Buy GTS2 or wait for G800 ??

[mj12]

Ok, I can't resist to throw in my 2 cents. Ask yourself, "What do you need from your video card?" If you are not a hardcore gamer then it's pretty open and shut, get a matrox card. Lets say you are a gamer, then you have to ask yourself how much gaming and how important. With Matrox just now getting the g450 out the door and saying it won't be available until second half of year, then where does that leave the rumored g800? I honestly don't think Matrox want's to try and keep up with nvidia and 3dfx, etc. in the race. If they even announce the g800 around sept. then gauging by what is happening with the g450 does that put availability around Jan. 2001? Nvidia will have out on shelves two products by then. If you want the latest and greatest video card for gaming then order a GeForce GTS 64meg version which will be available may 24. IMHO the reason Matrox is dragging their heels instead of trying to play keepup or race ahead is because they are a privately held company and not being pressured to.

[Snake-Eyes]

I think you're probably right, mj12. I plan on buying one of the 64MB GTS cards myself, provided I can find one with video in too (no offense to Matrox, and I am keeping my G400Max in one of my boxes). Hopefully when Matrox finally releases the G800 (or whatever it'll be called) I can get hold of that to replace the GeForce card (assuming it compares as favorably to the new GeForce as my Max did to the first one).

BTW, who (& where) is selling a 64MB GeForce GTS that will be available on May 24th?

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Ace

[mj12]

Ok, don't flame me to hard. The only reason I am doing this is in hopes that some Matrox decision makers will start getting in gear before the exodus happpens. http://www.gamestop.com/product-deta...160&sku=891161

[This message has been edited by mj12 (edited 02 May 2000).]

[Snake-Eyes]

Don't get me wrong folks, I'm still a Matrox fan. I just want a faster card, and I'll take the nVidia offering in the meantime, until the next Matrox hot card hits the stores. If the nVidia card turns out to stink, I'll return it so fast the salesman's head will spin for a week.

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Ace

[Jeff]

The day I spend $420 on a video card is the day monkeys fly out of my....

What gives are video cards the only components in computers today that are actually increasing in price. My Millennium G200 with the additional 8 megs of SDRAM cost less than the Millennium 2 meg card I bought a couple of years before. Then the G400MAX came out at like $250 and I thought that was outragious, I bought one anyway. I would like to get the next generation Matrox card, I just don't know if I can aford it.

Somebody switch me to the soapbox, these prices are ridiculas.

JP

[MrPeanut]

The Question really is not whether to buy a GeForce2 GTS. You should be saying do i want to play past 1024x1024 in games at about 55fps or higher in First Person Shooters.

Now that the GeForce2 GTS supports EMBM in hardware. I wonder how it looks compared to the G400 MAX..

But not to rain on loyalists. But if you really are a true gamer. The GeForce2 GTS would be a purchase to get. The G400 MAX or normal is out of the picture for gaming in my opinion. Like I said I like playing at higher resolutions.. it just seems more define in certain areas.

So to who ever started this thread. Get a GeForce2 GTS if you want to excel your gaming into a higher resolution of playing. Considering the capabilities of the OpenGL on the Matrox card... Well 47 fps at 1024x768. The choice is yours and yours only...

[Cypro]

Things are getting clearer!
Thnx.

But one thing still remains.
Is the image quality of the GTS2 that much worse than the Matrox cards.

And than theres another question.
One of the reasons I bought the G400 Max was because of the DVD output quality.
Is anyting known about the GTS2. Things are hardware DVD accell. , etc?

Cypro

[Jutai]

well you gotta consider if you go with the GeForce 2 you have a whole new post as you ask wich GeForce 2 to perchase Nvidia is a chip manufacturer and they sell their chips to companies and those companies design the pcb (based on a reference board) and decide some of the features their company will offer with the card. Image quality wise Nvidia has been known to be behind Matrox but by the looks of it I think you won't mind go for the GeForce 2 pick a company that has some of the features you like and a price tag you can live with and availability to get it to you when you want it... then in about 6-8 months sell the card and buy your G800 if it lives up to the hype. man you gotta love E-bay it's way off the topic but my friend plays ultima online and people are selling "gold" from the game for real money that is the most outrageous thing game gold for real money. crazy stuff.
-chris k.

[PaulS]

I'm not a hard core gamer by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm leaning seriously toward nVidia because they seem to be only mainstream manufacturer with the resources to produce decent Windows 2000 drivers.

I run at 1600 X 1200, spend a lot of time looking at text. How much of a hit in clarity am I going to take if I switch to a good quality nVidia based card?

Paul

[Maggi]

Hi Cypro,

you wrote:

PIII-600@600(because of that ****'n P2B-S)

...

What's up with that ???

All P2B-S go at least up to 112MHz FSB, hence your CPU could run at 672MHz ...

Could you please explain ?

Cheers,
Maggi

[Cloudy]

Hey, I paid 470$ for my matrox millenium when it was the best of the crop, but I don't think I'll spend so much on a graphic adapter again, not to mention that I don't think I'll ever see such a good card again (quality and lasting value), I mean this card still kicks ass in 2D with his 200Mhz RAMDAC.

Maggi, I have a P2B-DS do you know by any chance if I can use the P-III b/e/be on it ?
The maximum bus speed is 112 though

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Cloudy
Asus P2B-DS, 2 x Celeron 400@75Mhz, 128Mb Ram, Xitel Storm Platinum,
2 x IBM 4.3Gb scsi,IBM 22GB IDE, Pioneer DVD ROM scsi, G400 32MB DH (Oc to 150/200).

[Cypro]

Hi Maggy,

the reason is IMHO the voltage. It won't go higher than 2.2v. Perhaps, I don't know, it will go up to 672Mhz.
Do you know if I'll get a instable system? I haven't got a coppermine chip, you know.
And is it worth the 72Mhz?

Cypro

[Maggi]

Cloudy:

The board has to be revision 1.06 or higher and you need at least BIOS 1011 ... look here

But P3-B-CPUs are NO option for you, because that "B" is a rating for 133MHz FSB ... A P3-E would be a Coppermine for 100MHz FSB.



Cypro:

Make sure to disable UDMA in your BIOS before trying to up the FSB to 112MHz, because with that setting yu run yuor PCI bus @ 41.7MHz (instead of default 33.3) !!!

It should work even at default voltages and would result in about 12% overall higher performance ...
If it's worth it ... don't know ... depends on you.



Cheerio,
Maggi

[isochar]

I am one of the lucky individuals to own an Elsa Gladiac. (I have a g400max in my intel machine, the gf2 in my athlon)

I run both on the same monitor, and the g400 is definately better at displaying 2d. As for the games, I can't really tell a difference because I run both at 32 bit 1024x768. The GTS is definately faster & smoother though... beats my g400 by about 20fps in UT. Haven't tried it in Q3A yet.

[Snake-Eyes]

Thanks for the info, isochar. I was considering posting a request somewhere for info on how these cards really perform and look. Where better than here, where people can tell me how they actually compare with the same type of hardware as I already have.

Thanks to the comment about the 2D quality, and likely to the long wait before a fully loaded 64MB GTS with video-in in addition to the other candy, I'll be keeping my Max in another machine (and adding a RRG to it!) and probably get the Guillemot/Hercules 64MB offering for my gaming rig.

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Ace