Announcement

**The Rev** · 14 August 1999, 19:32

Well from what I understand, some of the newer video cards (including Matrox's G400) are claiming the cards support AGP 4x, but since the AGP 4x standard hasn't been finalized, and no current motherboards support it, they can't be 100% sure their video cards will run on AGP 4x when the motherbaords supporting it are finally released. Whoa, run on sentance. So the G400 might actually support AGP 4x fine, but nobody (and Matrox themselves) is completely sure. So don't worry about it to much until motherboards supporting AGP 4x are released. And video card supporting claiming to support AGP 4x most liely has the same odds as Matrox

-The-Rev-

**Uwe** · 14 August 1999, 20:12

Hi,

AFAIK "G400 cards are supporting AGP4x" means that they will fit in the AGP4x socket and that they will use the correct voltages, which are different to AGP2x.

I have not found any statement or advertisement that the cards will use AGP4x transfers.

Bye, Uwe.

**rubank** · 14 August 1999, 22:52

This is an excerpt from the Matrox press material at the time of presentation.

www.murc.ws/g400/G400_AGP4X.html

rubank

**Kruzin** · 15 August 1999, 01:10

We've been through this all before. I don't think most people realize how different 4x mobos will be.

The G400 is compatible with 4x motherboards, both in slot form (4x slot is different, most current AGP cards won't even fit into those slots), and voltage switching(4x AGP uses a different voltage. A few vid cards have jumpers to switch voltage, but this is against standards-G400 will auto-switch voltages.)

Bottom line is this: G400 is 4x compatible (it will run), but it will do 2x data transfers on a 4x board.

Perhaps when there is an actual 4x mobo produced and available, I will worry about it....but that still won't be happening for a while.

**Ashley** · 15 August 1999, 03:55

"Although the Matrox G400 is...also the first AGP 4X graphics controller designed from the ground up to make maximal use of the AGP 4X's 1GB/sec bandwidth... The Matrox G400...supports AGP texturing, pipelining, side band signaling, and AGP 4X reads/writes, making it the most complete AGP 4X solution."
http://www.murc.ws/g400/G400_AGP4X.html

**armyworm** · 15 August 1999, 05:35

The current versions of the G400 will probably not do 4X transfer since, as people said before, the boards and specs are not yet release. When these Mobo will be release we should expect a new rev of the G400 will full support.... How can tehy support something that is not out yet?? I have a Viper TNT2 Ultra in my main system and it's the same old story.. they cannot know until the full release.... It is common for manufacturer to release several rev of a board... TNT2 have jsut released another one a couple of weeks ago... Sucks for those who purchased the first rev such as me, but these are all things to expect in the computer industry.

Ciao

Ben

**mragsdale** · 15 August 1999, 05:39

Actually the spec for AGP 4X has been released. It is under the AGP 2.0 specification. We just have yet to see any boards supporting it, therefore the mfrs. of video cards can't really claim 4X transfers until there is a test bed.

Rags

**armyworm** · 15 August 1999, 10:06

hi,

this is indeed true, sorry about the confusion in my statement... it's been a rough day for me and I should have stayed in bed

Ben

**Ant** · 15 August 1999, 10:46

Tish, Clish or whatever your name is, what exactly is it I am supposed to be changing on my website? And what exactly does your little comment mean?

"(could it be true, is matrox users resource center really mastered by Ant?)"

**Kruzin** · 15 August 1999, 16:08

That is reffering to the G400 chip itself, not the Millennium cards we have right now.

My guess is that when 4x mother boards come out, there will be another board based on the G400 chip, that will only be for 4x mobos, and wont even fit into a 2x slot...

**tish** · 15 August 1999, 16:10

That's a loud and clear "YES! THE G400 DO AGP 4X TRANSFERS"

guess it's old. matrox has changed the info on their homepage, is it an advice to change the info supplied with Ashleys link? so it says' 4x compatible, but not 4x transferc?

Cheers,
Fish.

[This message has been edited by tish (edited 08-17-1999).]

**rickn** · 15 August 1999, 16:30

For the most part their card is AGP4X. the connector is finalized as is the voltages required for sideband operations(those are the 2 biggest differences other than what intel has to do for the JX chipset). For legal reasons im sure they cannot say their card is AGP4x compliant til they can do thorough testing on different motherboards.

**HollyBerri** · 15 August 1999, 16:43

Actually, the specs on the VIA KX133 Athlon-compatible chipset (which does AGP 4x, as opposed to the current AMD 750 chipset) are announced here: http://www.via.com.tw/products/prodkx133.htm,

and from the Q&A here http://www.via.com.tw/news/99kxqa.htm, I guess we might see mobos on the shelves sometime between X-mas and March.

I don't follow Intel news, so I don't know anything about when Camino is expected to actually show up.

What I'm wondering is: how can you call a card AGP 4x if all it does is fit in the slot and supports the correct voltages? Doesn't that classification by definition have to include doing 4x transfers? I remember when the first wave of AGP cards came out, there was a lot of distinction between cards that did AGP 2x (like the G200) and cards that did only AGP 1x (like the Rendition 2200 cards). Is that no longer the way of classification?

--------------------------
the once and future motub

**Buuri** · 15 August 1999, 17:08

Holly,

My thoughts exactly! How can they advertise it as 2X/4X, while they admit that there's no guarantee on 4X transfers?
Well obviuosly quite easily, but that's false advertising in my books.

B

Announcement

G400 MAX is not AGP4x

G400 MAX is not AGP4x

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