Vista and Graphics - Is Matrox really that good for text? - Please enlighten me

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

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

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.

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).

Am I imagining things here. I am not a gamer. I work primarly w/office
applications. This is disappointing.

One final thing - in MSOutlook, there is now a 1/2 second hesitation
w/html
graphics are rendered. Prior to this w/my old PC, which was a very fast
AMD
dual core machine, you never say any rendering - the image graphics
displayed instantaneously. This is annoying as well.

Any thoughts?

Why is Matrox shutting down their forums?

* BigJim:
go back to xp

The reason being exactly what?

Benjamin

You may want to try turning cleartype off to smooth the edges, I have found the text better with it
off. I'm in XP right now but I think the steps for Vista a Right click the desktop and select
personalize. Then choose the top one on the list, look for the effects button and change the font
smoothing from cleartype to standard.
--
Dave Vair
CNE, CNA, MCP, A+, N+

"John Smith" wrote in message . ..
Dell Dell UltraSharp 2405FPW - 1920 x 1200 - the monitor is listed as generic PNP in windows since
I doubt that Dell has a vista driver.

Running with the Matrox card under XP w/the same monitor had better text, pristine almost and no
issue w/refresh of graphics objects in emails.




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

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

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.

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).

What monitor are you using, and at what resolutions/refresh rates?

1. I have been using a DVI cable from the start.

2. I have been running in native resoution from the start. 1920 X 1200

3. Cleartype has always been a negative for me. It seems to add a bluriness
to text. What appears is happening it that even after you turn it off, some
applications, notably Outlook and Windows Mail (formerly Outlook express)
continue to have vesitages (part of the text in the progam) of cleartype.
This was a bug in betas of IE7 and appears to be present in Vista.

4. Having said all that, the text is worse than in XP. The new default font,
Segoe UI, is simply horrible. It looks like the Apple UI and its ugly. In
cleartype its blurry.You can change it, but vestiges remain.

It may be that the Matrox thing is a red herring. It sounds like Matrox
cards really cannot compete w/ATI and NVidia even aside from games. That is
why I purchased the NVidia based card.



"Benjamin Gawert" wrote in message
...
* BigJim:
go back to xp

The reason being exactly what?

Benjamin

* John Smith:
3. Cleartype has always been a negative for me. It seems to add a
bluriness to text. What appears is happening it that even after you turn
it off, some applications, notably Outlook and Windows Mail (formerly
Outlook express) continue to have vesitages (part of the text in the
progam) of cleartype. This was a bug in betas of IE7 and appears to be
present in Vista.

There is a checkbox in the internet settings that says somewthing like
"use ClearType to display html pages" and it overrides the general
ClearType setting...

4. Having said all that, the text is worse than in XP. The new default
font, Segoe UI, is simply horrible. It looks like the Apple UI and its
ugly. In cleartype its blurry.You can change it, but vestiges remain.

Yes, the font is different (and I also find it a bit uglier than the old
one) but this is a Vista thing and not gfx card related.

It may be that the Matrox thing is a red herring. It sounds like Matrox
cards really cannot compete w/ATI and NVidia even aside from games. That
is why I purchased the NVidia based card.

I think that the issue you have is simply due to the new Vista font and
not because of the gfx card. In this case you could try to change the
default font to something that is comfortable for you or just go back to
Windowsxp then. A different gfx card won't help you here.

Benjamin

John Smith wrote:

I have been using Matrox cards since the early 1990s. My sole reason is
their superlative text quality.

The "Matrox has better 2D" mantra has as much weight today as Ricardo
Montalban extolling the virtues of fine "Corinthian Leather" in the
then-new Chrysler Cordoba.

There aren't cows on the island of Corinth, and modern 2D is long
standardized across the board. But it has the wonderful familiar ring of
nostalgia.

I have been using Matrox cards since the early 1990s. My sole reason is
their superlative text quality.

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

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.

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).

Am I imagining things here. I am not a gamer. I work primarly w/office
applications. This is disappointing.

One final thing - in MSOutlook, there is now a 1/2 second hesitation w/html
graphics are rendered. Prior to this w/my old PC, which was a very fast AMD
dual core machine, you never say any rendering - the image graphics
displayed instantaneously. This is annoying as well.

Any thoughts?

Why is Matrox shutting down their forums?

Mr.E Solved! wrote:
John Smith wrote:

I have been using Matrox cards since the early 1990s. My sole reason is
their superlative text quality.

The "Matrox has better 2D" mantra has as much weight today as Ricardo
Montalban extolling the virtues of fine "Corinthian Leather" in the
then-new Chrysler Cordoba.

There aren't cows on the island of Corinth, and modern 2D is long
standardized across the board. But it has the wonderful familiar ring of
nostalgia.

Corinth is a city, not an island, and the peninsula on which Corinth and
other cities is located is only technically an island because of a canal
that was built separating the peninsula from the mainland in the late
19th century. It is possible that leather could be manufactured in
Corinth regardless of whether or not there are cows in Corinth or on the
peninsula (note that there is a breed of cow called "Peloponnesus"
presumably named after the peninsula they were first identified on?)
However, you are correct in as far as the "Corinthian Leather" that was
made so famous by the Chrysler commercials was rumoured to have been
manufactured in America instead.

That said, is it not possible that while cards based on ATI and nVidia
chipsets may comply with the standards for DVI, that Matrox cards exceed
those standards by a greater amount? Whether or not that is true, I'd
imagine any visual differences arising from such implementation
differences would not be noticeable to the hoi polloi.

I hope you enjoyed this quite ridiculous post.

Cameron.

mart wrote:


http://reviews.cnet.com/Matrox_Mille...2.html?tag=sub

Now i have seen everything.

--
Lasse Jensen [fafler at g mail dot com]
Linux, the choice of a GNU generation.

* Lasse Jensen:

http://reviews.cnet.com/Matrox_Mille...2.html?tag=sub

Now i have seen everything.

Yeah, interesting, isn't it? It's unbelieveable how many sites like CNET
just write some BS without noticing it...

At least the manufacturer Matrox doesn't seem to know that they are
using Nvidia GPUs:
http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/finent/products/pseries/p650lppcie.php

Benjamin