G400 Max vs Geforce 2

[APV]

Fianlly sold my G400 Max and got a Creative Lab Geforce 2, here are my findings

the Geforce 2 image quality is on par with the Max

The Geforce 2 is much faster than the Max, I can now play my usual games in 1024x768 32 bit color much smother than the Max.

The G400 W2K driver 5.06 is more stable than the Geforce 2 W2k driver

Meanwhile, I am leaving MURC for a while, good luck to all. Until the day I brought another Matrox Card, goodbye to everybody and thanks for the help that this forum offered.

[Maggi]

have a good time, but honestly I don't see a need for you to leave ... you could always put some fuel into our fire.



Cheers,
Maggi

[Joel]

Ahhh, go ahead and let him go. If he is going to compare a new generation card with an older generation card then so be it. But he will probably be kicking himself in the butt in the next few months when matrox announces it next gen card (G800?). And even with that new nVida card he will still not have multi monitor support or EMBM. And as he said the image quaility is on par with the G400 which means it is still better and will only get better. All I can say is see you later on when the grass is finely greener again on this side of the fence.

Joel

[ski]

If you have a fast CPU like an Athlon all of your games should play smooth at 1024x768 at 32bit.

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I am one reboot away from prefection

Sys stats:
Athlon 800mhz
Epox EP-7KXA
256MB PC-133 ram
Matrox G400 32mb SGRAM SoundBlaster Live MP3+
PC-DVD Encore 6x/Dxr3 card
33.6 modem (Woohoo ) 28.0 gig Seagate Barrcuda drive 7200rpm baby!!!

www.3dpower.net The coolest place on the net besides this one!!!

[The Rock]

Odd coincidence. Today I made the same trade (almost). Got a Creative Labs GF2 to replace my G400, which served me well for many months. What APV said was dead-on. This thing is much nicer than I expected. I expected the raw speed, but I didn't expect G400 image quality (actually, it's a bit better IMO), great sharp crisp 2D (in 1024x768 anyways), great DVD. Plus I went from 28fps in MDK 2 to 68fps. All that and bonuses like texture compression. Very nice deal indeed. Costs a bit, but worth every cent. This will hold me over until the G800 hits.

The Rock
www.3dforce.com

[DosFreak]

It may not have EMBM but it does have pixel shades.... (Play on last word )

[Borg]

you dont have to go...just because you have GF2gts...besides I realy dont have any problems or underframeing in 1024x768x32 with my G400 32 SH not MAX ..but clocked to MAX settings

you can inform us about GF2gts problems with drivers , stability & other stuff..however G400 & G400MAX cant compet with GF2gts...it is made in time with SAVAGE 4 , TNT2,UTNT2,ATI FURY128GL VooDoo3 & other...so its a litle bit old now & still on scene..but PLEASE DONT FLAME US....good luck & fast gameing

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PIII650cu@728(fsb@112),P2b,128mb,Matrox Mill-G400 32SH,Diamond MONSTER Sound MX400 ,IntelliMouse Explorer

[The Rock]

I will say this about Creative Labs' drivers: after not locking up in Windows 2000 ONCE in 6-8 months with a G400, I locked up 5 times today already. 4 hard-core hit-the-reset-button crashes, and one blue screen of death (which I'd never seen in Win2k until today). I have the feeling that you could throw 6 monkeys into a room containing a computer and a big bottle of whiskey, and THEY would write better drivers. Thank god with the GF2, there are alternatives.

The Rock
www.3dforce.com

[Snake-Eyes]

LOL. Since this is the coming out thread for the hidden nVidiots (j.k.- I know we all prefer Matrox when we can get it), I guess I might as well come clean about buying an Elsa Gladiac two weeks ago. I replaced the G400Max and the P3-450 in my system with the Elsa and a Celery 566 (now at 892), and transfered the 450 and G400 to my wife's case, to replace the Diamond Viper V770Ultra/Celeron 300a that she did have (couldn't bear to part with the Max).

And yes, folks, this new chipset (and cards) really are as good or better than the G400's in 2D (most of the time, varies by manufacturer of course), and awesome in 3D. Also, yes, this is to be expected, as it IS only nearly 2 generations newer than the G400 chipset. It says a lot for the G400 series that they're as competitive as they are this late in the game, don't you think?

