Performance gain with Max????

[Big Lar]

I have the g400 32mb SH , If I upgrade to a g400 max, will I see a big Performance gain with the Max versus the SH??? I run a P3 650 at 865, on an Asus P3b-f. Any thoughts are Highly Appreciated

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[Dyre]

Try o'cing your card to 150/200. That is the performace increase you will see. Of course your MAX will be able to O'C even higher. Mine o'cs to about 183/222 before the mem craps out. You will only see improvement in 1024 and higher res. Anything lower is mostly the CPU work.

With current proce drops you MIGHT want to wait for the G450, which has GOT to be around the corner, for matrox to drop prices....


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PIII 450 @ 504
generic BX motherboard
G400 MAX : )
Maxtor 13 gig UDMA 33
Maxtor 13 gig UDMA 66
Creative 36x CD-ROM
HP 2x2x6x CD-RW
64 megs PC100 RAM
128 megs PC133 ECC RAM
NetGear 10/100
Soundblaster 32 AWE
Diamond SupraExpress 56k
Logitech Wireless Desktop (best $50 ive ever spent)
1 92mm Sunon Fan
4 80mm Sunon Fan's

[Big Lar]

Thanks for the tip Dyer, I do run at 1024, and have clocked my card to that/ but after a while I get Little green dots on my screen/ so I back it down to a 10% oc. My card now is a vanilla/ although I did take the Heatsink off, applied thermal paste, and a good size fan. Do you think my Fps will increase propotionately with the max, or will it be topped out also, as this card is?? I get 128 fps in Quake 3 demo, with vsync enabled or disabled...at 800/600.

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[Mark F]

...And your shooting for how many FPS?

If you have a use for the vanilla you might want to look at a MAX. If not just wait. I dought it will be worth the money to upgrade.

Mark F.


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OH NO, my retractable cup holder swallowed a CD

[mkaresh]

On Monday I should be able to answer the benefits of a Max.

Kruzin and others will be happy that I have given up on my OEM card with mislabeled stickers on the RAM. It's going back where it came from. I paid too much for it to wonder what RAM is really on it.

With the recent price drops, I found that $20 more will get me a Max with a full three year warranty. ($191 plus reasonable shipping at Sunway Graphics, and they say the price will come down a few dollars more next week.) Suddenly it seemed like a no-brainer, even if the performance benefits turn out to be modest.

So stay tuned. I'll post before and after 3dmark scores on Monday.



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PIII 500e @667
Soyo SY6BA+IV
Iwill Slotket II
G400 32MB DH @144/180
Nokia 445Xi 21"
Aureal Vortex Superquad
128MB PC133
IBM DPTA 20.5GB 7200rpm
Toshiba 8/40 DVD

[Big Lar]

Update... I got the max, I put the heatsink from the vanilla < bigger > , and thermal paste, and the 486 fan off the vanilla on it... OC'd it 10%. Results ... ( Upgraded to 5.50 beta also.
3DMark 2000:
Old New
3dmark 4135 4641
cpu speed 245 285
Heli/low 85.5 94.9
Game2 /low 89.7 104
All other scores way higher also, I put these just for examples.
Quake3A demo Old: 128.7 New: 140
800/600
I'm very glad I got the Max... My sh is going in another box I'm building

[mkaresh]

It looks like you varied your CPU mhz between these two tests, so it's not a fair comparison. Changing the video card should have no impact on the CPU Speed score.

I've noticed that CPU Speed varies nearly directly with mhz. If we can assume you got 285 at 865mhz,then it seems you got the SH scores with the CPU at 745 or so. Or it's just a typo. Since the scores are only up about 10%, the latter seems more likely.

So, will the true CPU Speed please stand up?

[Big Lar]

Mkaresch, as god is my witness, I have not touched my fsb between tests. I was at 865 at both tests. I don't presume to know why, gut it's the truth, also.... with the Max, and the 5.41 drivers, there was also a varience, ( 247 on the 5.41) 285 on the 5.50, and 245 on the vanilla. I have proof... I saved the files.

[APV]

The price cut may not be related to G450 around the corner. More likely competition.

Local price (Toronto Area) the G400 32 MB cost more than a Viper TNT2 Ultra, the MAX is slightly less than an ASUS Geforce (non DDR) this is before the price drop, Matrox needs to drop the price as there are few shops here carry the G400 for the above reason.

[paul]

every time I run 3dmark99 I get diff results.

[paul]

sorry, didn't notice the '2000'

[Big Lar]

Paul/ I don't understand it either/ I would of thought that The cpu speed wouldn't change/ it did.. I will re-confirm tomm... but as it stands/ those are the #'s I got..perhaps due to windows? maybe something else?? All I know is what I see in the results .

[mkaresh]

Big Lar, thanks for the additional info. Very interesting.

It looks like the 5.50 drivers substantially increase CPU speed, at least in this benchmark. Have you run any other CPU benchmarks with both drivers? What does CPU Speed in 3dmark measure anyway? Does the 3dmark increase substantially just from the driver change? Do other benchmarks?

Could be very interesting--processor enhancement courtesy of Matrox!

[Big Lar]

The only benchmarks I have are Quake 3 demo, and 3dmark 2000, Oddly enuff,in Q3, The fps are almost Identical with both sets of drivers.

[paulcs]

I believe there is an issue with 3DMark 2000 and the Matrox drivers. One of the big hardware sites benchmarked the G400 Max and the PD 5.41 drivers with 3DMark 2000 and noticed that the peformance-related numbers seemed high relative to the final score. The reviewer claimed he called Matrox about it, and Matrox said they new about this, and would address it in a driver update.

Strange and difficult to explain results have been popping up with this program and other boards. It's difficult to judge just how valid those final scores are.

Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net