Just installed G400 Max, where are the OpenGL improvements?

[Dutch]

I finally received my Matrox G400 Max yesterday. I installed it on my Pentium II 400 system (Abit bx6 rev 1 + 512 megs of ram) to replace a G200. I installed the latest Windows certified drivers (Powerdesk 5.20) and also made sure my card's bios was at the latest version - 1.5.

My understanding is that the G400 Max accelerates OpenGL. However, when running apps that use opengl32.dll, like the Windows screen savers, I found that their performance was identical to the G200's.

Does anyone else have the same results? If not, any suggestions as to what I am missing? :-\

[LAMFDTK]

Screensavers?

[Dutch]

Screensavers? Yes, I'm just trying to test it!

However, I get the same results with *any* application that uses opengl32.dll, such as 3D Demos or our custom office design software.

Are you saying this only accelerated games? Perhaps you can let me know of a program that will give me a *true* benchmark.

Matrox advertises that the G400 MAX will accelerate *all* OpenGL based apps, not just games. )

Dutch

[ThunderFoot]

Which screensavers? Smile.

I'm using Organic Art (not sure if it's OpenGL based or not), but the QUALITY of the picture is vastly improved with the G400 compared to the Voodoo 2 and the Intel 740 I had before hand. (My Millenium 2 died, so I borrowed an Intel off a friend until I could get a G400)

The smoothness of the colours and the curves are much better and the reflections look amazingly clear now.

I'm not sure what you mean by "accelerates", if you're expecting the screensaver to work faster than it did under the G200 you are looking for the wrong thing since the screensaver will only run as fast as your processer can update it, and it probably have a coded in limit as well (since screensavers look silly if they move too fast.)

[Maggi]

Make sure to use either 16 or 32bpp colordepth.
24bpp is not hardware accelerated, thus it uses software rendering.

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Cheerio,
Maggi
________________________
Asus P2B-DS @ 103MHz FSB
2x P3-450 @ 464MHz
512MB CAS2 SDRAM
Millenium G400 32MB DH

[Meek]

He is talking about the built-in 3d screen savers of Win95 OSR2/WinNT variety, I suppose.

I also do not notice a big difference on them with standard settings, however, if you try to use a big texture on one of them that has a possibility for that you may see some improvement. It seems that the frame rates are locked in those, though.

Organic Art (at least the original version with the Direct3d patch) uses D3D (as you may have guessed).

For me OpenGL seems to default to the Matrox G400icd.dll, maybe your demoes are hardcoded to use the opengl32.dll from native Windows? They may also be a possibility to select the OpenGL renderer... Or you may need to re-install the application...

And yes, someone said you need 16 bit or 32 bit color on the desktop as well. (24 bit will not do.)

M.

[Maggi]

ooops ... you were asking for OGL benchmarks.

Goto http://www.3dfiles.com/utility/

I recommend Tirtanium which is available in Normal and Big Textures versions. That puppy stresses your whole system (CPU, AGP and GFX-CPU) and comes with a wide spread database to compare your results. Btw, in that database you'll find an entry called 'MadMaxx500A', that is my former Rev5-Mystique G200 OCed to hell and beating most of the competition ...

Tirtanium is also very usefull to compare D3D vs. OGL, because you can choose which API to use, but for OGL tests you should use the OGL standalone executable and not the D3D-OGL combo.

Another good one is Indy3D from http://www.indy3d.com/indy3d/download/index.htm

That one is closer to real OGL applications like CAD and 3D modelling and has some professional competition in its database to compare against.

...

Or simply use the ones that th rest of the world consider as benchmarking apps:
Quake 2 and Quake3


------------------
Cheerio,
Maggi
________________________
Asus P2B-DS @ 103MHz FSB
2x P3-450 @ 464MHz
512MB CAS2 SDRAM
Millenium G400 32MB DH

[This message has been edited by Maggi (edited 09-29-1999).]

[Dutch]

Thanks for the answers! Yes, Organic Art is Direct 3D, not OpenGL.

I *did* try GLDoom (retro, yes, but what the heck, I've yet to install Quake2! , and again, while it looked great, the framerate performance was just plain *awful*.

So how does the g400icd.dll file work? Does it provide acceleration for *all* OpenGL? In other words, if calls are made to opengl32.dll, do the Matrox drivers "intercept" these calls and use the G400's acceleration (such as what happens with 3D Labs Permedia 2), or does an application or game *specifically* have to be coded (or patched) to use g400icd.dll?

[Rags]

OpenGL32.dll is a windows system file that allows your ICD to interface with the OS. In order for the G400icd.dll to work properly, opengl32.dll HAS to be in the windows/system folder and MUST remain UNCHANGED. All ICD's work this way.

Rags



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