I would like a G400 but............

[RB]

I plan on keeping my present system for another year or so and would like to upgrade my video card to have better 2D and increase somewhat my gaming FPS. I have read just about every G400 review and from what I gather the G400 excels in all areas except for its OpenGL ICD and being CPU dependant. I run my desktop and games at 1024x768 in 16 or 32-bit and have the following system:

Dell XPS R450 PII
Dell OEM Intel SE 440BX AGPset
128 MB SDRAM
10.1GB EIDE, Ultra ATA HD (7200RPM)
STB TNT 16MB AGP
Diamond MX300 A3D 2.0
19” LG Studioworks 995E

I was hoping to see stability and performance improvements in the OpenGL ICD with the new driver release 5.30 for non-PIII, but there doesn’t seem to be any. How’s the Direct X performance in a PII?

TNT 3DMark 99 Max Results @ 800x600 16-bit

3Dmark Result: 3,855
Game 1-Race: 37.0 FPS
Game2-First Person: 40.2 FPS

Any convincing reason I should get a Matrox G400 instead of an nVidia TNT2 Ultra?

Thanks
Bob

[ALBPM]

You can force flash your SE440BX motherboard with the Intel Bios which has P3 support and put a P3-450 in your system.
I did this 2 months ago to the Dell XPS R450 sytem my wife has and then put a G400 in it. It runs GREAT no problems at all.

Paul

[Maggi]

I get ~4400 3DMarks on my Celery at home (see my sig for system details)

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Cheers,
Maggi
________________________

Working Rig:
Asus P2B-DS @ 103MHz FSB
Double Pentium III-450 @ 464 MHz
4 x 128MB CAS2 SDRAM
Matrox Millennium G400 32MB DualHead
Nokia 445Xi (21")
Nokia 447Xpro (17")

Home Rig:
Asus P2B-S Bios 1010 @ 100MHz FSB
Celeron 333A @ 500MHz
2 x 128MB CAS2 SDRAM
Matrox Millennium G400 32MB DualHead @ 150/200MHz
CTX VL710T (17")

[IceStorm]

You expect that system to last one WHOLE year? Not if you're playing games. By summer 2000 yours will be the MINIMUM specs for the hot new games. :-)

Seriously, I've a PIII-450, OCed to 540. When not using the TurboGL, current GL games don't run fast enough for my tastes (40FPS or higher). D3D is fine, though.

Why go G400 instead of TNT2U?

- DualHead for MultiMonitor
- Better color (subjective, as always)
- To be able to say you're one of the few
- To support Matrox as a company

Why go TNT2U over G400?

- Faster gaming overall
- More OpenGL driver experience
- Don't have a need for DualHead
- To support a company that releases shoddy products, then goes back and fixes them, to the chagrin of the customer.

Personally, I wouldn't go G400 unless I had a PIII/Athlon, or I needed to do video "stuff" with a Rainbow Runner card. I had the PIII, and I don't like nVidia's business practices, so I went G400 MAX.

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Primary System: PIII-540 (450@4.5x120), Soyo 6BA+ III, 2x128MB PC100 ECC SDRAM CAS2, G400 MAX in multi-monitor mode. V2 SLI rig. Two Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 900u monitors, 3Com 3C905, SoundBlaster Live!, DeskTop Theater DTT2500 DIGITAL Speaker System (Sweeeeeet!), WD AC41800 18GB HD, WD AC310100 10GB HD, Toshiba SD-M1212 6x DVD-ROM, HP 8100i CD-RW, Epson Stylus Pro, OptiUPS PowerES 650, MS SideWinder Precision Pro USB joystick, Logitech 3-button mouse, Mitsumi keyboard, Win98 SE, Belkin OmniCube 4-port KVM, 10/100 5-port Linksys Ethernet switch (30~40MB/min under Win98SE)

