Geforce VIVO card vs. (Geforce & TView Gold)?

[aramis]

Hey guys,

I need to replace my ATI AIW128, since the ATI drivers cause problems w/ DAPHNE. (Must play Cliff Hanger! Must play Cliff Hanger!)

I'm trying to decide between the following:

a) a Geforce card w/ VIVO (w/ philips chip, such as the ASUS V8200 T2 Deluxe)

b) a Geforce card (w/ or w/o TV-out) and use a TView Gold PCI scan converter.

Does anybody know where I can find side by side comparisons, or sample pics on these specific setups? Or does anyone here have experience with the TView Gold PCI as compared to an ATI? I guess my main questions are:
- which is better (in terms of display quality and MAME compatibility) - a) or b)?
- how would either compare to the quality of the ATI AIW128?

I know vid card and scan converter questions are like a dime a dozen these days, but I really need to feel confident on my choice...my cabinet budget is dwindling quickly, and I can't afford to get something that won't compare to the ATI.

Thanks much!

[Lilwolf]

I don't have any screenshots or even have either card... but I've read a bit.

1) Any conversion will loose some quality.  The only advantage that some scan converters will do is allow you to pretend your at a high resolution and it will combine pixels to add an antialiasing that can be great.  Also, some brands work on arcade CRTs.  Trouble is, all the low end cards I've heard bad things about.  I've also heard that the good ones (1k+) are really great.  So I would consider looking around on ebay if your going this direction and find out what they originally went for.  Other advantages.... You save 50 bucks on the video card and you can swap video cards easily.

As for the ViVo geforce cards.  I hear they are great!  Great quality with the phillips chipset.  

btw, I read a review of the Gainwend Geforce 4600 card.  Man I want it.  2 dvi connections with dvi-standard video connectors (so the best of all worlds...  all combinations of monitors), vivo, 3d glasses (way way cool for most games!  even great on some 3d emulators (nemu was AMAZING in 3d).... but do you have 412 bucks to spend?

[tetsu96]

As far as the TView gold in particular goes, I actually like it a lot.  It is a little different from the other scan converters I've tried in that it repositions the image to fit the screen for the most part if the screen isn't already full size.  That makes using custom resolutions much easier as only vastly different resolutions from what's already in there need to be added (example - neo geo goes full screen even from 320x240).

But going through a TV it does of course lose some quality (almost neglegable at low resolutions) and the sync isn't perfect (on S-Video at least, I'll know more on RGB soon).

The higher priced scan converters produce a slightly more artifact free image at standard windows resolutions, but don't reposition the graphics and often can't lock onto the exact custom resolutions...