though Matrox and Voodoo cards seem to be the worst) outputting a wildly inappropriate frequency. Let Wndows redetect the monitor and all will be well. Unless it's some other problem, in which case see above.
Also, try installing on a different monitor and hot-swapping the cable till you get the drivers happy.
Santilli
Hairy Aussie
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Sounds to me like a bad card.
Still, try getting on the Matrox Forums and discussing it. GREAT source for information on their cards.
http://forum.matrox.com/mga/index.php
gs
Still, try getting on the Matrox Forums and discussing it. GREAT source for information on their cards.
http://forum.matrox.com/mga/index.php
gs
Yikes! After reading the forums it seems that the Maxtrox cards have all sorts of problems. I guess it is driver thing that is beyond my ability to resolve. I should have tried the card first before buying the monitor, since I am missing out on some advantages of the expensive high end monitor when analog signal is used. I could probably have lived with something cheap like the Dell 24" display.
CougTek
Hairy Aussie
You bought the Eizo 21"?