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G550 vs G400Max. First impressions report.
Hi,
In our company (CAD/CAE engineering) we mostly use Matrox cards due to their excellent signal quality and superior support. Our favorite card is G400Max as it's the fastest one. Recently we purchased a G550 for a new system we built. So i thing it's the best time to make some comparison between G550 and G400Max.
As you can see i left our 3D benchmarks or other numerical data as they tell nothing about the real comparison impressions. For all tests i used the same monitor, settings cables and system as well as i did some tests on weaker systems and less able monitors.
The main test computer was equipped with a 1.7Ghz P4, ASUS P4T, 512MB PC800 RDRAM and i used the SONY F520 monitor plus hi/Q BNC cables, latest Matrox drivers for all tested cards and Windows 2000/sp2.
For application level tests i used Win2k
CorelDRAW 10/sp1, Autocad 2k, IE6 (final), 3Dstudio, Illustrator & Photoshop.
Signal quality:
G400Max wins here.
G550 disappointed me as it produces inferior signal than G400 even G450 (!!!). There is little difference between G450 and G550 but they both have FAR worst signal quality than G400Max (and G400). I didn't notice any shimmering or other stability problems but the small characters, at resolutions of 1600x1200 or more, were crisp and absolutely clear when using G400Max and quite soapy with G550.
I mostly used high resolutions (1280x1024, 1600x1200, 1800x1440, 1920x1200, 2048x1536) and refresh rates above 100Hz with the exception of 1920 & 2048 where i used 85Hz.
With G550 i also noticed some ghosting on high res and refresh rates that was invisible on G400Max.
On geometry tests all Matrox cards got excellent results with no exception.
G400Max gives better process colors than the G550. You could see the difference even on Windows desktop grays or when using black and color letters on system gray background. I've got similar results using white and color line drawing (Autocad) over black background. G550 produces line ghosts where G400Max draws sharp lines.
Rendering speed:
In my opinion bench test tell us nothing as real use is the ONLY bench test you can see with naked eyes
On generic apps G550 is somewhat faster than G450 though it's very difficult to notice the difference.
Lets take for example a "New" drawing creation in CorelDRAW. On 32bit resolutions of 1280x1024 or above and refresh of 100Hz i could see the full screen refresh delay when i created new blank drawings. With G400Max, CorelDraw and Autocad refresh was snappy and instantaneous, absolutely "NO DELAYS"
Windows redrawing was absolutely faster with G400Max. Web pages with rich graphics content scroll speed was almost equal using any Matrox card though the actual rendering was noticeable faster with G400Max.
Autocad redraws very fast on all cards though complex 3D REGEN work almost 30% faster on Max. 3DStudio renders 20-40 percent faster when using Max (!)
I didn't notice any visible difference in speed with Adobe applications with the exception of Photoshop at 32bit color. 64bit limited bus on G550 cause too slow texture and fountain fill page rendering.
So G400Max wins again
Driver:
No comments here as G550 driver is the same as other G4xx (5.70.0.10). Actually i used the same driver for all card tests.
DualHead:
Better than before if you need this feature. I liked the extra resolutions and refresh rates. DVI is nice if you own an LCD digital display.
Headcast:
No comments (Who cares ???)
Games:
No comments (i don't play :P)
Conclusion:
Q: Is G550 any faster than G450 ?
A: Yes on almost anything though not noticeable.
Q: Is it faster than G400Max ?
A: Absolutely NO. I run many tests using both cards and Max was always NOTICEABLY faster (10 - 40 percent when bench testing was possible)
Q: What card produce better screen images ?
A: G400Max
Q: What about G450 ?
A: What about it ? It's slower than G550 but it has somewhat better image quality. Yes it's true, i asked two graphics designers of our company to tell me the difference they could see (they have bird eyes ) and they both agreed that G450 produce better image.
Q: What about G400 (not Max)
A: I never had one, so no comments.
Q: What about overclock ?
A: I never OC video cards
Q: What other cards you use in your company ?
A: Matrox for all of our workstations. (many G400Max, some G450 and now two G550). Last year we bought Radeon 64 VIVO to see if they were useable but now they are in a drawer. Nothing compares to a Matrox in quality and speed (in our case and in my opinion)
Two of our workstations use 3D dedicated video cards (IBM GPU equipped FGL etc) but they don't compare with G400Max in refresh rates and signal quality. In 3D they are very very very faster though
Q: Would you buy G550 ?
A: Yes, if i couldn't find any G400Max
Q: So ?
A: So stay with your Max if you have it or search to find one even second hand if you want the best 2D/desktop apps speed and image quality. If you cannot find a Max then get a G550 if you like Matrox cards AND want the second best in terms of quality and 2D speed.
That's all folks, remember i just told you my first impressions.
