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Everything they say about Matrox quality is TRUE :0)
Well, a month ago I rediscovered my love of everything Quake when I went 'Cable' with Blueyonder.
The only trouble is that I started to notice my G400max sweating a little, even though the picture was glowing out of my monitor like total eyecandy.
Q3A duels started to make little sense at 640x480 low detail settings when you got in close...and at pings of 33 that AIN'T right!
I'm not one to hack my configs to pieces in order to get a smooth but strangely garish game. It has to look half decent or I won't bother. Quake 2 was the biggest culprit. An old game, ping of 25 - 30 on a good day...Chop City.
Even my beloved AvsP, with the release of two ambitiously textured official Rebellion maps, began to jerk a little TOO much for my liking at 1024 32 bit. This is a D3D game of course.
So my lust for Quake returned I've done the unthinkable and gone running back to Nvidia...in the shape of the Geforce Creative Annihilator Pro DDR.
Before you all start throwing bottles of piss at me as I caper on the stage (!!) let me say this: I've had Creative stuff in the past (AWE 32, Banshee 16mb, 16 PCI Soundblaster), and these guys KNOW how to write efficient reliable first-time install drivers, so I am instantly enamoured by my new purchase.
Once I'd successfully found every bit of old Matrox software and deleted it I finally
got my Open GL back, and WHOOOSSHH!!
Q2 at 1024 running 102.2 instead of 70, Q3A at 1024 32 bit Vertex (all set on max) at 59 instead of 39, and with trilinear lightmap, 51 instead of 23.
Yes, yes, it's newer technology, I know. But this is what leads me to my next bit: AvsP, a D3D game has lost overall quality, becoming marginally blander and 'bittier'. Not much, but enough of a difference to my AvsP aficionado eyes to cause a little tweak of remorse in my heart :0) It runs a lot quicker though, and there's something to be said about the sharpness a steady stream of frames brings, but it's lost its warm glow :0)
Q2? Forget about it. Matrox makes the Geforce version of Q2 look positively shabby, even though it runs it at quite modest, nay sometimes sluggish frame rates. It is bleached out, and bland, with some stepping in the shadows never before noticed.
Tracking with a rail is effortless, but the magic has left the scenery.....
Q3A is actually more colourful and certain FX are better. The weapons look better, but the textures are slightly softer at the higher rezzes. I must say that overall Q3A is just as pleasing to the eye on the Geforce as on the Max....plus now it runs like stink!!
This makes me hanker for a second AGP slot, so I can indulge my eyes in Matrox eyecandy occasionally, then when I need the speed switch to Nvidia.
Don't get me wrong, the games are still mighty purdy on the Geforce card, but I can categorically say that those Matrox people waving the 'quality flag' are quite right to do so.
Let's hope that Matrox sort out their Open GL and get those frames pumping alongside their legendary image quality. Then I shall once more rejoin the flock :0)
TTFN!! (and replace Matrox G400 Max with the dirty word in my sig below!)
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P3 450, 128 mb ram, Creative PCI 16, Intel SE440BX2, G400 Max, Win 98 se, Viewsonic E771.
[This message has been edited by Belshy (edited 07 September 2000).]
The only trouble is that I started to notice my G400max sweating a little, even though the picture was glowing out of my monitor like total eyecandy.
Q3A duels started to make little sense at 640x480 low detail settings when you got in close...and at pings of 33 that AIN'T right!
I'm not one to hack my configs to pieces in order to get a smooth but strangely garish game. It has to look half decent or I won't bother. Quake 2 was the biggest culprit. An old game, ping of 25 - 30 on a good day...Chop City.
Even my beloved AvsP, with the release of two ambitiously textured official Rebellion maps, began to jerk a little TOO much for my liking at 1024 32 bit. This is a D3D game of course.
So my lust for Quake returned I've done the unthinkable and gone running back to Nvidia...in the shape of the Geforce Creative Annihilator Pro DDR.
Before you all start throwing bottles of piss at me as I caper on the stage (!!) let me say this: I've had Creative stuff in the past (AWE 32, Banshee 16mb, 16 PCI Soundblaster), and these guys KNOW how to write efficient reliable first-time install drivers, so I am instantly enamoured by my new purchase.
Once I'd successfully found every bit of old Matrox software and deleted it I finally
got my Open GL back, and WHOOOSSHH!!
Q2 at 1024 running 102.2 instead of 70, Q3A at 1024 32 bit Vertex (all set on max) at 59 instead of 39, and with trilinear lightmap, 51 instead of 23.
Yes, yes, it's newer technology, I know. But this is what leads me to my next bit: AvsP, a D3D game has lost overall quality, becoming marginally blander and 'bittier'. Not much, but enough of a difference to my AvsP aficionado eyes to cause a little tweak of remorse in my heart :0) It runs a lot quicker though, and there's something to be said about the sharpness a steady stream of frames brings, but it's lost its warm glow :0)
Q2? Forget about it. Matrox makes the Geforce version of Q2 look positively shabby, even though it runs it at quite modest, nay sometimes sluggish frame rates. It is bleached out, and bland, with some stepping in the shadows never before noticed.
Tracking with a rail is effortless, but the magic has left the scenery.....
Q3A is actually more colourful and certain FX are better. The weapons look better, but the textures are slightly softer at the higher rezzes. I must say that overall Q3A is just as pleasing to the eye on the Geforce as on the Max....plus now it runs like stink!!
This makes me hanker for a second AGP slot, so I can indulge my eyes in Matrox eyecandy occasionally, then when I need the speed switch to Nvidia.
Don't get me wrong, the games are still mighty purdy on the Geforce card, but I can categorically say that those Matrox people waving the 'quality flag' are quite right to do so.
Let's hope that Matrox sort out their Open GL and get those frames pumping alongside their legendary image quality. Then I shall once more rejoin the flock :0)
TTFN!! (and replace Matrox G400 Max with the dirty word in my sig below!)
------------------
P3 450, 128 mb ram, Creative PCI 16, Intel SE440BX2, G400 Max, Win 98 se, Viewsonic E771.
[This message has been edited by Belshy (edited 07 September 2000).]
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