how imporant is the graphic card?

bosone · Post by **bosone** » Thu Sep 11, 2003 7:54 am

i'll go to P4 2.4GHz soon.
i'm asking: how much important is a good video card for using pulsar??? i not plan to play games or 3d applications, nor dual monitor, so i think i'll buy the cheapest AGP video card i'll find...
is it safe??

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Thu Sep 11, 2003 8:09 am

A video card it is VERY important, cos you are going to stair at your computer for long, long hours.... this is the first point and it is not something to neglect saying you are just looking for good sounds... in fact, it is a matter of health as well. You need good quality images to feel confortable.

I was just up to post on a new Video Card which is great, I've got one for my wife's PC and it's amazing what it can do for the price, it has no fan, so it is zero noize as well... It is the ASUS V9180 Magic 64DDR RAM, it is very fast for being just 64, very, very nice colours, sharp and net, trully recomended and very cheap as well. Please, chek it out, it really is one of the best cards money can buy.

bosone · Post by **bosone** » Thu Sep 11, 2003 9:43 am

A video card it is VERY important, cos you are going to stair at your computer for long, long hours.... this is the first point and it is not something to neglect saying you are just looking for good sounds... in fact, it is a matter of health as well. You need good quality images to feel confortable.

i thought for this matter the monitor would make the difference, in fact i'll buy a good philips LCD.
if the video card has a good refresh rate, which match the mintor one, will it be sufficient?

aMo · Post by **aMo** » Thu Sep 11, 2003 12:33 pm

Refresh rates dont matter on LCD's..
When a monitor refreshes the image (i.e. 100hz) it actually "scans" across the screem one hundred times a second (which can cause tired-ness of the eyes and headaches if you stare at it too long, especially on lower refresh-rates).
On a LCD screen, the liquid crystals are either on or off, thus completely removing any trace of the old refresh-rate issue..
Most LCD screens are actually rated at 60hz, but this does not matter in any case..
But make sure to get an lcd with good view-angle, so you can still see the screen if you moove your head to the sides or up and down.. A good LCD-screen can really pay of...

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: aMo on 2003-09-11 13:33 ]</font>

firubbi · Post by **firubbi** » Thu Sep 11, 2003 1:06 pm

your pc might hang if you use not so good vga. then it might gonna also share your ram.
it could be painfull....

bassdude · Post by **bassdude** » Thu Sep 11, 2003 5:59 pm

I'm using a dualhead Matrox g450 16MB on 21" screens. It is more than adequate and the picture is excellent.

darkrezin · Post by **darkrezin** » Thu Sep 11, 2003 6:45 pm

A good graphics card is extremely important, the more video RAM you have, the slicker the graphics performance of the machine. I was a big fan of Matrox, until I saw a 128mb DDR Radeon in action: basically everything whizzes around, no jerkiness in heavily-graphical windows (this would include SFP) and where alpha-blending is used. This is not to say that Matrox are bad, it's just that there are better alternatives around now. Also, you have to remember that when you are using dual-head, the limited RAM in the Matrox cards is being split between the displays.

Incidentally, while there is no effective 'scan' or refresh rate on TFT screens, they do have a rating for 'update time' (i.e. when graphics are moving, this is the speed at which the screen will update the image) which is usually measured in ms. Most TFT's are rated around the 25ms mark.

peace

aMo · Post by **aMo** » Fri Sep 12, 2003 9:09 am

dArKr3zIn: Jupp, it's the rise and fall time of each crystal in the display, rise time is usually pretty fast, and not a problem, but fall time is (it is most noticeable when playing games though, shouldn't be a problem in sfp and such).

darkrezin · Post by **darkrezin** » Fri Sep 12, 2003 9:20 am

Yep.. the update time is fine for my uses, with CRT's it is much better but the lack of radiation and eye strain when using TFT's is worth the money in itself for me (obviously the small amount of space used on the desk is a nice bonus too

).

peace