Secondary System: PII-266, Asus P2B BIOS 1008, 1x128MB PC100 ECC SDRAM CAS2, Millennium II, 3Com 3C590, ADSL Modem 640kbit down/90kbit up, 3Com 3C509, Mylex BT-930 SCSI card, Seagate 2GB Hawk, NEC 6x CD-ROM, Linux distro S.u.S.E. 6.1 (IP Masquerade works!), Sharp JX-9400 LJ-II compatible

Tertiary System: DFI G568IPC Intel 430HX chipset, P200MMX, 4x64MB EDO Parity RAM, Millennium II, Intel Pro/100+ client NIC, SoundBlaster 16 MCD, Fujitsu 3.5GB HD, WD 1.2GB HD, Creative Dxr3 DVD decoder card, Hitachi GD-2500 6x DVD-ROM, Win98 SE

All specs subject to change.

[Jorden]

Pauly forgets his first DELL-BIOS-flash was done with me persuading him through ICQ to use the original recovery floppy with the P3-450 driver on it

But RB, if you need reasurance that any G400 can beat a TnT2 Ultra pants down, then only read the first link here

You'll find that you've also got locked up in the largest thread these fori have ever seen

Jorden.
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"Rest in Pieces..."

[LAMFDTK]

"force flash" ooooo Baby
If you have the bucks you can get a G400 16meg for 100 bucks or you can buy MY G400 32meg card OEM for 130. heheh Email me

[ALBPM]

The Intel Bios for the SE440BX mobo is here:
www.intel.com/design/motherbd/se/se_bios.htm

The Jumper configurations are here:
www.intel.com/design/motherbd/se/se_confg.htm

Follow the Recovery procedure to do the Force Flash:
www.intel.com/design/motherbd/genbios.htm#5

Paul

[Zwisch]

i do not agree (anymore) that the TNT2 is better or faster than the G400... I had a Viper Ultra and sold it for a G400 (a bit against my will) and damn, the G400 is faster in all games, including OpenGL, and the quality is better... i do not think that they have any edge anymore againt the G400... one thing for sure, I would not go back to a TNT2 card....

[SteveC]

Side by side comparisons with a friend's TNT2 Ultra on very similar systems proved to me that I don't want a TNT2 at all when the G400 exists. The picture quality and speed are both superior on the G400 in my own tests.

Also, it's 'cool' to own such an amazing card at the Matrox G400 - the TNT(2) is far too common.

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Cheers,
Steve

"The chances of anything coming from Mars, are a million-to-one", he said.

[Jihad]

Hello guys

Hell Yes SteveC, right on! I am the only guy I know who has a G400 and damn it feels good. I have the coolest card out right now and it is just fine in all the games I play. And they just released a Linux X server that supports daul-head. Cool.

[Joel]

I have an AMD K6-2/400 system and I am very happy with the G400. But then again I do more with my system than just play games.

Joel

[LAMFDTK]

WOW the thread with Feeling...

I have a RAVE for the G400, DungeonKeeper2Demo
Holy Smokes you have got to see this sucker!
It was a "computer high" when I fired this up. A historic moment as cool as when I first played "pong" in my own home. hehe

Go ahead buy another card, all anyone can do is tell you what we all see on our screens. Then its up to you. Some people really like their Ford Taurus's swear by them...then other people....

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PIII-450@504, 128 HDSRAM, Asus P3BF, G400/32, SBLive!, Nokia 447Xi 17", oh yea, a nice floppy drive

[DuRaNgO]

I too am a MURCaholic
jim

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PIII-500mhz @ 620 ! with an Abit BE6 mobo
128mb pc-100
Mill G400 (YAHOO!!!) 32mb @ 165/205 with MGATweak-410mhz, 2.5, 2), PD 5.30 & bios 1.5-22
Maxtor 14.3 gb Uata66 hdd
SB Live!
Winblows 98se & DX7
32 lbs. of fans, heatsinks and aluminum ductwork
3DMark Result 5954.69 3DMarks
Synthetic CPU 3D Speed 9325.69 CPU 3DMarks
Rasterizer Score 2791.72 3DRasterMarks
Game 1 - Race 65.07 FPS
Game 2 - First Person 54.89 FPS
Fill Rate 268.79 MTexels/s