G400 is good in 2D and Photoshop, but won't do any good in 3D, not any
gaming if you consider any late 3D actions. Since your main task is 2D, I'd
say you shouldn't worry unless you feel the need for more 3D.

If Photoshop is very important to you, you should go for a P4 system, that's
what Photoshop optimised. otherwise, Athlon offer better performance and
value for your $ (for your task). Other than P4 optimised apps, you will not
notice any  difference on these two system, Athlon could be faster if strong
FPU or low memory latency is required.

Jun Qian

----- Original Message -----
From: "David Brenner, Ph.D." <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, May 11, 2002 3:00 AM
Subject: [PCBUILD] Athlon or P4 System


> I'm sure this question has come up before, but...
>
> I am looking at putting together new system, with some new and some old
> parts. Disk subsytem will be 160 LVD drives I already have.LAN and Modem
are
> already in the parts bin. I will start with G400 Matrox card, but may
> upgrade to NVIDIA based card later. Most of the work is heavy spreadsheet
> and database, with lots of 2D type graphics, but some 3D stuff.. Am
looking
> at system that will be able to handle some games and photoshop work. Here
> are two systems I've priced out:
>
> Asus A7V333 with Athlon XP 1800, 512MB PC2700; price ~$400
>
> Asus P4T-E with P4 1800, 512 800MHz RAMBUS; price ~$500
>
> The real question is: given my use, will spending the extra $100 actually
> buy any noticable performance increase? As near as I can tell, on a per
> processor basis, both systems will be nearly equal, but I get some (?)
> performance gain by going with the P4 system with the RAMBUS.

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