G400 AGP 4X, If You're Lucky?

[Crazy Train]

I'm sure most of you read the following article at: http://www.murc.ws/
If not, here it is:

<<G400 AGP 4X, If You're Lucky

I saw by way of AGN3D that Digital Web 3D received a statement from Matrox on the AGP 4X issue. Apparently Matrox have quietly slipped AGP 4X G400s onto the market.

When we launched G400 in May 1999, 4x motherboards did not exist. Although our part was able to work in 4x transfer mode we felt that before the Camino chip set was launched, it would be unfair to our customers to guarantee 4x operation since there are many factors that influence operation speed that are out of our control. Matrox did however ensure 4x compatibility which means that all Matrox G400 graphics boards will work seamlessly in 2x or 4x systems. Since Camino has launched, we have been able to extensively test our boards with AGP 4x. We've identified the G400 boards that support AGP 4x transfer rates with an additional '4A' in the part number: G4+MDH4A32GB/40.

While the G400 chip has always supported AGP 4X the original boards have not due to the reasons mentioned above, they were limited to a maximum AGP 2X transfer rate. Now that Camino has finally been released Matrox are able to verify that their boards will work at AGP 4X. OK we now know what the next hot topic is going to be in the forums "I want my G400 swapped for an AGP 4X version".>>

Okay. I have a few questions.

1) It appears this article means that all G400s, including the G400 Max, will now be able to support AGP 4X (as long as it is a newer model indicated by the serial number), correct? For some reason I thought the G400 Max could always support AGP 4X.

2) I just bought a regular G400(32 Bit) and with the Turbo GL driver and overclocking the card with Matrox Tweak to 115%, I am getting up to 40 frames-per-second in Quake 3. However, for around $30 more I could get a G400 Max. Keeping in mind that I am running it on an AMD K6-2 333 MHZ (& will possibly upgrade to a 500 MHZ this month), is the G400 Max worth the extra money?

3) What the the best method & fan to use for cooling a G400 (blowing air across the card or sucking air away from the card's heat sink)? As I stated earlier, with Matrox Tweak the most I can overclock the card is 115% with no extra cooling; afterwards graphics start getting garbled.

4) Lastly, what is the safest percentage a G400 and G400 Max can be overclocked when they are cooled by an extra fan properly?

Thx for the info!

[This message has been edited by Crazy Train (edited 30 December 1999).]

[[SITH}PELADO]

with a a pentium 2 fan attached to the heatsink ..the max percentage i was able to get is 118,5...
it work with more but it start showing white pixels

[Zenfe]

Try using MGATweak, I find it to be much better and can clock my G400 Vanilla pretty high.

I get get up as high as 167/208 before I get garbage.

And for cooling I have made my own card cooler which consists of two 3.5" fans mounted side by side and blowing air right across the whole G400 card.
I wish I had a digital camera

My current settings are those found in my signature.

------------------
Athlon 500MHz @ 750MHz 1/3
G400 32 meg Dual-Head Vanilla @ 160.2/200.25(400.5, 2.5/2.0/2.5)


[This message has been edited by Zenfe (edited 30 December 1999).]

[Norman Chan]

With G400 Max performance, is it still necessary to o/c ?

[Norman Chan]

With G400 Max performance, is it still necessary to o/c ?

[The PIT]

"If you got a max do you need to overclock."

You don't need to overclock anything you just use do it to squeeze that extra little bit of performance. So if you're a keen overclocker and you get the max you've bound to try to overclock it.
If you never overclock you probably leave the Max were it is.