Sexist Video Card

[Java]

Hi People,

I just got a new video card for my computer. Now I don't like the color display of the new one, a Radeon 9550 with 256 MB, any better than the old one. Plus, it is just very sexist.

I'm thinking this is my punishment for using a PC and not a Mac, but in the past I have had very good displays with accurate color. I used to have Diamond Stealth cards and got fab color displays on my old CRT monitors. Now they just do not match what is printed.

For example, in DRAW, there is an original palette color called blue purple. On my screen, it looks like a very reddish purple. However, it prints correctly on my HP 4500 as a very nice bluish purple. I have tried tweaking a bunch of stuff, but it doesn't really fix the problem.

This card can do everything imaginable with gaming and video editing, plus connect to your TV, but there are few choices in color display. This monitor can display colors better because the Intel card gave a better display. But then I got Win XP which would not install with that card, so I ended up with the Nvidia card that went belly up.

As for the sexist part, the control panel has a graphic of a "hot" well-endowed gamer girl, out of the millions of graphics they could have chosen:rolleyes:. I complained to my tech and he said really this field does cater to men, but he will return it. My position is that if ATI is not creating their products for women, why should I buy them?

I'm not into gaming or video editing, just print graphics. So those of you who use PCs, what kind of graphics/video cards do you have? I want one that will give me a good color display and work with my graphics programs.

Any/all suggestions welcome. Thanks for any feedback.

Java

[morea]

I have an NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 in my PC, it was recommended to me for graphics work and gaming, as I do a bit of that as well.

Then again, I think my machine is about 3 years old... I'm sure there's better stuff out there now.

[ShiftMedia]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102606

This is a very nice card for the money. I purchased an ATI x800 XL for $300 about a year ago. This is a great card with 16 pixel pipelines (you'll have to unlock 4 to get to 16, I can show you if you get it.) The Radeon 9550 you purchased is a VERY low-tech video card. The video card in the link is very up to date, just not top of the line (which isn't necessary). This card will play any Direct X game you throw at it (Setting may need to be adjusted accordingly) and is a great graphics card.

As far as ATI's "gamer girl", it's only a set of rendered models they have released showing the quality of their cards. I'm guessing 19/20 gamers are men, so they are targeting the majority. They also release renders of several other types, not just women. :P

[morea]

meh, I'm a gamer chick, and I don't like looking at 'em either. ;)

[cnic]

hey shift, will you explain pixel pipelines, and the benefits..... I have an ati x800 xl.... is there something i could improve on it??

[Java]

Hi Morea, Shift and CNIC,

Thanks for your replies, especially the ones with specific model numbers and info. Still trying to shift through a ton of info in case I switch. the card I have is actually made by Sapphire, but that is apparently part of ATI.

This is the confusing part -- that all these sub companies make cards but might not be as good as what the actual company makes. Or are all the cards made by sub companies? Yikes, hard to know what the good ones are.

I'm sure it's true that 95 percent of all gamers are guys, but how about cards for non-gamers? Is there such a thing, just a good card for graphics that displays colors well?

I'm sure that in about a year to two, I will be upgrading stuff or switching to a Mac, so the card I put in now might not be long term. But that might partly depend on how satisfied I am with the card I get, so it's kind of a vicious circle.

You know if it isn't one thing, it's another! I think I am one of those SAD people and we are now in our rainy season out here on the left coast -- maybe I am just grumpy!

Java

[captain spanky]

in all honesty... chicks dig chicks.

[Broacher]

DRAW? Are you talking about CorelDraw? As a long time Corel user I've learned that hot gaming boards are a poor choice for this app--it's easily tripped up by anything 'fancy' going on in a video driver. Some boards have the ability to selectively 'dumb down' their feature set for specific applications. That's how I got my nVidia home box to run Draw reliably.

'Sexism and video games'? There's a pleonasm if I ever saw one. Years ago I started seriously training for a career in 3D but was too depressed by where the market was, and where it was heading. I wish I could say now that my predictions were wrong.

[Java]

Thanks, Broacher, this is the kind of thing I really needed to know -- something I can tell my tech, since he really doesn't understand why a gaming card might not be the best thing.

Yes, this card would have to be dumbed down as it does way too many things, whereas I just need it to display colors well, etc. Just out of curiosity, what kind of card do you use?

Pleonasm? That's a new one on me. I'm going to have to look that up. OK, kind of the opposite of oxymoron???:confused: Redundancy anyway.

Thanks again,
Java

[digitalprince]

I dont trust ATI's nowadays for graphic works .. ((just remember that Apple switched into NVIDIA in its machines)) ...
I use NVIDIA on my PC, and colors are matching the print perfectly ...

another important thing .. you have to check your monitor too; as the error may be from it ..

[Java]

Prince, that is a good thing to know. I will look for a better NVIDIA card. That's what my old one was, but it was not top of the line, so I guess I can't judge by it.

Thanks,
Java

[CamarotaDesign]

I am intriuged by these designers who speak of perfectly matched colors from monitor to print. Is there such a creature out there that gets perfect prints without paying attention to the ink levels? Tell me more of these tales.

