VERY dissapointed with the G450..

[JackYi]

I wasn't already expecting my G450 to go anywhere near the GeForce2 MX, but darn, the performance levels are not what I expected. I am only getting 21fps with Q3A 1024x768x32. That is, Bilinear or Trilinear. I don't know what in the world is wrong, for setting the game to 800x600 resolution or 16bit did not help for they only gained me 2fps at best. I though I did not install drivers properly, so I formatted my system and re-installed the OS. Same thing. 21FPS!! Plus, there doesn't seem to be a major performance difference between a 16bit and 32bit z-buffer! Again, 2fps difference(19fps with a 32bit z-buffer under that setting).

Man, this is driving me nuts! I updated all BIOS firmware and drivers already. My system specs are no way near to low too.

Specs:
-AMD Athlon Thunderbird 1Ghz
-128MB PC133 Hyundai
-Western Digital 30GB 7200RPM UDMA/100
-Matrox Millenium G450
-SBLive Value
-Gigabyte 7ZX-1

OS and/or others:
-Win98SE
-VIA 4-in-1 4.29 Final
-Matrox 6.50 Unified video card drivers
-Matrox 2.03 Unified firmware updated

Please give me some help. I'm getting all confused here. If nothing goes well, too bad, I really need to buy something else like a Elsa GeForce2 MX or a GeForce2 MX Twinview card..

[This message has been edited by JackYi (edited 28 March 2001).]

[JackYi]

Well..
There doesn't see to be such a tab to set this. Any ideas why I am getting lower performance?

[JackYi]

Here's a piece of evidence about the 27fps from Anandtech:



And I only get 21fps.. GRIN.

[kilojo]

The G450 series is not intended for gaming, but more for multimedia application. It's a low cost solution for dualhead. If it's game you want, a G400 Max would be better. Even then, Matrox cards are more focused on quality than raw power.

[Meek]

Sorry, the "optimize for speed" can be found on the Natrox tweak utility. However, I tried with (at least approximately) your settings with my G400 vanilla, and got 21 fps in demo1 as well. Anand does not mention the settings he is using in his tests, but in other tests I have seen done by him he has used "Normal" settings. With them (+1024*768), I get a bit under 30 fps.

The conclusion... there probably is nothing wrong with your setup...

M.

[Maggi]

Hi JakYi,

it's the 64bit bus, causing the bandwidth limitation that you are experiencing ...

try either 800x600x32bpp or go for 16bpp colordepth, also stick with bi-linear.

For your disapointment, you should have done a better research about the G450 in these forums, because it was mentioned several times that G450 performs worse that an OCed G400 Vanilla.

[JackYi]

The strange thing is, people are reporting to 27fps where I only get 21fps.

[Meek]

I suppose the OpenGL ICD is the same as for G400... you could check that your OpenGL is "optimised for Speed" in Display Properties. I have not checked if it has any effect, though.

M.

[Nuno]

I´m afraid that posting new threads every day or so doesn´t allow you to focus on what people say to you, isn´t it true?

If you paid atention to this thread http://forums.murc.ws/ubb/Forum5/HTML/010429.html you would notice that:

1) I benched Q3 when you asked to and I´m getting 21 fps too with a G400 on a 1 Ghz Tb.

2) I said to you that anandtech doesn´t bench Q3 at HQ max settings. Drop geometry detail and texture detail one notch, use 16 bit textures and you´ll get higher numbers at 1024x768x32 in Q3.

3) If you´re VERY disapointed with your G450, it´s interely your fault, because people told you what for the G450 was designed and how it performed in 3d games.

4) I highly doubt you will read this carefully enough, so why bother?

For the 1000th time, G450 IS NOT a gaming card.

[Eric K [ S/G@home : LGM ]]

I still find that the Matrox TurboGL drivers render the fastest Quake 3 performance for me - somewhere around 10-20% quicker on my Duron 944. The expense is a small loss of quality though. I think it moves the mip-mapping levels a little closer to you making them more noticeable and a few other 'minor' things.
Haven't benched Q3 in months though.

[Greebe]

*sigh*

Don't bother with TGL as it's outdated and not designed to work with PD6xx.