how bad is the picture quality of the G550

[mdhome]

The Title sums it up. Just how bad is the picture quality of the G550 in comparison with the g400.

Regards Michael

[Ant]

In the tests I have done the image quality of the G550 is slightly better than that of the G450 and slightly worse than the G400. The differences I have found are only when running at very high resolutions, I tested at 1800x1440 on a 21" monitor.

[Inray]

I found G550 image quality much worst than G400Max. G550 produces blur picture especially small letters on white or light gray background. G400Max high res (1600x1200 or above) on a SONY F520 and an EIZO F980 produces excellent images, i cannot say the same for G550

[Maggi]

EMBM is ugly on the G550 ...

[sasa]

IMHO Matrox desperately needs new card with competitive 3D.
All those rape of G400 core sucks. Its a shame that after almost 3 years newest Gxx card performs same or even slower than G400 and worst of all it has lower picture quality. This is only reason why someone should buy matrox besides DH, and that is why I have one G400. But I am forced to laugh with recent market joke called headcasting. This is cheap and stupid way to sell 3 year old card. If Matrox still has not developed new card, they should improve old core instead of criple it. Who would use headcasting? Gamers certanly wont, it is targeted to buissines contacts. Tell me please, is there anybody in buisiness who cannot afford something faster than modem for videoconference? If there is, I can hardly say they are buisnissman. So, if I have bandwith for normal videoconference, why would I experiment with lousy supplement? I am positive that headcasting is deadborn and forgotten already now. Give us something good, Matrox! I will be first to buy new decent card, my G400 is rather slow...

[Greebe]

I find it inreresting that so many call Headcasting "deadborn" or "stupid"... especially considering there are others now trying to mimic it... and it's going to be part of the next Playstation.

Now just think of the latter.. if a mess of kids see this, they won't be calling it deadborn or stupid, they'll eat it up.

sasa, now you may have the bandwidth to manage teleconferencing, but I know many even here in the US that don't. It's not an issue of money, it's the area inwhich you live. Most places don't have broadband and are stuck with standard dialup.

[mdhome]

I'm sure there is also a gaming market for this type of technology. We just have to wait and see what happens.

ps I also heard that ATI are trying to get on the Headcasting waggon - but I am not sure where I heard this.


regards MD

[Greebe]

It's been mentioned on a few hardware review sites... and here in the forums

[Greebe]

Since so many like rating the G450 as a 5 (perfect), then I would rate the G400 as a 5.5 and a G550 as a 5.2

EMBM suks tho

[Wulfman]

Is EMBM faster now?

mfg
wulfman

[Ant]

I simply cannot understand why several reviews have proclaimed the G550 has having poor image quality I have found this not to be the case. The only thing I can think of is poor beta drivers used in the tests, faulty hardware (I heard from one reviewer Matrox had sent out a bunch of faulty boards to some reviewers by mistake but I cannot confirm that), setup problems with old drivers lingering around the place. For my own tests I always set the boards up on a completely fresh system to avoid any such problems, I have found in the past even using Matrox's uninstall util that things do not get properly cleaned up when removing drivers and problems can occur. There is a quality difference between the G400, G450 and G550 but it takes a lot of finding and only at very high resolutions. Again from my tests I put the boards in this order from best to worst: G400 : G550 : G450 but it is a very, very close thing and the worst in this case is still much better than boards from other manufacturers.

[Greebe]

Is EMBM faster now?

To be honest, I wouldn't even call it EMBM.

[AndrewDV]

Hi,

I know I am going to get it for saying this. Neglecting an issue with interlaced video, the G550 I've been tinkering with produces a nicer quality TV Out than the Marvel G400-TV. This is under Win2K.