Crazy G800 theory

[CollegeManMan]

Okay, the GF2 is the fastest card out right now, but its begging for more memory bandwidth. The G800 might have memory bandwidth to spare.

Way back with the G200, Matrox engineered dual memory channels with SDRAM. The same kind of dual channeling that Rambus uses to double the bandwidth of RDRAM. Now, with the G450, Matrox is using DDR memory. They only put a single 64-bit bus on the card, but that was to make it cheap. Suppose they manage to put dual DDR channels on the G800. According to the leaked specs, the memory on the G800 will be rated at 250 mhz. 250 mhz * DDR * Dual channels... Then, suppose the mutiple chip G800 rumors pan out. Multiple chip setups multiply memory bandwidth too.

[CHHAS]

I hope Matrox makes the dual channel DDR G800, if they do the G800 will DESTROY the Gefarce 2

[Jorden]

It's not speed were after these days, it's functionality and the ability to work with generated standards like DirectX, DX8 for the G800.

With the new Matrix Pallete Kinning (MPS, not to be confused with PMS ), and the (probable) 4 matrice vertex skinning of the G800, it would make for new gaming altogether.

Think of a game like Special Ops Forces (or something alike, SWAT 3), with you walking through bushes and actually leaving a path of broken leaves and branches.
Or doing a crawl towards someone in high grass, and the grass actually moving and bending underneath you, while you flatten it, you making a path in grass at that moment, which the sentry can see at any moment.

That would be really cool for a next gen card and game

"For example, when a character winks, we would expect one cheek to alter more so than the other. Furthermore, we wouldn’t expect the hair or upper forehead to change much at all."

Yay !! And that at real time vertex skinning

Problem would be, how they do that. Without halting your PC, without you needing a brandnew latest monster PC to do all that

Jord.

[Nuno]

Yes, Jorden, but wouldn´t it be cool to play it at 1280x960x32 at 60+ fps?

[LAMFDTK]

I know nothing from No one....but..

I think the G800 will be KILLER !!! Remember that I made this statement...

It will Kick ass!!

[CollegeManMan]

Problem would be, how they do that. Without halting your PC, without you needing a brandnew latest monster PC to do all that

That stuff sounds like the sort of thing which would benefit from onboard T&L

My guess is, the fillrate that would result from all that memory bandwidth would go towards FSAA. It would if I got my hands on it, anyway. There might be one or two of you in the audience who share this position

[This message has been edited by CollegeManMan (edited 21 July 2000).]

[Ashley]

250MHz DDR memory?
Let's see... That would be 4ns.

But why would Matrox use 4ns memory when 500MHz 2ns. memory is just as readily available... ?

[DosFreak]

Who cares if the G800 will destroy the Geforce 2? By that time the Geforce 3 will have been out for 3 months and the Geforce 4 will be on the way.

[Jorden]

Some of us do, DOSFreak... Just because we don't buy the next hype every 3 months, which drivers follow 6 months after its release

Jord.

[This message has been edited by Jorden (edited 21 July 2000).]

[Snake-Eyes]

I'd have to bet that Matrox does include at least T&L, if not more (TNL, etc) on the G800. Anybody remember the link to the interview one of the sites had with one of the Matrox folks a little while back, asking what features he felt the next generation cards would have? There were several cool things he mentioned.

To be sure, he didn't say that Matrox's next card would have it. But, I'd guess that they will, if they think the features he mentioned are what all next generation cards would need, right?

As far as speed- the Matrox memory architecture has always been very efficient compared to the other cards on the market, so they could possibly get by with the same ratings on their memory speed that the other cards out at the time have, and probably not have the major bandwidth problems most of them are experiencing. At the very least, I'd guess that they'd do a better job of matching the chip's capabilities to the speed of the memory, so as to not pull the same stunt the others have- ie. a chip whose power is largely wasted, since it outstrips the memory so badly.

------------------
Ace

[Werdna]

I'm looking forward to a card that will last me a year or two, such as the G400, how many of you have had yours for a year (not many I guess) but it's good to know you don't need to upgrade every couple of months.

[Tronic]

Mines is now year old. It's vanilla DH 32MB.
It's REALYL GREAT. Will never use nVidiot, or 3DFX again. Well, at least as long as Matrox stays on the top.

[Buuri]

Just because we don't buy the next hype every 3 months, which drivers follow 6 months after its release

Instead we buy products which claim out of box OpenGL while a full featured driver comes out no less than 12 months later.

:
B

[qball]

Just because we don't buy the next hype every 3 months, which drivers follow 6 months after its release.

Give credit where it's due. I'd say that nVidia has the best driver model out there. Their drivers are all forwards and backwards and vertically compatible from the TNT to the GeForce 2 GTS. That means that when nVidia came out with their Win2k drivers for the GeForce, I got drivers for my TNT as well. Matrox support for win2k is just slightly better than dismal for their currently shipping cards. If I went back 3 Matrox generations, would I have drivers at all? Now don't get me wrong, my next card will be a Matrox card (which is why I'm here) but you have to give credit where it's due.

-Q

[Rags]

Give credit where it's due. I'd say that nVidia has the best driver model out there.

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!! Give credit where credit is due, huh? So you want a company to only "release" "leaked" drivers that enable certain features and speed ups, but all the while provide NO(!!!!) support for said drivers. Lessee, you have no support for anything in win2k if you are a TNT owner, unless of course you go with the WHQL drivers, which are pathetic. You have 3 versions to choose from if you are a win9x TNT user, two of which are WHQL certified, and all blow goats. So that leaves the end user to download "leaked" drivers if they want speed/features, and therefore get no support for their card. Same goes for the TNT2, TNT2ultra, GeSpot, GeSpot Part 2.

Their drivers are all forwards and backwards and vertically compatible from the TNT to the GeForce 2 GTS.

Uhhh....let's think about this one here. TNT was released after the G200(which has drivers for win2k, os/2, win9x, linux). TNT2 was released right about the same time as the G400 (which supports the same systems as the G200), Then they release the GeSpot and GeSpot sequel, which Matrox hasn't followed suit with their release yet. So that leaves Matrox and nVidia neck and neck as far as win2k support for older cards go.

So much for being "the best driver model". Hell, at least I can still get support for my G200 with the last released drivers.

Rags



------------------
Partnership for an idiot free America