HardwareBanter - View Single Post - Vista and Graphics - Is Matrox really that good for text?

**Benjamin Gawert** · December 31st 06, 12:24 PM posted to alt.comp.periphs.videocards.nvidia

Since my news server doesn't show the original message (yet) so I have
to put my reply here.

* :
"John Smith" wrote in message . ..
I have been using Matrox cards since the early 1990s. My sole reason is
their superlative text quality.

Well, "text quality" is equal in all gfx cards since the use of gfx card
fonts has stopped with the increasing use of graphical desktops like
Windows 3.0...

The only thing Matrox cards were really good has been the analog signal
quality. But today with flat panels connected vie DVI this is a
no-brainer anymore, and in all other areas Matrox just sux...

I just built a new PC based on the PCI-e spec running Windows Vista. I have
Vista Enterprise thru my company.

Because I wanted to run the Vista Aero color scheme, I opted for a card that
has 256 mb of memory - an excellent card from Gigabyte that uses the NVidia
7600GT engine - GIGA N 7600GT GV-NX76T256D-RH R

Nice card, but the analog signal quality is average at best...

I can only say that compared w/my Matrox 650 and before that 550 and before
that 450 and before that the Mystique, the text on this card is blurry. Its
not even close. The only way is was even marginally acceptable was to turn
on cleartype which I have always disliked.

You wrote you are using an Dell 2405FPW. Do don't have connected this
monitor via the VGA cable, do you? You should use the DVI connection as
connecting a 24" TFT display via VGA is just silly because it affects
image quality while DVI does not.

And of course you're running the correct resolution (1920x1200), don't
you? Because only the native resolution looks really good on a TFT
display...

I just don't get it especially since the Matrix 650 PCIe card w/128mb is
based on the NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT chipset (according to CNet).

That's BS. Matrox doesn't use Nvidia chipsets, they use their own
outdated GPUs. But analog image quality has nothing to do with the GPU...

Benjamin