Date:    Tue, 5 Jul 2005 16:09:51 -0700
From:    Peter Shkabara <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Video cards

---I am not a gamer but do a little bit of video editing and some graphics.
It
is hard to interpret reviews because many are targeting the gamers market.
So I decided to post to this list for some feedback.

My display is a 20-inch LCD running at 1600x1200 resolution with 32-bit
color depth. Here is my question:
How do the following three video devices compare?
1) Radeon X600XT
2) NVIDIA GeForce 3 (my present system)
3) Intel 915G

Is there another device I should be looking at instead? Thank you.


Peter

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With the choices you have listed here Peter, the X600 is probably the
'strongest' of the bunch, but let me add my two cents here :) Your GeForce3
is starting to show its age a little but is still probably an OK card. The
integrated graphics (900 series) supported by the Intel 915G chipset are
quite a step up from the on-board graphics available in the past with Intel
8xx series chipsets, and provide OK 3D graphics (better 2D) but will still
fall a little short with the video editing you plan on doing. You'll have
support for PCI express based cards (along with SATA and DDR2) and that will
enable you to upgrade in the future. The X600 series is fine but has some
performance limitations. Of all of the reviews I have read about the
performance of that particular chip (mostly gaming oriented), few have been
very kind. I have seen a number of Media Center PC's that use the X600 card,
but their overall performance has been posted as less than stellar mainly
due to the cards limitations with higher demanding graphics. You do have the
availability of VIVO with that card and if you want the simplicity of that
feature built into a graphics card, its hard to beat the overall
features/performance combination. Especially if you decide to buy the card
from NewEgg or Tiger Direct (priced in the neighborhood of $125). What kind
of response time do you have with your monitor? I bought a Dell 1704FPV (on
EBay for $180) and with a response time of 25ms, I get just a slight bit of
ghosting on fast motion. I have an external capture card from ATI (USB 2.0)
with RCA and S-video inputs that I use with an ATI X300SE and I'm pretty
happy with the results. It's by no means a gaming powerhouse, but I get
decent picture quality and the whole setup costs about the same as a VIVO
card. Plus it uses a passive heatsink and that coupled with the low heat
generated by it helps to keep the total system noise/temperature down. The
X600 comes with its ownheatsink/fan combo and if you are sensitive to noise
that may be a consideration. Personally, I'm looking at the X700 series of
cards to upgrade to in the future. Their cost is about the same as the X600
series but offer more pixel pipelines and generally higher clock and memory
speeds. There is no VIVO option with them, or for the higher end X800 series
of cards at the moment, but you're getting a fair amount of bang for your
buck and I think it's a little more 'future-proof'. I'm slightly biased
toward ATI cards because of the tight integration of the capture cards
program with ATI's control panel, but thats my preference. Purely
performance speaking, the NVidia line of 6600 series cards are a little
stronger than the comparable card from ATI (X700), but I'm not looking for
driver issues beween two rival factions :-)

Chris Ryan
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