Announcement

**Topha** · 12 March 2001, 06:11

yes, as far as i know linux supports dual head. you can also consider the kyro II, which is faster than mx and has better image quality.
if you can wait for another 10 days, you can wait and see what matrox is gonna announce on the cebit (see soap box thread "its not gonna be called g800"), maybe there will be a cheap card among the upcoming matrox products??
as for the g4x0, the g400max is faster than the g450, ive had it for more than a year now, quality and dualhead are great, newer games are starting to run too slow (athlon 750).
when matrox wont announce a chip this cebit, ill get a kyro II, wont cost too much so i can hopefully afford the new matrox card when/if it comes out.

az · 12 March 2001, 07:25

well, if you work more than you play i'd advice you to get a matrox card, preferably the g450, as it's got better dualhead (the g400's second ramdac is limited to 1280x768@60Hz iirc). both the radeon ve and, even more so, the gf2 mx are somewhat faster in 3d, but have worse image quality (at least the mx is way behind here) and worse dualhead capability - i don't know about linux drivers for either, but i'd suspect that, given ati's windows drivers reputation (although linux drivers are probably not developed in-house), the radeo will have no or really poor lin drivers, and i don't think that nv's lin drivers (if such do exist) would provide dualhead features (even thei win drivers don't really )..

so i'd just take a matrox card, but i wouldn't listen to me anyway, because my latest graphics card is a matrox millenium (with a whopping 4mb wram ) and i don't have any experience with cards newer than that *g

but i've read much, and i'd recommend you take a look at anandtech's dual display comparison between a g450, a radeon ve, and a gf2 mx - but remember that eDualhead wasn't out back then

AZ

**Rowan** · 12 March 2001, 17:54

Unlurking for a fellow Finn. Nice to have you here.

If you really plan to keep your new card for five years get G4x0. In five years all cards you can buy today will be slow. At least Matrox will look good.

You don't say what vidcard you have now. I guess that if you are considering upgrading to G4x0 you have at most Voodoo3 or TNT2. While I'm not very much into gaming I think that you'll do just fine with G4x0. Just don't expect very big improvements.

IIRC Matrox has multi-monitor support for Linux.

**villerk** · 13 March 2001, 06:05

My old card is i740 (laughter...), so I figured out anything currently sold card would be better!

Any Finn knows where I can buy a Kyro II based card? How does it work in Linux? What is it exactly?

For the last three days I explored the Net and read almost (I hope) all info concerning MX vs. G4x0 vs. Voodoo. In nearly all of the tests Geforce2 based card won, and the even had the best Linux support!!! I'm not so certain about Matrox's cards anymore, so when I next get some money (next summer or maybe before) I'll buy THE CHEAPEST Geforce2 or Gxx0 based card, which has TV- and/or two monitor outputs...

You say Matrox is going to introduce G800? How about that...?

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MK · 13 March 2001, 08:34

They sure will do soon ... err I mean this year.

MK

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Celeron II 860 MHz + Golden Orb
256 MB PC133 Crucial 7E (CAS2)
G400 16MB @ PD 5.52 + TGL
20 GB IBM on HPT U-ATA100 RAID
Iiyama Vision Master Pro 400

MK · 13 March 2001, 08:37

Nah, I mean wait for CeBit or GDC and do your decision then.

MK

**JLP** · 13 March 2001, 10:35

Kyro II will be out at the end of March or at the begining of April. It's recommended price 150$. But I guess it's Linux support will not be as good as for Matrox Gxx or nVidia Geforce cards.

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Live long and prosper!

az · 13 March 2001, 13:30

i doubt there will be any dualhead-versions of kyro II based cards, although they will make great (and cheap) gamer's card with decent image quality, but i doubt it will (decently) support linux.

there might be a kyro II card by powerVR/videologic themselves, but it's certain that there will at least be a guileemot/hercules card, the 3d prophet 4500

AZ

**Topha** · 13 March 2001, 17:17

If you want a good gaming card with good image quality, get the kyro II. its 150$ and actually beats the gf2 ultra in some areas.

http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1435

check this review. if matrox doesnt bring out a chip, thats the one im getting ( i know im repeating myself )

**CHHAS** · 13 March 2001, 23:37

Not that I'm not excited about Kyro 2, but come on this a Matrox forum, what's everybody doing telling this guy to buy a Kyro ?

**Greebe** · 13 March 2001, 23:48

and advise to buy a product when they've never seen one, tested it, found the bugs it has or the like.

another reason to raise the mini status a bit higher I think, Aye Ant?

**Wombat** · 13 March 2001, 23:54

The Kyro's do have some driver bugs, but then again so does Matrox. And the KyroII is a pumped up Kyro, just faster.

As for dualhead, it looks like there will be Kyro's with TV out. I haven't heard anything at all about support other than Windoze.

And CHHAS, I like my Matrox stuff, but they don't have anything to offer right now.

**CHHAS** · 14 March 2001, 01:33

Please notice the , I've got a Kyro myself and love it, I was just trying to beat Greebe to it

But still, this is a Matrox forum, and non-matrox products should be kept in General Hardware IMHO.

[This message has been edited by CHHAS (edited 14 March 2001).]

**DezMFNutz** · 14 March 2001, 01:54

Does anyone know what AGP bus speed these cards are stable to? Will any of them make 89mhz (1/2 divider on a 133mhz fsb?)

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Matrox vs. MX and Radeon

Matrox vs. MX and Radeon

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