Regards
Sakis
In our company (CAD/CAE engineering) we mostly use Matrox cards due to their excellent signal quality and superior support. Our favorite card is G400Max as it's the fastest one. Recently we purchased a G550 for a new system we built. So i thing it's the best time to make some comparison between G550 and G400Max.
As you can see i left our 3D benchmarks or other numerical data as they tell nothing about the real comparison impressions. For all tests i used the same monitor, settings cables and system as well as i did some tests on weaker systems and less able monitors.
The main test computer was equipped with a 1.7Ghz P4, ASUS P4T, 512MB PC800 RDRAM and i used the SONY F520 monitor plus hi/Q BNC cables, latest Matrox drivers for all tested cards and Windows 2000/sp2.
For application level tests i used Win2k
CorelDRAW 10/sp1, Autocad 2k, IE6 (final), 3Dstudio, Illustrator & Photoshop.Signal quality:
G400Max wins here.
G550 disappointed me as it produces inferior signal than G400 even G450 (!!!). There is little difference between G450 and G550 but they both have FAR worst signal quality than G400Max (and G400). I didn't notice any shimmering or other stability problems but the small characters, at resolutions of 1600x1200 or more, were crisp and absolutely clear when using G400Max and quite soapy with G550.
I mostly used high resolutions (1280x1024, 1600x1200, 1800x1440, 1920x1200, 2048x1536) and refresh rates above 100Hz with the exception of 1920 & 2048 where i used 85Hz.
With G550 i also noticed some ghosting on high res and refresh rates that was invisible on G400Max.
On geometry tests all Matrox cards got excellent results with no exception.
G400Max gives better process colors than the G550. You could see the difference even on Windows desktop grays or when using black and color letters on system gray background. I've got similar results using white and color line drawing (Autocad) over black background. G550 produces line ghosts where G400Max draws sharp lines.
Rendering speed:
In my opinion bench test tell us nothing as real use is the ONLY bench test you can see with naked eyes
On generic apps G550 is somewhat faster than G450 though it's very difficult to notice the difference.
Lets take for example a "New" drawing creation in CorelDRAW. On 32bit resolutions of 1280x1024 or above and refresh of 100Hz i could see the full screen refresh delay when i created new blank drawings. With G400Max, CorelDraw and Autocad refresh was snappy and instantaneous, absolutely "NO DELAYS"
Windows redrawing was absolutely faster with G400Max. Web pages with rich graphics content scroll speed was almost equal using any Matrox card though the actual rendering was noticeable faster with G400Max.
Autocad redraws very fast on all cards though complex 3D REGEN work almost 30% faster on Max. 3DStudio renders 20-40 percent faster when using Max (!)
I didn't notice any visible difference in speed with Adobe applications with the exception of Photoshop at 32bit color. 64bit limited bus on G550 cause too slow texture and fountain fill page rendering.
So G400Max wins again
Driver:
No comments here as G550 driver is the same as other G4xx (5.70.0.10). Actually i used the same driver for all card tests.
DualHead:
Better than before if you need this feature. I liked the extra resolutions and refresh rates. DVI is nice if you own an LCD digital display.
Headcast:
No comments
(Who cares ???)Games:
No comments
(i don't play :P)Conclusion:
Q: Is G550 any faster than G450 ?
A: Yes on almost anything though not noticeable.
Q: Is it faster than G400Max ?
A: Absolutely NO. I run many tests using both cards and Max was always NOTICEABLY faster (10 - 40 percent when bench testing was possible)
Q: What card produce better screen images ?
A: G400Max
Q: What about G450 ?
A: What about it ?
It's slower than G550 but it has somewhat better image quality. Yes it's true, i asked two graphics designers of our company to tell me the difference they could see (they have bird eyes ) and they both agreed that G450 produce better image.Q: What about G400 (not Max)
A: I never had one, so no comments.
Q: What about overclock ?
A: I never OC video cards
Q: What other cards you use in your company ?
A: Matrox for all of our workstations. (many G400Max, some G450 and now two G550). Last year we bought Radeon 64 VIVO to see if they were useable but now they are in a drawer. Nothing compares to a Matrox in quality and speed (in our case and in my opinion)
Two of our workstations use 3D dedicated video cards (IBM GPU equipped FGL etc) but they don't compare with G400Max in refresh rates and signal quality. In 3D they are very very very faster though
Q: Would you buy G550 ?
A: Yes, if i couldn't find any G400Max
Q: So ?
A: So stay with your Max if you have it or search to find one even second hand if you want the best 2D/desktop apps speed and image quality. If you cannot find a Max then get a G550 if you like Matrox cards AND want the second best in terms of quality and 2D speed.
That's all folks, remember i just told you my first impressions.
Regards
Sakis
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