Now G550 is out... Why don't you guys...

[monocrom]

Now that G550 is out, I want to hear the experience with G550 from the beta testers.

I hope all the beta tester are not obliged to keep NDA from now on. Let's hear what you guys think!

TIA

[Kruzin]

Well, as there are several reviews (as opposed to "previews") out now, we should be able to talk about them...

I am pleased with what how card has performed so far.
Despite a couple of reviews that claim image quality is down from G400, I think G550 looks as good as G400 ever did, if not better(at least in 32bit color, I have not even bothered to try 16bit color).
In benchmarking, my G550 has been equal or better than my vanilla G400 (which is o/c'd to MAX speeds).
I have not tried o/cing my G550 yet, but it's obvious it's faster than than a G400Max, and can go faster yet with some tweaking.

Overall, I think the card is exactly what it was intended to be...a minor upgrade to G400. It has been completely stable in my system, and has run games and desktop apps a little faster than my G400 did.

My only complaint is that the EMBM of G550 does not look as good as it did on G400 (it seems kind of "blocky"), but that may be a driver issue, and could change in future driver releases...

Bottom line: I don't thinks it's worth upgrading from a G400Max, or maybe even a vanilla G400, unless you want headcasting, but it's a good shot better than G450 (which IMO was a step back from G400), and is definatly worth looking into if you are still running a G200.

[SteveC]

Yeah - what he said Kruzin's summed it up quite nicely.

[DentyCracker]

MATROX MILLENNIUM G550 DUAL 32MB AGP 2X/4X DDR MEMORY W/TV OUT & DVI(OEM) #G55PLUSMDHA32DB $109.00

From www.mwave.com and in stock as well

[prr]

Kruzin,
Could You please test and let me know what is the highest res You can use DVDMax with?

[EvilDonnyboy]

Kruzin, you say that ur G550 overall performs better than a G400MAX? Interesting... cause all the reviews I've read, the G550 performs worse than the G400MAX in almost all cases.

I wonder what you did differently.

[Jon P. Inghram]

He's using the special BBoyz only drivers that enable the HW T&L system.

[Greebe]

prr... looks like 1024x768 32 bit is as high as it will do on the secondary head with DVDMax, primary will do upto 1280x960 16 bit (win98).

ED, we do beta test drivers/software and are at least one build above, but typically many beyond what is ready for public consumption.

I'd say it performs almost as well as a Max typically, with equal or better 2D quality

[Fat Tone]

Greebe...and is performance improving with newer and newer drivers?

Tony.

[prr]

Greebe, thank You very much.
Does up to 1280x1024x16 includes 1152x864x32?

I was afraid the numbers are close to G450 ones

[Greebe]

Sorry I haven't done much performance testing between driver builds as of yet... mostly concentrating on bug fixes/compatability issues

[Greebe]

prr, I tested that and 32bit won't work above 1024x768

[Fat Tone]

I think most of us assume the bugs will get fixed (eventually), but what I'd like to see is performance gains like those we saw on the G400 over time. Maybe we can't expect so much OpenGL improvements (as that was so dire to start), but if the numbers go up like before it might persuade a few more of us to buy.

My G400 is lacking now, but I am addicted to Dual Head for working, so if the G550 can be at all promising for my occasional 3D gaming I might stick with Matrox.

Tony.

[Kruzin]

Originally posted by EvilDonnyboy
Kruzin, you say that ur G550 overall performs better than a G400MAX? Interesting... cause all the reviews I've read, the G550 performs worse than the G400MAX in almost all cases.

I wonder what you did differently.

I said my G550 performs as well or better than my vanilla G400, o/c'd to Max speeds.

What I did differently than most reviewers usually do is to install it properly, in a decently running machine, instead of just tossing it into a spare test PC, with old (to me ) drivers, and who knows how many different display drivers from various makers, that where never properly uninstalled.
I do use newer drivers than are available to Joe Reviewer, and also know how to properly tweak the card and driver settings. If I was to use the shipping drivers, and not take the time to tweak them a little, it would probably be slower than it is...

[Alec]

I agree with you, Kruzin, but you also must admit that the Joe Reviewer has, in the worst case scenario, the computer in the same state as 90% (rough number, of course) as G550 potential buyers. You can´t expect everyone who buys a G550 to have a system and a G550 as tuned as yours. Tweakers are a small minority, and when a card is released, it shouldn´t give room for much tweaking or overclocking, because that means that a great deal of people aren´t getting the maximum (or near) juice their card can give.

So, we can say that the G550 is basically the same as a G400MAX when it comes to 3D gaming speeds, provided that we consider 3-4 fps irrelevant.