possibly upgrading G450...a couple of questions first

I'll cover the basics first

I have a Pentium 2.4C on the 800MHz bus, 512MB RAM. My hard drive is
Western Digital's 10000 rpm Raptor. Needless to say I'm ecstatic with
this system. The only possible weakness is my 32MB G450...that said,
I'm not a gamer. Never have been, never will. So future proofing my
system from that standpoint doesn't matter to me. The most intensive
programs I use ( I think) would be Adobe Photoshop, occasionally Adobe
Premier and Virtual Dub. I should also say I have a 19" monitor that I
run at 1152x864 at 32 bit. I chose Matrox originally because only one
thing matters to me in a video card, and that is image quality. I've
considered buying a P650, but if it's not going to make a noticable
difference given the way I use my computer I'd rather not spend the
money.

Sorry to ramble so much, but I wanted you to have as much info as
possible. Thanks alot

 

The Matrox P650 will give you a little bit better 2D, text will be a little
bit sharper,
but not enough in anyway to make it worth the money ($170 ?).

 

And the couple of questions were?

 

Considering what you do with your computer and that you're not a gamer, I
don't see any reason for you to need to upgrade your video card. It's for
games that you need to upgrade video-cards frequently, for most other uses
they've got a fairly long life.

 

I am still using my G400MAX on its 3rd system. Like you no games just
Photoshop/Coreldraw work and the G400 is fine for that.

Unless you want 3D or DVD there is no point in upgrading. I did try a P650
but found no noticeable difference at all and the new drivers for the P
series are missing many of the shortcuts the G series had so I sent the
P650 back.

Only modification I have made is to remove the fan and put on a Zalmann
passive heatsink to cut down the noise.

Andy

 

I can see that you may need a P650 if ...

1) You plan to get LCDs instead of CRTs.
2) You need video overlay in resolutions higher than 1024x768.
3) Plan to go dualhead and need symmetric dual head zoom.

If none of these apply, then then G450 will do fine.

Good luck,
Steven