Any Hardware difference betwenn G550 Retail and G550 bulk?

[Zanna]

(same as subject)

I'm evaluating if the best thing is to buy the retail version (if faster than the bulk..), 'cause i'm not so interested in this strange "talking Heads" things or other bundled softwares or games.

Any suggestion?

Best Regards

[Electric Amish]

They should be the same, hardware wise. The only difference will be any bundled software.

amish

[Wombat]

Matrox doesn't allow clock speeds for a reason. If something isn't fast enough, then they downclock it, and OEM it. They sell them cheaper, and it's good enough for many many companies. There's a small risk that in buying OEM you might get one of this slower parts.

[The PIT]

You don't the Matrox dvd player with the oem version

[Kruzin]

You also won't get the break-out cable or DVI-VGA adapter with the OEM card...

[The PIT]

I got the connector perhaps it depends in what country you're based.

[Nuno]

Wombat: I never heard of OEM Matrox cards having lower clock speeds. Different memory types (SDRAM) that aren´t available on retail, yes.

Actually I think Matrox makes the best OEM cards out there, quality wise. Not like some other known Canadian manufacturer, where you have to buy the retail version in order to get the spec´d clock speed.

Actually OEM doesn´t equal to low quality. OEM equals to white-box/no software bundle versions of the card that are shipped in volume to licensed computer manufacturers, that´s why it´s cheaper. Actually, as a user, you can´t legally buy a OEM part without bringing a system with it. Yes, of course that´s not the way it works.

Speaking at OEM quality, I´m preety satisfied with Hercules too. They even included unecessary 5ns ram in the card (core will only do 182-183)

[Kruzin]

Pit-
You got the DVI adapter, the break-out cable, or both?

Nuno-
Yes, OEM cards from Matrox CAN potentially mean a lower clock speed...but not necessarily...

[Nuno]

Yes, OEM cards from Matrox CAN potentially mean a lower clock speed...but not necessarily...

I see. I wasn´t aware of that...

[Wombat]

Sorry, rereading my post I see that I wasn't that clear. Kruzin rephrased me well. It seems from people's experience with the OEM cards that "slower" is a possibility, but not a probability.

[Ashley]

You get a DVI-VGA adapter, but not the breakout cable.

Oh yeah... And the OEMs are DOA. (Lol - at least mine was...)

[Zanna]

Thanks to everyone have contributed to this thread.

Now my choiche will be between a Matrox Millenium G550 (maybe newer drivers improve performance) or a Matrox Millenium G400 MAX (maybe not!).

Best regards.

[The PIT]

Just the dvi connector as Ashley said.