G400 MAX review at Tom's hardware

[Jason]

Just visited Tom's hardware site and found this one:

http://www6.tomshardware.com/releases/99q2/990628/index.html

Pretty interesting. It points out some shortcoming of G400 like the immature OpenGL ICD and the 16bit Z-buffer. Go take a look.

Jason

[Kruzin]

Leave it to Tommy boy to harp on Q2 scores for 2 pages At least he mentioned the fact that they are early drivers. For an indication of where the drivers are heading, my P2-350(412) scores very close (some better) to the P3-550 in all of the Q2 benches I've run. On a regular G400, no less 32bit z-buffer has also been enabled in several of the builds I've used, and it did not affect the benchmarks, as Tom would have us beleive.

He did say a lot of favorable things, as well. Looks like he really likes the visuals and dual head. He had high praise for the D3D performance, and showed how it stomps all in that arena.

As usual, I think he used most of the article to promote his #1 sponsor (nvida). Even while complimenting how great the bumpmapping of G400 is, he managed to plug the TnT2. Well, someone who knows what they want in a card will be able to see the info they need.

I just wanna know why I didn't get one of those coffee cups





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P2-350(@103*4=412), Asus P2B(1009), 128meg PC100, MillG400 32meg(PD5.20.???), CL SB Live!Value, CL PC-DVD, Mitsumi CD-R, WD UDMA 8.4&6.4 gig, (2)USR 56k(multilinked), 3Com 905B-TX, etc...

[Joel]

Me too.

Joel

[Helevitia]

Hey! Tom is using my Monitor I have at home! I love my monitor. After reading Tom's review and Kruzin's comment about the GL scores, I am very much looking forward to getting my MAX!

Dave

[merchant2]

hey notice how the monitors aren't set up in those pics (size and position) for the res he's at, and dam can we order the mugs and wait 4 weeks for shiping ? maybe we can get matrox mugs for haveing to wait so long for g200 drivers.


ya right.


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i spend way too much time and money on my 3 systems.



[This message has been edited by merchant2 (edited 06-28-99).]

[Cauldron]

Seems to me that Tommy was pouting about the G400 beating the TNT2. O, 'This chart is pretty clear cut in showing the G400 MAX in the commanding lead. The G400 MAX takes advantage of the efficient 32-bit color/16bit Z-buffer mode and speeds past the TNT2 (that is held back by the 32-bit color/32-bit Z-buffer mode)'. Well maybe if Tom decided to use the latest drives that supported the 32-bit zbuffer that wouldn't be a problem. Then again, by word of mouth from the beta testers and Ant, the G400's performance increases significantly with the new drivers. So then the G400 would really make the TNT2 look bad. Ooops, wasn't supposed to point that one out >:-> .

Dan
Less filling, tastes great

[kasper]

It's also nice to see the compairison of the different bump mapping methods between the G400 and TNT2. The TNT2 certainly looks tacky.

[MK]

It`s not just what he said and how his article was structured (compare it with the TNT2-article !). Also remarkable is his diction. Lets call it the nVidia-diction.

Greetings

MK

[Hunsow]

I can't believe that there was any respect in the first place.

And I certainly don't want to drink from the same mug as Tommy boy.

[MetalHead]

well i dont like the way at first he says their are no 32bit z problems in d3d yet continuously bashes it for not having 32bit z in d3d....and ogl but thats a different story! 32 bit z does work in d3d so i emailed him and told him to change it....i think he was using a "trick" as he would say to make his sponsor's tnt2 sound better!

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im getting a dual socket 370 motherboard with 366mhz celerons running at 550, 128mb ram, dvd-rom.....all i need now is a g400 max!

[that guy]

Since you're all bashing on tom, you might want to look at that article again. Tom didn't write it. It was by two other people, someone new I'm guessing since I haven't seen their names before. And actually, I didn't see anything in the article that bad. In fact, it points out that the 16 bit z buffer may actually give a performance increase.

[that guy]

BTW, that everyone here, including some of the beta testers, could miss something that obvious doesn't exactly give me a warm fuzzy as far as the quality to expect in future drivers. I know return you to your regularly scheduled squabbling.

[LAMFDTK]

Tom Pabst got me addicted to computers way back when. I think that THW is no different than any other major review site. He just put up that stupid gif that got him in the hot water that he is in now.There is a lot of $$ in this biz so you cant really trust anyone but the posts on good BBS and your own expirence. I wish that Matrox would supply the major review sites with these "Improved" drivers. I think that the card will do well.
I bashed the hell out of him and Matrox on my site yesterday then took down most of it today. It really is no big deal.

[Elie]

Looks like old Tommy boy was benchmarking the G400 Max against overclocked TNT2 Ultra which is no way a fair comparison.

I totaly lost all respect for that guy.

Regards,
Elie

[SteveC]

You've only just lost all respect?

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Cheers,
Steve
It's Only A Graphics Card!
(But a damn good 'un!)