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G400 or G400MAX?

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  • #1

    G400 or G400MAX?

    I've got a K6-2 450@500 and 128 megs of 133 RAM with a G200 and am looking to upgrade something. The G450 sounds like basicly a G400MAXMAX and looks like it won't be showing up for a while.

    Would you recommend a G400 or G400MAX? Or possibly keep the G200 and get a P3~600 or so and a Asus CUBX board? I'm not looking for killer framerates, and the only FPS game I play is HL/TFC, and that's not all that often (and I've gotten used to software mode anyway... 320x240 :-).

    I'm thinking that if I keep the K6-2 and get a G400 the MAX version would be wasted on this system since the CPU would be the limiting factor, but I figured I'd ask around first.

    Thanks very much!
    Tags: None
  • #2
    It's a hard question, but I can tell you this. I've been testing the CUBX for a couple of days and it is a *great* BX board.

    If upgrading to an Athlon-based system or a VIA Apollo Pro 133A motherboard makes you a bit queasy, the CUBX is a very good choice.

    I like it a lot. If it had a 1/2 AGP divider, it would be close to perfect.

    Paul
    paulcs@flashcom.net

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    • #3
      After looking around a bit, I've decided to just to upgrade the video card for now. Why? Because I couldn't find any site that had P3's for sale, at least not for a realistic price. :-(

      I'll pass on an Athlon board... Windows has enough problems of it's own without having to worry about the chipset causing wierd stuff too.

      About the CUBX, even just the manual is heads above something like this darn Epox board! It seems that Asus is nice enough to have someone who actually speaks/reads English write their manuals! :-)

      I also noticed that the only feature that seems to be missing is more AGP dividers, but I suppose if I get a G400 it'll probably handle running a high AGP bus speed fine anyway.

      Comment

      • #4
        If you can find the G400's that can overclock to MAX levels then go for those. Your probably better off just getting a MAX though.
        C:\DOS
        C:\DOS\RUN
        \RUN\DOS\RUN

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        • #5
          My G400 MAX does 89Mhz FSB solid.

          The 440BX will NEVER have a 1/2 AGP divider. I wish people would stop complaining about it, as there is NOTHING anyone ouside Intel can do about it.

          - If Intel did decide to change the chip to enable a 1/2 divider, Rambus corp would sue them the next day, at the same time the RDRAM manufacturers shut down the PC600, 700, and 800 lines.

          - If we all got our 1/2 divider, ATA-66 and AGP4x would be the next thing people would whine for.

          You'll never see a 440BX with a 1/2 AGP divider, unless Intel deems it worthy of production. That won't be happening unless they can RDRAM, and that would cost them quite a lot of money.
          The pessimist says: "The glass is half empty."
          The optimist says: "The glass is half full."
          The engineer says: "I put half of my water in a redundant glass."

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          • #6
            Hey Paul, so you strongly recommend the Asus CUBX to anybody looking for a BX board? Damn.....hard choice, I love my AOpen AX6BC Pro II M.E, but that Asus board looks so SWEEEEET! I have an FCPGA P3-500E, so that board would be perfect, but I don't want to sell my AOPen board, yet I don't want to spend the money on a whole new system. DAMN! Must stop spending! But seriously, that board is very nice, native FC-PGA socket and ATA66 coupled with 6 PCI slots. BTW, do you know who makes the ATA66 controller on the CUBX? Is it High Point?



            ------------------
            Regards,

            Ben

            Config: AOPen AX6BC Pro II Millenium Edition, P3 500E@715, 256MB PC133 RAM, SB Live!, 3Com 3C905BTX 10/100, Adaptec 2940U2W SCSI adapter, Quantum Atlas III 9.1GB U2W, IBM 13.5 GXP IDE HD, Yamaha 4416S writer, Pioneer 36X SCSI CD reader, Matrox G400MAX (Yeah!), Viewsonic PS790 and G773, Win98SE and WinNT 4 Server

            Regards,

            Ben

            Config: Abit BE6-II r1, PIII 700E@933, 256MB PC133 RAM (CAS2), SB Live!, Intel 82558 10/100 Net Adapter, IBM 13.5 GXP IDE HD, Adaptec 2940U2W SCSI Host Adapter, Quantum Atlas III 9.1GB U2W SCSI HD, Yamaha 4416S writer, Pioneer 36X SCSI CD-ROM, Matrox G400MAX (Yeah!), Viewsonic PS790 and E771, Win98SE and NT4

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            • #7
              Well, I bit the bullet and ordered a G400MAX... 218.25 with next day shipping from HardwarePro.

              I just hope it's a newer 4x capable version, even though I know it won't even hit 2x on this SS7 board. :-)

              Also, I don't see that FSAA is really that big of a deal for most stuff! I just recently got Asherons Call, and on my lowly G200, if I crank the resolution up to 1600x1200 and turn all the detail up it looks AWESOME... a tad slow :-), but very nice with almost no jaggies.

              I'm running it on a KDS Avitron AV-195T el-cheapo monitor.

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              • #8
                Couldn't help but to notice the 89 MHz. You say FSB, or do you mean AGP speed?

                Also, do you really see much of a difference in performance clocking the MAX at 89 AGP vs 66 or any other AGP speed?

                thanks,
                b
                Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow? But why put off until tomorrow what you can put off altogether?

                Comment

                • #9
                  89MHz AGP is at 133MHz FSB, if you're using a BX motherboard. (2/3 * 133 = 89).

                  If you want to run at 133MHz FSB on a BX, you must make sure that your videocard runs fine on it. I think almost all G400's do. Yesterday I tested mine, by runnning my Celeron 366 at 550MHz (100MHz FSB), and then changing the AGP divider to 1/1. Next I checked what AGP speed my card was running. WCPUID reported that the G400 was running at 1x AGP, but sidebanding was enabled (that is the AGP-feature that makes the most impact on performance. AGP 1x or 2x only makes a very small difference in real world performance. But since this was at 100MHz AGP, I have big hopes for running at 2x AGP when I run at 133MHz FSB, and 89MHz AGP..... man, I really am waiting for that Coppermine 600 to arrive!

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                  • #10
                    It's great that the G400 will clock so high on the AGP bus, but what I still want to know is how much of a difference does it really make? Do you really see the performance increase?
                    Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow? But why put off until tomorrow what you can put off altogether?

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                    • #11
                      I have a Max and it works pretty well. I am using a PIII 500 and I get pretty decent frame rates in all of the game that I look at and the 2d display is probably the best out there. It does't cost that much more for a Max over a DH retail so I would just go for the Max if I were you.

                      JP
                      Workstation Specs:
                      Pentium 4 2 GHz, ASUSTek P4T-E i850, 1024 MB PC800 RDRAM, ATi Radeon 8500 64m, Sound Blaster Audigy Gamer, 3Com 3C905TX-C NIC, Western Digital 80g ATA100 HD, Sony 16x/40x DVD-ROM, Sony CD-RW 175S/C, 19" Sony 420GS, and Windows XP Pro.

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                      • #12
                        Ben, the manual says it's a "CMD ATA/66 IDE Controller."

                        Paul
                        paulcs@flashcom.net

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