Announcement

**Thundrchez** · 27 January 2000, 07:52

Why should I convince you to keep your G400 max when you could send it to me? (hint hint, I'd like a max!)

What kind of rig do you have it in?

I've got a vanilla G400 and I'm running UT at 1024x768x32 high/high/3d sound. It does reeeaaaal sweeeeet!

I've got an old V2 collecting dust somewhere. It was decently fast, but it doesn't look anywhere near as good as the G400, and it has all kinds of other limitations. You could only do 800x600x16 unless you had 2 V2s, at which it maxed out at 1024x768x16. yuck.

**Kruzin** · 27 January 2000, 08:30

You did not mention what API you are trying to use with UT.

As Gurm mentioned, for this game, USE D3D!

If you already are using D3D, I'd start looking for remanants of old drivers from your previous cards lurking about in your system...

**LAMFDTK** · 27 January 2000, 09:59

I went for the g400 simply cause i dont need it to be THAT hardcore when it comes to 3d games

What the Hell is a Hardcore Gamer anyway?

**KoalaBear33** · 27 January 2000, 12:24

Hardcore gamers are people that care so much about games that they are willing to spend a lot of money upgrading all the time to get the newest stuff. Instead of just using, say a TNT2, these folks would go and get a GeForce, when the GeForce isn't that much better...

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See Ya Later!(tm)
KoalaBear33

**Genom** · 27 January 2000, 12:53

No offense gengi, but why should we convince you to keep the card? You obviously dont want any help setting things up, as you dont specify anything about your system at all, so if you dont want help, and you dont like the card, what does anybody here gain by convincing you otherwise?

Sugestion, get this post into the soap box.

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Asus P2B-F, P3-450~556, 512MB PC100 8ns SDRAM, G400MAX (yay!) at 160Mhz, Teac 58S CD-R, Toshiba SM-1002 DVD-ROM, Toshiba 40X SCSI CD-ROM, 8.4GB IDE primary drive, 9GB Micropolis Tomahawk UWSCSI, 9GB IBM U2WSCSI, 18GB U2WSCSI Cheetah, Diamond MX300, 3COM 10/100TX, 3COM Gaming Modem, Adaptec 2940U2W

And a partridge in a pear treeeeeeee.

**paulcs** · 27 January 2000, 13:58

Gengi, it difficult to get a handle on your problems with the G400 Max, as you really didn't give us a lot of information. It's hard to even tell if you're having a problem, or if the issues you're facing are related to the fundamental differences between the G400 and all 3dfx boards.

I'm a big Matrox fan, and I don't see a situation in the immediate future where I don't have a Matrox board in my primary machine. However, I can see situations where you might feel differently.

The G400 likes fast processors, an advantage to some and a disadvantage to others. If you have a relatively slow processor, and let's say you're using an older, resource intensive soundcard, I think the G400 Max is probably not the best choice in the world. The G400 offloads a lot of work to the processor whereas 3dfx boards typically do not.

I've run UT with both a Voodoo3 and a G400. I think the G400's D3D output is very good, and it's pretty darn fast. I just compared the numbers I get with a Max and a PIII 600 MHz Katmai with benchmarks Anandtech gets with a GeForce and a PIII 550E Coppermine. Although my processor is a bit faster, the GeForce is a newer board, and, in many situations, the fastest board available.

There not much of a difference. Using UTBench, my G400 Max is just a couple of fps slower than the GeForce at 800x600/16-bit. On the other hand, I have a Voodoo3 on a PII overclocked to 466 MHz, and when using Glide (of course), this system is just a couple of fps slower than the G400 Max. I found the 16-bit output to be quite easy on the eyes and gameplay was very smooth.

3dfx boards are just very good at running games specifically designed for 3dfx boards. If running games with the Unreal engine is the "be all and end all" of your computing experience, then maybe you should get a Voodoo3. I suspect it would have been cheaper than the Max and a whole lot faster than your Voodoo2. On a very fast machine, and when playing UT, the Voodoo3 really holds its own with the fastest GeForce.

The G400 is a very feature rich board. DVD performance is quite solid. It is, in optimal situations, the fastest OpenGL board of its generation. Many find the Dual Head feature very useful. And I don't care what anyone says, the G400's 2D output is the best I've seen. While I think you need a good monitor to take advantage of this, I don't think you need a huge monitor running at very high resolutions. It just handles color better.

While it has its weaknessness, I still think it was the best all around board of 1999. And 1999 was a very good year for videocards. I suggest you fiddle with the board for a couple of days, reconsider your priorities, and keep it or take it back before your grace period is up.

Good luck.

Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net

[This message has been edited by paulcs (edited 27 January 2000).]

