[G4] Video Card Upgrade Question

[Preston Peek]

>> The video card and its analog connection is probably not the problem.
>> LCD monitors have a native resolution and refresh rate. If the former is
>> not set correctly the display will look bad, if the latter is not set
>> correctly, but the former is things will be a little fuzzy. Check the
>> manual for the correct settings.

>That's an excellent point.  What model is your monitor?  The 226BW has a
>native resolution of 1680x1050; it won't look as good if you set your
>desktop to any other resolution:
>http://www.samsung.com/Products/Monitor/LCD_Digital/LS22MEWSFVXAA.asp?page=Spec
>ifications

It just so happens that I have the 226BW. It's set to the proper resolution
(1680 x 1050) and refresh rates (the refresh is set automatically by the Mac
at 59.9). Incidentally, these values appear in the Preset Timing Mode chart
(thanks for the URL), but for a VESA (not Mac) display mode, which may not
have anything to do with anything, but thought I'd mention it.

>Also, wiggle your video cable.  A DVI connection will give you a
>Slightly crisper picture, but you should be able to get a pretty darned
>good picture even with an analog connection.  Still, a cable that
>doesn't make a good connection can really screw up the picture.

Checked the cable and all is well there.

>Can you give us a better description of what, exactly, is wrong with the
>picture, though?  Is it blurry or distorted or snowy (that one's pretty
>unlikely), or is video jerky?

No distortion, but definitely not as crisp as I believe it should be--lines
are not always clean, often jagged--some places (solid surfaces) seem to be
moving in and out of focus, like when a video camera is trying to film a
window that's giving it competing objects to focus on. In large swaths of
color (sky, etc.) you can actually see soft, but definite pixilation.

Two more bits of info: I cannot get text to appear cleanly; some jagged
lines and very blurred, and even black text (like what I'm typing here) has
a tint to it (red, green, blue). I've seen this kind of thing before when
the resolution if off, but that's not the case here.

Also, I've had an Acer AL2017 for the last couple of months, and had the
same kinds of problems, so got rid of it. Could there be something in the G4
itself that just doesn't like LCD screens?

Preston