G450- Review

[Himself]

The G400 MAX maybe.

[Ali]

The G450 looks to be about the same price as a G200 goes for at the moment, what would you rather have?

This is for WORK machines. I spend 80% of my computer time in front of spreadsheets and custom finance programs. All the machines here at work have G400 16mb SH, except for the server which has a G200 in it.

Im more interested in stability, and the ability to look at a computer screen all day with out getting a head ache.

We have to upgrade the computers at the factory soon (still running 486SX25's!), and they are going to get the cheapest computers you can think of. Im also guessing they will get G450s, because they will all have spare 14inch monitors. I just hope they make a PCI version, cos Im guessing they are going to use i810 mobos.

Ali

[Ant]

Yes the G450 is targetted as a business card that is what Matrox have told us, but they obviously have not told their own marketing department as the G450 box prominently features games as does the information sent out to reviewers. Given those facts no one can fault reviewers for criticising it has a gaming card.

[Himself]

Perhaps in countries outside of the US, but people before you buy just scan pricewatch for G400 prices, if all you want is dual head for work, pick up a 16MB vanila G400 for $100 US and save $45.

A g200 is only $50 on pricewatch.

[ALBPM]

It's easy for this group and the majority of people posting on Hardware Forums online to be negative in regards to the G450. Because we are the exceptions to the norm as far as computer hardware goes. We push our systems to the limit, overclocking everything we can.
The majority of computer users that I know offline don't care about FPS. For all they care it's a Feminine Hygiene Product....nuff said there

The G450 follows Matrox's usual path of developement. They did the same thing with the G200, which was followed by less expensive variations with SDRAM, G250, etc..

This time instead of using the same processor as with the G200, they took the plunge and decreased the Die size from 0.25 microns to 0.18 microns. This enabled them to integrate the Secondary RAMDAC, the Secondary
CRT Controller, the TV Controller and the TMDS Transmitter all in a single chip design. That's a big step just to come up with a more cost effective alternative for the majority of users out there. And it should pave the way for more outstanding, feature rich products in the future.

A bit of a let down...... Maybe to the Hard Core users and Gamers amoung us. But then it was never intended to be an upgrade speed wise for Gaming. Also keep in mind that these results are from the initial drivers for this product.

As Steve already said the 2D quality is fantastic a bit better than the G400. The Dual Head features have improved considerably and I don't notice any difference in online games. They run just as smooth as with my G400 MAX.

Paul




[This message has been edited by ALBPM (edited 06 September 2000).]

[Ali]

Himself, I just checked with our local dealer, the G200 8Mb is NZ$179, and the G400 16Mb SH is NZ$305.

The NZ dollar buys about US$0.43 or so at the moment, so the G450 will be about NZ$347 (roughly).

Looks like I should have checked my facts first, sorry.

Ali

[paulcs]

I think that's the problem. We knew it was coming, and it's still a bit of a letdown. As soon as the NDA expires, we always see a slew of reviews. Radeon Day, 3dfx Day, all those NVIDIA Days. It's been a while since we've had a Matrox Day, and even though most of us understand the purpose behind this board, it's still a bit of a letdown.

I'm trying to come up with an imaginary bundle for the G450:

Fraggin' with Martha Stewart
Excel Tournament
Notepad: AutoCAD Edition
Quisp&Quake III: Area
John Romero's Pong
Incoming

Just kidding.

Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net

[Ashley]

kjliew - If you haven't seen it already, check out the review at www.hothardware.com, where they show a screen shoot of MGAtweak on the G450.

Hege, Jutai - the secondary DAC is spec'd at 230MHz, not 200 (according to their on-line manual anyway).

If the G450 is an OEM/"business" card (and I suspect its priced way too high for either market), you have to wonder why Matrox sent it out to so many *gaming* sites. OEMs and IS managers don't usually go to places like HotHardware for advice...

[ALBPM]

Oh my GAWD!!! Fraggin with Martha Stewart just went GOLD!!!

Paul

------------------
P3-800 @ 1GHz, ABIT BX133, 256MB PC150 HSDRAM, G450-32MB DDRAM on BNC,IBM Deskstars 18GB ATA/66 and 13.5GB ATA/66,21"Trinitron,SCSI CDR/RW,SCSI ZIP,SB Live!Value,USR Voice Faxmodem Pro(USB Ext),Epson 1520 printer,Umax1200S scanner,WN98 all in a Addtronics 7896A case and a (Not so Messy Desk) ;-P

[LAMFDTK]

Quisp&Quake III: Area
Thats dual head right?? Quisp on the right and Quake on the left...

PAul in all due respect..."The majority of computer users that I know offline don't care about FPS. For all they care it's a Feminine Hygiene Product....nuff said there"

Who here has two monitors, The majority ,? does the The majority use 1600 resolution? does the The majority need EvBM?

I now am hooked on 1280x1024 res with all eye candy. I could never go back to a G400 in games. It's crippled. I have more than two monitors and a few dual headers and have never even hook two up ! I am miffed at the G397 card.

[Dyre]

Im planing on upgrading my bosses machine to a G450 (he has a G400 DH now) so he can run his dual 19's in 1600x1200. Nuff said. He spent almost $1k on monitors, and wants the best looking vid card hooked up, so in comes the G450...

Im goin on a limb here, and staying with my orginal theory. We will see the G800 VERY soon. I think the G450 was delayed until the G800 was close to completion, in order to give the 'hardware comunity' something to talk about besides the G450 having horriable performance in games.

[ALBPM]

Ya got a valid point LAMF...I'm not going to argue with that. At work the Dual Head has become invaluable. We have around 19-20 Dual Head systems used by Engineers. The G450 will give us what we want at a lower price than the OEM G400 32MB Dual Heads we've been buying.

Paul

[paulcs]

More imaginary bundled games:

Adobe Acrobat IV: The Reckoning
Asia Carrera's Dual Head Demo
Jennie Jones and the Temple of Doom

Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net

[Himself]

A real game bundle could be a computer version of the game battleship, shouldn't be too video card intensive for the thing.

[ALBPM]

I can't wait till the "Crepe Launcher Arena" mod is released. Can you imagine what all that CHEEZE will look like plastered all over in Dual Head...LOL

Paul