Loyal and future matrox user concerned about g400

[Andrew Vaillant]

Hi to all. I am the expectant owner of a g400max but over the past few weeks of perusing both this newsgroup and others, I have seen a considerable number of posts from people with problems with this board. While I understand that everybody has problems with new cards in my opinion I have seen more than the normal number of "complainers" about the g400. I am really looking for constructive opinions about this card with regards to the most often complained about issues. If any or all could reply with their experiences with the g400 and the following items it would be a great help to me and other future g400 users frequenting this forum:

1. IRQ/bus mastering problems with g400 and SB live combination (also SB128).

2. AGP1X / 2X issue

3. Problems with certain motherboards (especially ASUS P2B, P2B-F, P3B)

4. Using G400 with real OPENGL apps like lightwave or Autocad.

Again thanks to all who reply. To tell you the truth, there is not a forum like this availbale for other cards (atleast where you can find real answers to questions).

[Kruzin]

1. Never had a single problem with BM. It's always been on, and my Live! has never conflicted in any way.

2. I have gotten 2x without forcing it since the day I installed my G200. G400 has been no different. 2x all the way.

3. I use AutoCAD daily. But I do 2D drafting, not 3D, using whe Heidi Whip drivers, not OGL. Have not tried any other "real" OGL apps...

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PII-450(112x4.5=504), Asus P2B(1010), 128meg PC100, MillG400 32meg DH (5.??/1.?), 3com 3c905b, SBLive!value, (2)USR 56k v.90(multi-linked), WD 6.4&8.4gig, CL PC-DVD, Mitsumi CD-RW, and some other things...

[cpld006]

I had one problem with a combo of a G400 and Asus P3B and it turned out to be a faulty board, after exchanging the boards all was ok. No SB Live! problems here to report on 2 seperate machines with different setups, and mobo's. I would imagine the real trouble would come from those K6/Socket 7 hack jobs. Be smart and assign IRQ's to your PCI devices yourself, will cut down on IRQ sharing and save you alot of headache, not just with a video card but with system stability as a whole.

[cpld006]

Everyone repeat afer me.
Plug and Play doesn't work. Assign yourself.

[merchant2112]

1 don't have a sblive.
2 do have a3d vortex 2 pci, 10/100 3com pci lan, no other cards in system.

3 just droped g400 in after running uninstaller utill. (all directions were followed to the letter.)

4 no problems so far. other than (yes i messed them up) open gl files were changed by win 95 opengl download and other mesed up files. i did it i ****ed up my opengl files no one else did it.)))) open gl don't work see note.

5 i could fix open gl if i kill windows but i don't want to do that cuasde it would just make my life hell for 3 or 4 days while i reload every program i have.

6 will i ever shut up ?

7 abit bh6 rev 1.0, p2350 oc to 464, latest bios. nec 196 meg pc100 ram, 3com 10/100 pci, xitel storm pci sound, 5xdvd drive, 7200 rpm mator drive 10gig, 19"ctx monitor vl950 (sam's club 349.00) nice monitor. 3com external 56k voice v.90 modem)g400 dual head retail not max.

8 g400 rocks.

[DK_]

I haven't had any problems yet, this is really strange, my equipment consists of:

Intel P2-400 @ 448/112 fsb
Asus P2B bios ver. 1008
Sb live value
G400 SH OEM 32
Iomega internal zip
US Robotics v90
Memorex 48 cdrom
128 pc100 cas 3

I didn't have to force agp 2x
vga app. 256
using powerstrip (new version) for o/c
Followed everyones instructions to the "T" when installing.

Since some people are having problems with the same equipment, I guess that i'm just lucky.


