On Mar 11, 2010, at 6:46 PM, JOHN CARMONNE wrote:
I have a PM G5 Dual 2.7 8G RAM. It has a Radeon 9600 128 MB VRAM chip set ATY,RV351
I have this same card in my dual 2.3 MHz G5. It's a fine card.
I have a VIZIO 36" LCD display.
I don't see any Vizio 36" products on the internet? Please use the exact model # to describe hardware. AFAIK Vizio doesn't make monitors, only HDTVs. Most HDTVs have much lower resolutions than monitors. I'm assuming you're talking about Vizio HDTV connected to this PM G5.
I would like to know if an upgrade of the card would result in better video?
No. The problems is with the display and not with the video card. If you attached the card to a regular monitor with high resolution you'd see a clean, crisp image. The reason you're seeing a fuzzy or blurry image is that you're using an HDTV as a monitor instead of a monitor as a monitor. I wrote a long explanation of this in a recent posting "Re: Apple 23" Cinema Display questions", but the upshot is: if you're going to be sitting in a chair directly in front of the display you'll need a MINIMUM of about 100 pixels per inch (ppi) in order to have a clean, crisp image. The easy way to figure this is to measure the width of the display in inches, and multiply by 100 to get the MINIMUM resolution in pixels. If your Vizio was a 37" (36.55" diagonal) the actual horizontal measurement would be about 32", so to use a 37" as a "monitor" you'd need a MINIMUM horizontal resolution of about 3200 pixels (32" x 100ppi). The 37" Vizio HDTV (VL370M) has a maximum horizontal resolution of 1920 pixels, which is only about 60ppi rather than the required 100ppi.
I only use it to watch DVDs.
DVD's only have a maximum resolution of 720x480 and will look fuzzy on a 1920x1080 HDTV. A dedicated DVD player with "HD up conversion" may help somewhat, but if you want crisp video on a 1920x1080 HDTV you'll need to start playing Blu-ray discs instead of DVDs.
So if I would benefit by upgrading my card what should I try to buy, cheap I hope, also if an upgrade is the thing to do then I guess I could use the 9600 in my G4 MDD dual 1.25. Or butcher it and put it in one of the Cubes???
I don't see any immediate benefit to upgrading your video card. You really can't use an HDTV as a monitor. An HDTV is meant to be viewed from 6 feet or GREATER away. A monitor is meant to be viewed from 2 feet or LESS away. If you stand 6 feet from your HDTV with the resolution set to it's maximum 1920x1080 you'll find that it looks pretty good now, not as fuzzy as you see it from 2 feet. Still, it will NEVER be a monitor, and if you need a large monitor, you'll need to purchase a large monitor.
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