G450 pci and Kyro II

[TiG]

What about the other way round?

Now i don't want to get shot down in flames here, or have the "smack" put down on me, but I've seen a 32mb Pci Kyro II advertised. It doesn't seem to be listed on the Hercules site, but if it exists surely it would be a more elegant solution. The Kyro chip doesn't seem to gain any benefits from having AGP or 64mb of ram anyway, other than "tick the feature box". Of course there is probably some problem to this solution that I haven't thought of, but I'm sure the more knowledgable types will soon let me know

[az]

It will most likely not be from Hercules, and thus there is uncertainty about its image quality

AZ

[bacon]

Verstraete J

I'm totally certain what you said in your previous post would work . Although I havent tries this my self. On Win2K, the display propeties will allow you to choose your primary display adapter, which would be the Kyro, then the G450 PCI as secondary.
You will have to choose the Kyro as the primary to get the hardware acc from it for the games you want. (unless the game allows you to choose the hardware accelerator ie. Giants).
Then simply switching the input on your primary monitor would show the desktop again form the G450s primary output .(hopefully)
I would be very intesested to here your results from this, if you do decide to take this route.


[This message has been edited by bacon (edited 24 June 2001).]

[This message has been edited by bacon (edited 24 June 2001).]

[Nuno]

Wasn´t it a small utility called 3dcc or something like that, from voodoo2 times, that allowed you to choose wich display adapter would do the 3D?

[VJ]

Well, I only intend to buy the system somewhere around July-August, but I will post my results (if I go this -or a similar- route) here !

Any comments on the drawbacks of using a G450 on a non-intel platform ? (According to the Matrox site, there are some issues regarding bus mastering, OpenGL, etc.)
http://www.matrox.com/mga/support/fa...q/common.cfm#8

Would the lack of busmastering (and the other features) be a great issue if the card is not really used for 3D ? (my current scsi-controller 2940UW would be present, and I presume this one quite often becomes busmaster)

Jörg

[Rags]

If it's a non intel chipset, there will be no dualhead (no tvout).

Rags

[Novdid]

Rags, C'mon!!!

[Rags]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">Originally posted by Novdid:
Rags, C'mon!!! </font>

Eh? You don't want the truth? Or you think I am kidding?

Rags

[VJ]

We can't handle the truth !

Are you sure about this ? There is no mention of lack of dual head on non-intel chipsets ! This is taken from the same link I mentionend in my previous post:
-
8. Does the G450 PCI support bus-mastering for non-Intel chipsets?  (top)
For non-Intel chipsets, the G450 PCI does not support bus-mastering. While this lowers performance on synthetic benchmarks, it does not hinder the everyday usability of the card. Additionally, for the combination of G450 PCI and non-Intel chipsets, Open-GL acceleration and DVDMax are not supported. Matrox has identified certain instabilities when bus-mastering is activated on the combination of non-Intel chipset and the PCI version of the Millennium G450 series (model number G45+MDHP16DB).

9. What features will not be supported for the combination of G450 PCI and non-Intel chipsets? (top)
DVDmax and OpenGL will not be supported for the combination of G450 PCI and non-Intel chipsets.
-
Those are (according to the Matrox FAQ) the only issues with a G450 PCI. Do you have any references to confirm your statement ?

Jörg

[Greebe]

Yes, he's a Matrox beta tester.

[VJ]

Oops ... I didn't know that...
(is this the point where we say "we're not worthy" ? )

But why is there no mention of this on the website ? I consider losing the dual head is quite an important issue ! They mention loosing the dvdmax and the opengl, but I'd even be willing to sacrifice those. But loosing the dual head...

(Guess I'll have to choose between dual AMD and Matrox... this is gonna be tough ...)

Jörg

PS: Rags: Any new products in the pipeline that might be usefull for me ?

[VJ]

I forgot to ask:

Rags:
You mention
-
If it's a non intel chipset, there will be no dualhead (no tvout).
-

Do you mean the second vga-output will still work, and that only the tvout is non-functional ? Or is the entire "second head" unavailable ?

Jörg

[VJ]

Was it perhaps such a stupid question to ask ? I must say I have no experience with dual head: my current card is a Millenium G200 (I'm still using a PII-450), and a Mystique (in an oldor computer, Pentium 166).

Do you mean with "no dualhead (no tvout)" that a second vga-monitor attached to the Matrox will not work ? Or will the second output work for vga-output, but not for tv-out ?

I really would like a Matrox, even if that would mean going for a dual PIII over a dual AMD (but I realy need to no if I have to resort to this).

TiG: Hercules has a PCI-version of the KyroII, I just wonder whether the PCI-bus is fast enough to support a gaming card.
http://www.auspcmarket.com.au/review.php3?t=1721
I also find no mention of it on the Hercules site.


Jörg

PS: Rags: Sorry I asked about "new products", it was ment as a joke ....

[VJ]

TiG, az, I found the PCI KyroII:

http://europe.hercules.com/products/...p4500_64.php#1

1. What is Hercules 3D Prophet Kyro range?
Hercules Kyro range consists of 2 boards lines:
1) the mainstream line, based on Kyro I chipset, including:
3D Prophet 4000XT, a 32MB AGP board,
3D Prophet 4000XT PCI, a 32MB PCI board,
3D Prophet 4000 XT with video output, a 32MB AGP board with TV out.
2) the performance line, based on Kyro II chipset, including:
3D Prophet 4500, a 64 MB AGP board,
3D Prophet 4500 64MB PCI, a 64MB PCI board
3D Prophet 4500 with video output, a 64MB AGP board with TV out,
3D Prophet 4500 32MB, a 32MB AGP board
3D Prophet 4500 32MB with video output, a 32MB AGP board with TV out

But won't the pci-bus criple performance of a gaming card ? (Which is why I consedered using the Matrox PCI)

Jörg

[Alec]

As far as AGP texturing is concerned, there´s no loss, as the Kyro series don´t have that capability... If today´s games use the extra bandwidth offered by the AGP bus (I don´t know about this, experts please) over the PCI bus, there will be some performance loss.