2D Board ?

[Guest]

Would someone kindly share their brillance about graphics boards with me please?

I am looking for a recomendation on an economical but beefy AGP board to do primarily 2D work (never exceeding 5% gameplay-3D). I am not going to be doing any video editing/DVD - just need a solid card to slap into this build:

ABIT KT7 MoBo
AMD Thunderbird 750Mhz
IBM Deskstar 75GXP, Ultra ATA/100 - 20.0GB
Corsair 128 MB PC133 SDRAM
Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live! Value

Those that have sparked my interest are:
3dfx Voodoo3 3000 16MB AGP
ATI Rage 128 Pro/Rage 128 - All in Wonder in 16MB and 32MB

I want to stay below ~90 bucks but will bump to 120 for the video in.

Any suggestions/comments? - Thanks in advance.

·G· in Texas

 

[RavenPrime]

ATI Rage 128 Pro is a good solid cheap card with video out and DVD decoding built in. It runs about $75-80US which is a good price. The drivers are mature. I put one in my partners system when I built his new one.
3D performance is weak but you will easily be able to play 800x600 resolution in 16bit color without the game becoming choppy. Get the 32MB Card.

😎 James

 

[Guest]

All the current cards are about the same in 2D. Personally I would go for the 3DFX card as it is better at 3D and as I said you won't notice any difference in 2D.

 

[jg38141]

Of those listed I'd go for the all in wonder 32 meg card. You will find it the most reliable (albeit the drivers may drive you insane at times) and best for the long run. And by the long run of course I mean the next year.

"Are you saying that I can dodge bullets?"

 

[Guest]

why don't you try Matrox G400?

<font color=orange>What do you think? </font color=orange>

 

[yoda271828]

I agree with alexlck, Matrox makes the best 2D boards.

 

[LTJLover]

Matrox is known for their 2D video editing and business application cards. I'd look into the G400 if you can find it cheap.

Jon
"Water-Cooled CPU Runner"

 

[Grizely1]

<i>What</i>? 3Dfx better at 3D? You might be comparing to ATI..... 😉

 

[Guest]

I am now the owner of a Voodoo 3 2000 card and I get tired of looking at the screen after about two hours, with my old Matrox Mystique I had no visual fatigue at all, and as I have heard very good things about the Matrox G450, I recommend you to buy it, but if you are able to find a Matrox G400Max, it will be cheaper but surprisingly performs better in 3D. That's because the Matrox G450 is just a version of the non-Max G400 which runs cooler.