g400/win2000

[PaulS]

I like the "enthusiast bit". Being a Matrox enthusiast is like squeezing blood from a stone.

Paul.

[paulcs]

I tried them and had some bad problems. Although Direct3D and Direct Draw were enabled, AGP support was disabled.

I attempted to run the Quake3 timedemo 1 twice. Both times, my machine locked up while the map was loading. The second time, I managed to crtl-alt-delete my way out of the game, but my display had corrupted completely. It was an impressive mess.

I'm back to BetaOS's "Best Driver Yet/Worst Driver Yet-maybe official/maybe not-now you see them/now you don't" drivers.

It's been an interesting experience. I've had much better success with hacks than I have had from "official" releases on the nVidia board. I still don't think this is a problem unique to Matrox.

Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net

[PaulS]

Well, it is unique to Matrox in so far as we don't even have a driver, hacked or buggy, to try.

Paul

[Joel]

There is a beta WIN2K driver available on Matrox's website. I guess you just don't know how to look.

And as far as the release of WIN2K being delayed I think it's because Microsucks know that they still have a very buggy product. And until they can get the OS itself stable it's going to be very hard for any hardware vendor to write drivers for it.

Joel

[everettes]

Something a bit beyond the desktop would be nice however. I finally found the fully functional MS drivers for the Voodoo3, so I'm back to using the V3 in 2000. That way I can do work and play the occassional game of UT. When Matrox has Beta drivers, I'll be the first to switch back to the G400.

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PIII550, Intel SE440BX-2, 2 x 128 Kingston PC100 ECC, 2940U2W, Seagate Cheetah, G400-32 SH, Plextor 8\20, Plextor 40Max, Pioneer 303s, SBLive!, MS FFPro, Altec Lansing ACS-48, Sony CDP 520GS

[paulcs]

I still think it's important for people unfamiliar with this to realize that the "fully functional" drivers for the V3 posted on BetaOS are hacked and not a magnanimous gesture by 3dfx.

As far as I can tell, the 3.56 drivers that Asus has posted are not "official" either. And they appear to be broken. They have been circulating around the net for while (for both Windows 98 and W2K) on websites in the Netherlands and Russia. (NVidia has threatened to sue the guy in the Netherlands, by the way.) I haven't been able to access nVidia site for the last couple of days, but I've seen quite a few claims that these drivers are *not* official.

Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net

[Rogier]

As for the legality of W2K, in Holland (and I Guess in other places as well), everybody can buy RC2 in a bundle with VB6 basic for hfl 99 ($50) (see http://www.comcol.nl/)

As for the stability of the Nvidia 356 driver: Nice to know (NOT) that Nvidia is also thinking of the 'older' users (TNT1 in my case). On three fresh W2k installs, Opengl would not work at all and bluescreen in some cases. It's just not always a better world at Nvidia's...

I'll stick with the G400 till the end (not because I believe in Matrox, I just hate to be wrong)

(W2K Server)C300@475,AsusP2B,128Mb,Asus V3400TV(TNT1), PX40Tsi,PXW4/2/20Tsi,AWE32,3C905,JAZ,NEC4FG
(W2K Pro)C300@464,AbitBH6,128Mb,G400DH,Pioneer303,SbLiv e,3C905,IIyama450

[PaulS]

Sorry Joel, it may not have been clear what we were talking about. Of course you can even install the NT 4 drivers on W2k, we are after some of the 3D features, such as DX and OpenGL which are not present in any of the beta's - except the early G200 alpha drivers for NT 5 (beta 2).

Paul

[This message has been edited by PaulS (edited 15 November 1999).]

[Gurm]

Sorry if I offended anyone. I am just rather tired of 3733+ Warez Pupz coming up to me on IRC and asking me for Win2k drivers that I'm under contractual obligation NOT to give them.

8-(

I understand the frustration folks - really I do. I for one would like stable, complete drivers - FOR NT4! I have to use that at work, and the drivers BLOW.

But Matrox has always worked this way. Their beta release schedule, while perhaps not as good as someone like nVidia, is better than... say... ATI, Diamond, or Creative.

- Ash

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This signature is not Copyright by anyone. Especially not some guy named Steve. Yeah. That's it. Please don't kill me, Holly.

[MarkV]

What really upsets me is that Matrox posts the alpha DX7 drivers in the Chip Technology section of their website in plain view, but won't let anyone but "qualifying registered G400 developers" download them. What a tease!

A better idea would be to require registered developers to login to a protected area of the site before displaying the links to private drivers. That way the rest of us don't know what we're missing.



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Mark Veneziano

[Ashley]

What I find especially silly is Matrox's distinction between "registered developers" and "qualifying registered G400 developers". The former presumably are either unqualified developers, or developers who aren't interested in the G400, or both. When pressed for an explanation, someone with Matrox's DevRel "department" told me that "qualifying registered G400 developers" were (1) those to whom Matrox had sent out free G400 boards, and (2) working on D3D titles. In other words, developers who paid for their cards, or were working on OpenGL, were automatically not qualified.

[Rags]

Ashley,

I agree with you.

Rags

[[Pige]]

The reason Matrox can't release Win2k drivers, is that Microsoft know that Matrox are second rate and wont let tham have a Beta copy for development.

Microsoft are gonna make them pay for a retail version............

Pige