**gengi** · 27 January 2000, 15:26

Alright, alright, calm down people!

I was fiddling around with the card today and guess what? I finally got to see why so many people've been hyping g400.

I updated to latest drivers, run turbogl, matrox tweak and did a couple of old driver clean-ups, my old 2d card was an old Mystique one that I've had since '96.
I don't know what really made the performace boost but I went from 25 fps/average to an amazing 45 fps in Unreal:Tournament!!! wow!
and the picture quality is simply amazing!

And I don't count my gaming pleasures in FPS like some kids that can't play Quake with anything less than 200 FPS. I've never doubted the g400's 2d performace and picture quality I just wanted to feel 'safe' in the 3d arena with my Video card the next year or so at least. And I am

Sorry to have stirred up some controversy for me not knowing my sh*t, but since I've just been blessed I hope I'm welcome here again.

**bigluker** · 27 January 2000, 15:44

3 words;

Run in D3D

**paulcs** · 27 January 2000, 16:28

Were you using the shipping drivers?

Boy, if you thought this was controversy, you should definitely stick around.

Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net

**DuRaNgO** · 27 January 2000, 16:33

nice going, enjoy!
jim

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PIII-500mhz @ 620 ! with an Abit BE6 mobo
128mb pc-100
Mill G400 (YAHOO!!!) 32mb @ 167/208 with MGATweak-417mhz, (2.5, 2, 2.5), PD 5.41 & bios 1.5-22
Maxtor 14.3 gb Uata66 hdd
SB Live!
Winblows 98se & DX7
32 lbs. of fans, heatsinks and aluminum ductwork

3DMark Result 5954.69 3DMarks
Synthetic CPU 3D Speed 9325.69 CPU 3DMarks
Rasterizer Score 2791.72 3DRasterMarks
Game 1 - Race 65.07 FPS
Game 2 - First Person 54.89 FPS
Fill Rate 268.79 MTexels/s

**gengi** · 27 January 2000, 17:19

Please convince me to keep my g400max!

I got myself a g400max a couple of days ago and i must say that i'm not very impressed.
I was expecting a LOT more from this card. I mainly use my home computer as a gaming rig and I went for the g400 simply cause i dont need it to be THAT hardcore when it comes to 3d games and such since i mainly play 2d games (strategy and rpg's) but OFCOURSE I wanted it to smoke my old Voodoo 2 card!
Unreal Tournament is one of the few fps games I'm really addicted to and I have to say that to get it as smooth and as good looking as my old V2 I had to enable high, high 32-bit and the good damn thing was SLOWER than my V2. I know that U:T is GLide optimized and such and such, but is this really all there is to Matrox's top-of-the-notch card?

I have to add that the card is relatively untweaked (OC'ing and such), but I think when you pay 2.600 swedish kronor (approx. 350$) you should get something amazing straight out the box!

Let the flames begin

**Alec** · 27 January 2000, 17:49

Use Turbo GL, please!

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INTEL CELERON 433, G200 SD 8MB AGP (BIOS 2.6), INTEL ATLANTA 440LX moby (latestly BIOSED), SOUNDBLASTER PCI 128, 96 MB SDRAM 66Mhz, 4.3 WESTERN DIGITAL EIDE CAVIAR HD, CREATIVE 24X CD-ROM, AOC 5VLR 15", EPSON STYLUS COLOR 200.
ALWAYS (ahem, well, almost) the latest Powerdesk and DirectX.

Remember folks:
"Computers are useless. They can only give you answers"
Pablo Picasso

**Genom** · 27 January 2000, 18:51

Aw poop. And here I wanted to get a little BBQ going.

Oh well, maybe next time.

But seriously, next time actually ask for help. Dont ask to be flamed

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Asus P2B-F, P3-450~556, 512MB PC100 8ns SDRAM, G400MAX (yay!) at 160Mhz, Teac 58S CD-R, Toshiba SM-1002 DVD-ROM, Toshiba 40X SCSI CD-ROM, 8.4GB IDE primary drive, 9GB Micropolis Tomahawk UWSCSI, 9GB IBM U2WSCSI, 18GB U2WSCSI Cheetah, Diamond MX300, 3COM 10/100TX, 3COM Gaming Modem, Adaptec 2940U2W

And a partridge in a pear treeeeeeee.

**paulcs** · 27 January 2000, 18:59

It appears the old Mystique users are an interesting bunch. I think they might be the lunatic fringe (and I mean that in the nicest way possible) of Matrox users. Many of the regulars are familiar with this thread, but it illustrates my point:

http://forums.murc.ws/ubb/Forum9/HTML/000193.html

Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net

Announcement

Please convince me to keep my g400max!

Please convince me to keep my g400max!

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