G450 Based Boards - When?

[AJ]

I'm not really looking for a G450 product, I'm just looking to see Matrox make some progress.

Plus, supposedly the G800 will have 2x the performance of the g450, so It would be nice to see some benchmarks.

Hmmm... isn't DX8 going out with Win ME in the July/August time frame. There were some rumors about Matrox announcing the G800 chipset when DX8 shipped.

-AJ

If I sound impatient, it just because I want the thing released a few months before I buy (so the drivers get a bit better!)

Right now I'm running my Vanilla G400 on W2k with the latest drivers no complaints in D3d, openGL is another story (what new!).

[AJ]

No bites! No info! Hmmm, the stealth video company remains true to form! Maybe their are just too many NDAs out there!

I wonder if they are purposely slowing down to release of the g450 so that they can quickly follow up with the g800). That way, when the hardware review sites say "don't get us wrong, the g450 is a great card, just not for gamers", Matrox will be able to quickly send out their "real" gaming card and suprise on the upside.

-AJ
aka Mr.Speculation ;-)

[Ant]

Well there maybe NDAs out there on G450 products but I've not got one, not heard a thing since the release of the chip specs.

[AJ]

Thanks for the response Ant. Not a big deal since I don't want to buy a new card for a while. I'm just really curious about what Matrox has coming (since we've already seen some of what 3dfx, Nvidia and Ati are doing).

-AJ

[Byron_H]

DirectX 8 isn't part of Windows Me.

------------------
Byron Hinson
Microsoft MVP
http://www.activewin.com

[APV]

The G450 is aiming on a total different market, (not gaming) so many may be disappointed when it is finally released for retail. IMHO, Matrox is gearing away from the gaming video market.

[DGhost]

I personally think that the G450 will be on par with the performance of the G400MAX at least.

Judging from the specs and stuff, i am guessing that they will clock it higher and do something w/ the ram. I would not be surprised if they put DDR SDRAM in at 1/2 the core speed (so it runs at the same when you DDR it) - this puts it at a disadvantage of having 64bit vs 128bit memory transfers (only a problem for texturing - gaming. An example of this is the TNT2 M64) but it is cheaper to manufacture. tho they may run the base mem speed at the same as the core clock, so you get the 2x w/ DDR. that would keep it around the G400 level of performance when placed at the same clock speed. As it is, the G400 core works great for business usage.

I am guessing that dual head will most likely be standard on all but the most basic of them - it seems to be the area with the most improvements.


Other than that, i don't expect any improvements over the G400. I expect that they will replace the G400 w/ the G450 - keeping the same performance, just expanding the feature set - then aim it for the 100-200 $ price range (low cost business graphics adaptors) and aim the G800 for gaming w/ pricing similar to the G400 when it was first introduced. They kinda did this with the G100 and G200 - the G100 was the base, then the G200 was the high end. the G200 got changed to the low cost and the G400 came in on the high end. This time the G400 will be replaced by the G450 and put low end w/ the G800 high end.

As always, this is pure speculation. I have no connections w/ Matrox with any way, shape or form, and all this is what *I* think will happen.

Don't take it with a grain of salt - take it with the whole salt shaker.

-Luke

[5E3A5T1AN]

That's right. And anyway, Matrox is working on the G800...