Derek

[Cabo_Wabo]

I was having various problems on the list above and I did one thing that seems to have solved many if not all of my problems. I monkied around with the IRQ assignment of each card and I found that if I made the G400 the lowest IRQ, or at least lower than all other bus mastering devices, then things would behave. I now have the G400 on IRQ3 and the SBLive on IRQ11. Lowered number IRQs have priority over higher ones as I remember my pc architecture. I used to have an occasional stutter in Half-Life that has now gone away. My theory is that during audio transfers in the game the SBLive "holds" the bus too long and causes video latencies that got so bad that the video seemed to stutter a bit. By having the video on a lower IRQ somehow the priorities shift and video wins.

Just something interesting for some of you with problems to try. Worked for me!


------------------
-Joe

PIII-450, Abit BH6-KG, Millenium G400-32Meg DH, 192MRam, Adaptec 2940UW, IBM 18ES SCSI HD, Plextor SCSI CD-ROM, HP7110 Burner, 3COM PCI 100BT NIC, ADSL, HP PhotoSmart scanner, blah blah blah

[Kruzin]

Cabo-
I'm surprised that worked so well for you. Generally, Matrox cards don't like lower IRQs, as Matrox cards are Edge activated, and lower IRQs use level activation. Anytime I try to run below IRQ8, I have 3D problems...

[deprived]

Kruzin , it is clear that you never had problems with the g400(max) but there are many out there that have , so i think it is save to say that the g400(max) has very immature drivers and NOT that those people are all to stupid to setup a graphic card .
I know that you love to defend matrox at all costs but if they shit it will stink too..period.

[Kruzin]

Huh?

Deprived, you shouldn't drink and post. You start seeing things that aren't there. Where am I calling anyone stupid, or defending Matrox here? I answered the original posters question honestly, and pointed out a fact about the way Matrox uses IRQs. What are you rambling on about??

[M Ragsdale]

What is your main malfunction, tombman? Do you just have to come along and prove to everyone what an ass you really are? Believe me you can stop now, because you have already done that sufficiently.

Rags

[Kruzin]

It must be a short circuit somewhere between they keyboard and chair

[Hunsow]

1. You could blame creative and/or the motherboard manufacturer as well.

2. You could blame the motherboard manufacturer as well.

3. See point 2.

4. This is not G400 specific.

[Buuri]

up

[SCompRacer1]

Hi Andrew,

I have had a G400 16MB OEM for a little over a month now, and have recently ordered a MAX myself.

I have an ASUS P2B-LS w/P II 400, 256 MB ECC RAM, mostly SCSI except for an IDE DVD CD ROM (and added today a 10 GB IDE HD for inexpensive storage). Card wise, I have a Sigma Hollywood + DVD Decoder card, a SB Live that shares IRQ 11 with the G400, bus mastering enabled, AGP verified at X2 and video aperature set at 256.

As you can see, a "taboo" for others regarding IRQ sharing is not a problem for me. I have also tried removing the SB Live and booting on another SCSI drive with a fresh install of Win98 SE. I had no improvement in game frame rates or benchmarks with 3DMark 99 MAX.

I do have one problem still unresolved, and I have had to disable my ECC memory in BIOS because of it. If I venture into any OGL app's, like Quake II or 3D Studio MAX R2 with ECC Enabled, I get memory parity error crashes and need to reset to reboot.

Matrox has verified this by assembling a P2B series MB w/ECC memory (which amazed me) a week after I contacted them, and are working on it. They also found it did not occur with MB's from other manufacturer's with ECC memory. It is possible that a future driver release will solve that problem as I never had a problem with a Permedia 2 chip and their OGL drivers. But, the Permedia 2 did not render like this chip either. Anyway, if you don't have ECC memory, this should not be an issue for you.

I agree with Kruzin on the IRQ issue, though others have said it is no problem for them to assign a low number.

If one has problems though, they just need a good plan and do a process of elimination. All too often, frustration sets in and the thought process gets affected. I got upset at first as I sold my Permedia card to a friend that stopped over after getting the G400 going. Imagine my surprize when I tried an OGL app after he left! That was the reason for getting the inexpensive 16MB OEM card in the first place, but the card rendered so well I just stuck with it till I found the problem.

SCompRacer