G800 rumors...anyone...pleeeease :)

[Maggi]

... and uses 64bit dual memory bus ...

I wonder what that will do for us ...

Would be the third dualism and the G800 comes in fourth.

[RAB]

There is no mention of T&L support on Condor I. I know this is probably no big deal now, given the lack of games using it, but long before Condor II flies, I would expect several games to use it. It just seems strange that its not mentioned. Hopefully, the reporters were just not complete in their investigation.

RAB

[LAMFDTK]

Mmmmm...Condor a rare and almost extinct bird. I bet these cards will be "rare" also. I'll Take a condor I,

and please always refer these products as condor I and II. To be cool of course....

[Himself]

Ah, this is the speculation thread.

So basically, the G450 is the TNT 2 of the Matrox world and not the GeForce 256 SDR? Sounds like a great card if you don't already have a G400, nothing really interesting there to me, does it allow FSAA? I doubt it. G800, wake me up when I can buy one, sounds like it will be another fall romance like the G400. More than likely I will have found another card to upgrade to by then, unless the rest of the world decides to go into hibernation.

[SCompRacer]

Any estimates on G800 price yet? $325 area? More? Less? I gotta know so I can start saving.
--------------------------------------------
Time to start stopping at the toll plazas and picking up loose change off the ground again.

[This message has been edited by SCompRacer (edited 11 March 2000).]

[Compton]

G800(Condor II)

- Pin compatible with G450

what the hell is that supposed to mean??? we can buy a G450 and then later swap out the processor with a G800???



[This message has been edited by Compton (edited 11 March 2000).]

[Rags]

Compton,

Pin compatible means that they will most likely be able to re-use the G450 PCB with little modification. Motherboard chipset mfrs use this pin compatible idea a lot. It makes development much easier, rather than having to re-design an entire new PCB.

Rags

[Rags]

So, don't get any funny ideas about that I doubt you will be able to pull a G450 chip off and slap a G800 chip in.

Rags

[UncleJoe]

But, wouldn't it be something to have a board that you can upgrade later with just changin chip ??

J.

[Scytale]

What about the earlier rumours about Matrox working on a modular and supposedly upgradable board?

[Compton]

It would be pretty cool. They could get the idea from Intel and put a ZIF socket on the board... If it wouldn't work to put a G800 on a G450 board they could come up with a Matrox Overdrive. Some sort of G450/G800 hybrid like the P83 OD. I just wish it was 370pins, I'd like to strap my alpha heatsink on a matrox chip!

[Meek]

As for T&L and G450... As the G800 T&L seems to be tightly coupled with DirectX 8, it would make no sense to publish anything with that right now, would it?

Btw, that is the part I hate... depending on MS schedules not slipping...

M.

[tsi]

It would make little business sense for them to offer upgrades. The chip is what costs them the most to create and package, the board costs them pennies (since they're not developing anything new for it). The way they make money on the package (board + chip) is by selling the whole thing to you several times. If they offered a ``discount upgrade path'' they wouldn't make as much profit selling something that costs them almost the same to make (since the board's cost is negligible).

Plus, the boards with the 450 might not be spec'ed to whatever speed they clock the g800 at; they might want a higher quality PCB for the next generation. The reason mobo manufacturers don't care is because they typically use damn good fabs for their boards such that they should support the upgrade with the simple swap.

This was a big issue back during the g100->g200->g400 conversion, since all three are pin compatible IIRC. Siemens (among others) had a G100-enabled mobo that could have been upgraded, if they hadn't gone out of business.

-Tsi

[superfly]

Well...if the G800 is twice as fast as the G450,that means it will be about the same speed as the nv15 from nvidia,the nvidia nv15 specs come from the same source(kbench),of course if anyone buys the 2 chip version of the G800,it should be able to beat anything with ease,at least until nvidia's nv20 or 3dfx's rampage(both due early 2001),so from what we know right now,wich can change when matrox and the other card makers officially release the specs of the new cards,that dual chip G800 should be the speed king for at least 6 months.

[Himself]

I think ATi will beat Matrox to the punch this time around from the looks of things. Sounds like ATi's "Rage 6"/Charisma could have dual head and EMBM, as well as T&L, DVD acceleration, you name it.