[digitalprince]

CamarotaDesign,
having a perfect matched monitor to print is not a strange creature .. it is the base of our work every day; as if you don't have a calibrated monitor there is no need to work at all.

We have different procedures to do that calibration some are expensive and will not be available for some of us.

To have a perfect match between monitor and print there are many parameters that must have our attention. but when talking about the monitor and its colours, we assume that all other parameters are adjusted and calibrated (print film denisty, exposure, good print plates, ink levels )
Of course we will never have a 100% match due to the known errors in print procedure, but we must play around the accepted levels.

The proper display card with a proper monitor will give us almost what we need. Using adobe gamma to correct and calibrate your monitor if other procedures are not available.

The NVIDIA card gives me all what i need, i tested it and calibrated my display and nothing will disturb me any more as i have really what i see is what i get in print.

[Java]

You wrote:
<<The NVIDIA card gives me all what i need, i tested it and calibrated my display and nothing will disturb me any more as i have really what i see is what i get in print.>>

Thanks, that is wonderful! What number is your card? Whatever it is, that's what I want.:D

Java

[Java]

Camarota, I can't improve upon what Prince wrote at all. A good display is to me necessary. But it is something I always took for granted until I switched to WinXP and found that my original Intel card didn't work with XP.

My tech installed an old Nvidia he had on hand, and from then on I have not had good displays, and I am not getting them with this new card even though I've tuned it. It is better but certainly far from what I want.

What seems bananas to me is that I had great displays up until the XP switch without even trying. What I saw on my monitor was what I got with commercial printers or my HP 4500. I don't know why that changed.

But when you see a color on your screen that looks like the red violet crayon, but is called blue purple you know something is wrong, especially when it prints the way it should: like the blue violet crayon.

Java

[digitalprince]

JAVA,
i want to ask a real stupid question ..
what is the color mode u work with to see that red violet crayon on your secreen?!!

[Java]

Prince, that's not a stupid question at all. What you are getting might be a stupid answer, though.:o

Under the defaults for both Corel and the ATI card, that little square of so-called blue purple looked totally reddish purple and that was not OK.

Right now, I have the CorelDRAW X3 color management setting at Desktop Publishing and CMYK. I changed it after seeing the bad display. I also tuned the video card so that the blue is higher. That helps a bit, but what I'm now seeing is a purple that is in between, not reddish but most definitely not bluish like it should be.

The other problem is that since putting in the ATI card, I did have Corel crash on me a few times, but didn't think about the card having anything to do with that until Broacher mentioned that ATI wouldn't be the best choice for that program.

The reason I think this answer is stupid is that I really do not know much about tuning the display. Before the last card, I never had to because I always had a really good display without doing anything. Ah, the good old days!

So if you have any hints about doing the tuning, let me know. Also what IS your nvidia model and number. Oh please tell me, dear Prince!:confused:

Java

[CamarotaDesign]

Well, if you guys are also paying attention to the cmyk values while you are designing then cool, but if you dont look at them, I can't see how you are getting accurate prints. My display is pretty accurately matched too (nvidia) The colors are usually very similar to what gets printed except that they are much less saturated on the screen. Even so, I still think in numbers when I choose a color.

Anyways, I'm sure if you both are going through the trouble of getting expensive calibration equipment you probably know your color spaces so no need for me to be nosey ;)

[Java]

Prince, I do NOT know everything. I am very interested in this stuff though because it matters to me a lot to see a correct display. Right now, I am finishing up a brochure and it is nuts because I'm having to experiment with the colors and print them out before I can finalize this job -- all because either this card is not the best or because I just do not know what I am doing in tuning it.:confused:

Quite frankly, I don't think the client will care as much as I do, but I just want it to be right.

And yes, I am going to get one of those calibration thingies too, just because of all this trouble. I didn't appreciate it when I did have good displays and now I want to do what I can to get them better. As you said, it is really necessary to do this in our work.

Java

P.S. Is it a state secret what Nvidia model you have?;)

[Java]

Hi All,

Just wanted to thank everyone for the input and report that I did get this problem solved. My computer tech installed a new Nvidia card like one recommended here.

I still had a poor display re: colors though. I discovered I could access two menus through Control Panel, and tried both of them, the regular Win one and the Nvidia one. No dice, no way to tune up the blue. But I did add my program to the Nvidia menu and add the icon to the tray.

Don't know why I did that as usually that is just one more nuisance. But since nothing was working, I went back to DRAW to see if I had chosen the best options in Color Management. I had. But then I got the idea to click on the little Nvidia icon in the tray while in DRAW.

Well, that was a revelation! I got a different menu than either of the ones in the Control Panel, and was able to fine-tune the colors right in DRAW! That was pretty nifty and now I have a perfect color display -- or the next best thing. It is really good!:D

Thanks again. I'm really glad I came here because I got the problem solved thanks to the feedback I got.

Java

[morea]

that's great to hear, Java. :)

[panzer]

ATI is ok digital prince
withe the omega drivers they rock

[panzer]

hey java way to go i didnt know about that

interesting revelation there

ATi are getting there act together ad there are ati mobos out there now Nvidia ruled the block for quite a while but i am glad Ati are getting better because there user based tweaks are much better than the nvidia

radeon 9700 in the states i got told was a good card (4 years back)