The drivers seem extremely stable so far (using the latest 5.30 leaked nVidia detonators). However, I think nVidia was a little naive thinking that simply adding the Dot3Product support (those infamous shaders) and not including EMBM too, was wise. There is practically no support for Dot3Product in games yet, whereas EMBM, while also not too numerous, does have several titles that enable the feature. Worse, I saw an interview somewhere (that I can't find) where nVidia tried to lay the smack down on EMBM as basically a cheap trick. Hehe, gotta love it when companies realize they've made a snaffu and cover it by rationalization.

Anyhow, overall, the GeForce2 cards are awesome. I'll still do my darnedest to sweet talk the wife into letting me get the G800 when it comes out though (assuming it ever comes out..).

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Ace


[This message has been edited by Ace (edited 21 June 2000).]

[octoman]

Does the TVOut on a Gefore work the same way as on a G400 ie. the drivers will grab the overlay and display it on the tv so i don't have to run the video fullscreen on the monitor as well?

[Maggi]

LOL ... nope, Octoman ... that feature is called DVD Max and unique to G400 DH cards.

[Jorden]

I'll break the chain on the MURC fori gates that Maggi put around it to keep you guys from leaving. But don't come back in here again and again telling us how great the other card you got is, as we're just not interested.

Either you're going over to the dark side forums, as we used to say, and stay there until you scrounged together enough money to buy the next hyped card and leave those forums to pass on to the next, or you shut up about your new card, while being in the <u>MURC fori</u>, for else you can get flamed, and I can tell you we all love a good <font size=4>BBQ of a Dark-Sider</font> now and then, no matter where you post your ramblings.

If you haven't understood by now, the M in MURC stands for Matrox. Not MVidia or Mdfx or Meative Labs or whatever.

The gates will stay open for exactly 24 hours. Then we weld them shut, and booby-trap them, as Maggi should have done in the first place !

Oh, before I forget... What kind of man are you that you have to ask your wife 2 to 4 times a year: please, can I buy the next hype card? It's only bloody expensive

Jord.

P.S. to Ant: Polite, huh?

Late edit: There's only one place called fori: The MURC fori !!!

[This message has been edited by Jorden (edited 22 June 2000).]

[dZeus]

hmmm... nVidia must have performed a miracle if their 2D is up to Matrox standards...

I once connected a Creative Labs Geforce-1 to my Monitor..... man, did I almost puke on my keyboard! it was HORROR (even better than Hitchcock's Psycho

[Snake-Eyes]

Thanks for the lecture Jorden. As far as the wife things go, I have to live with her day in and day out, so it's best to at least let her think she's made the decision for me.

As far as talking about this card in the MURC fori, I'll do it as much as I like. It's not like I'm playing the troll here, after all. I mean, re-read my post, and you'll see I managed (again, with the wife's permission- that was a little sweet talking, too ) to keep the G400Max, which has some features I don't wanna lose.

And if Matrox had released the G800 by now, I wouldn't have the nVidia card. But, as the situation stands, Matrox didn't, so I did. And the fact that I still have both cards right here in the same room (allowing me to swap monitors between systems) means I can compare their output. The way I figure it, nVidia releases FAST hardware, then Matrox comes along and tops them, which causes nVidia to release faster hardware, with even better output, and the cycle continues. The down side is that Matrox waits so long between significant releases (the G450 may or may not be significant to the majority of us, time will tell, but I'm guessing not for those of us that already have G400 based hardware).

So, if you feel like flaming, go ahead. And for the record- I do visit those other forums, but rarely post anything there, due to the juvenile nature of many of the other posters. The MURC is different, and as far as I've seen, we have been very objective in this forum when it comes to discussing other hardware, so long as the discussion doesn't come to the point where the non-Matrox supporter says something like, "Matrox sux!". You'll notice I'm not saying that. Nor have I ever, and hopefully, nor will I ever.

Later Jord, and please, take the spurs outta your saddle a bit.

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Ace


[This message has been edited by Ace (edited 22 June 2000).]

[Jorden]

Thanks Ace, but still a thread like this shouldn't be in Matrox Hardware then. You want to compare cards? Do it outside the MHW, in the fori that are designed for these things, like General Hardware (Covers any hardware outside of the Matrox realm.).

Or The Soap Box (A forum where you can discuss any old rubbish. Now there is no excuse for polluting the other forums!)

Not in Matrox Hardware which specifically says: <font size=3>General discussion of all Matrox hardware with the exception of video editing products which have their own forum.</font>

Just saying G400 or G400 Max in the topic means zilch when you start comparing it to another card at that time in MHW. That's not what this forum is for.

Jord.

[This message has been edited by Jorden (edited 22 June 2000).]