[Endzone]

I have a nice computer (bought in March 2008) and a Sony G410 CRT monitor. But, my eyes are starting to hurt after installing a Nvidia GeForce 8500 video card about the same time I bought the computer. I don't ever play games, so really I should not have bought the Nvidia card--paid almost $100 for it. It really isn't very clear. But, I was wondering if anyone has experience with Diamond or Matrox video cards? I have a Diamond video card in my old Pent II machine, and it displays a much clearer picture on my Sony monitor than the Nvidia card does. I've heard Matrox is the best. I was looking at the G550 which is basically just for 2D dispaly and not gaming. Any recommendations just for 2D? I don't care about the speed or gaming or even video playback really. I just want the best picture I can find for working with pictures and some video. I have 2 open slots--PCI Express 16 and PCI Express 1.

Thanks,
Craig in Seattle

 

[fordgtlover]

Have you got the refresh rate above 60Hz? Even my old NVidia MX 4000 looks fine at 75Hz.

 

[Endzone]

Quote:

Originally Posted by fordgtlover /img/forum/go_quote.gif Have you got the refresh rate above 60Hz? Even my old NVidia MX 4000 looks fine at 75Hz.

I honestly don't know. I disabled the software from startup after I set the card for what I thought was maximum picture quality. I guess I could go back and take a look.

 

[TheMarchingMule]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Endzone /img/forum/go_quote.gif I honestly don't know. I disabled the software from startup after I set the card for what I thought was maximum picture quality. I guess I could go back and take a look.

Yeah, your eyes hurting sounds like...eye strain. Check the refresh rate, that has to be the problem at this rate (no pun intended).

 

[Endzone]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheMarchingMule /img/forum/go_quote.gif Yeah, your eyes hurting sounds like...eye strain. Check the refresh rate, that has to be the problem at this rate (no pun intended).

Well, it looks like it's set to 85Hz? Here's a screen shot. You may think this doesn't look too bad, but believe me if I had the computer with the Diamond video card hooked up to this monitor, the screen shot would be much clearer than this.

 

[TheMarchingMule]

Well, that just blew my theory out the window, unless it's not correctly telling your monitor to do that, but I highly HIGHLY doubt that. Like, 99.9% doubt it.

 

[Exediron]

Is it possible that there's something wrong with your Nvidia card? I have a much older Nvidia card, and it looks better then your screnshot. The bands of color make it look like maybe it's not really displaying in 32 bit, but I don't know why it wouldn't be.

 

[Endzone]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Exediron /img/forum/go_quote.gif Is it possible that there's something wrong with your Nvidia card? I have a much older Nvidia card, and it looks better then your screnshot. The bands of color make it look like maybe it's not really displaying in 32 bit, but I don't know why it wouldn't be.

From what I've read on other boards, people seem to think that these later Nvidia cards were just designed for speed for playing games. Here's another screen shot, and you can see it isn't too good.

 

[TheMarchingMule]

The only thing that looks wrong with that screenshot is that the text is slightly blurry.

And yes, from my experience and from what I see around computer enthusiast sites, Nvidia is focused on raw power, while ATi is more towards finesse (of shading).

 

[vegaman]

A screenshot doesn't show at all what it looks like on your monitor, just what is being displayed.
The only reason there is banding in that first picture is that it's been converted to gif = 255 colours, so it's been dithered. And anything wrong in the second screenshot will be due to the fact that it's also lossy, jpeg, and the text could be because of cleartype being on or off... not too sure how it normally looks in windows.

 

[fordgtlover]

1152 x 864 seems like an odd resolution (maybe it's just odd to me). You might want to try some other resolutions and see if you can find one that works better for your video card/monitor combination.

 

[mercbuggy]

Try 1280x960 or even 1600x1200 although the former may be better for a 19" plus check 'cleartype' setting as already mentioned.

 

[003]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheMarchingMule /img/forum/go_quote.gif The only thing that looks wrong with that screenshot is that the text is slightly blurry.

That is because font smoothing is enabled, you can disable that in system properties. And the color banding on the other shot does look like it is at a lower color depth, but I can't see why that would be the case as it is set to 32-bit...

 

[solessthanthree]

I don't really see anything wrong with the screenshot other than the banding on the window titles. It might be a long shot, but do you have another monitor lying around that you could try out? You could also plug your monitor into your onboard video and see if you get the same results.

 

[Gross]

Since it is a CRT, you will want to make sure ClearType is Off, and like has been suggested, try a different res.