WinXP 2D driver performance

[orangejulius]

Zorba from Ars posted this comparison of 2D graphic card performance in Windows XP. Thought you guys might be interested.

[re: XPBench 2D benchmarking tool[/url]]

After scanning through their results database, it appears that

1. All NVIDIA chips since original TNT support both constant alpha blending (used in fade effects) and per-pixel alpha blending (used in shadows).

2. All ATI Radeon series chips and all Matrox Gxxx series chips support constant alpha blending but not per-pixel alpha. Users of these chips would be advised to disable XP shadowing effects to improve performance

3. Older chips (eg. Kryo II, 3dfx chips, S3 chips, SiS chips, Intel chips) do not support either feature, and are likely to perform crappily in XP.

Some of the limitations of ATI and Matrox cards might be resolved with updated drivers.

[Werdna]

That's interesting... I disabled all the effects because I was getting really bad 2D performance (turns out it was stupid me leaving the Language Bar open with Speech Recognition on) turned them all back on...
Along the way I wondered how shadowing would be done... I would think you could get the same effect by simply adding a border around the right and bottom edges of any window.

[Gurm]

Well, I've never had any problems with the speed of shadowing, except in early betas of WindowFX under Win2k. (So kind of unrelated, hehe!)

Ooooh wait, does the multiple file select transparent thinger count as shadows? The G400 sucked at that one...

The Kyro2 sucks at all of that. It is nice 'n' fast in 3D, but merely 'adequate' in 2D.

- Gurm

[JesTa784]

Shadowing in XP doesn't seem to be TOO slow, but it's a noticeable difference for me when i disable it. File Menus and the Start button open up a lot faster and smoother with no shadowing.

Would you guys think Matrox would address this issue with the next set of drivers? or do you think it's always going to be like this for a G400?


-edit-
What versions of G400 drivers work with XP anyway? can anyone tell me? i'm using 5.71 beta. Do the 5.52 work?

and win9x versions work in XP? thanks for the help

[WayneHu]

5.71 beta is exactly the same with 5.71 release version except it removes G400 & G400MAX support in the SETUP utility.

Since 5.71 is WHQL version, I guess it removed G400 support due to G400 DVD-MAX overlay bug. If the video player window is covered by other windows, then the secondary display of the Video Overlay would become a mass.

[[GDI]Raptor]

When will we se the finished Windwos XP drivers for G400 from Matrox?

Thats the big question!

[Greebe]

Most likely not until XP is available for purchase in the retail channel.

[Werdna]

yeah hehe slow down a bit
about 30 days... as people have said, Matrox usually have drivers out as soon as a new OS comes out
I'm just glad they're still supporting the G400

[orangejulius]

Thanks Matrox for posting status of XP driver development.

G400 XP drivers are "in progress."
But G200 drivers are "supplied with XP."

Since drivers supplied with XP offer no OGL support, does this mean Matrox just dropped OGL support for G200 users?

[Greebe]

Let me ask Randy

[dZeus]

he just got himself a nice g400 (and I think he's not the kind of person to install Win XP ... hehehe )

[Randy Simons]

Yah, sorry, I've no G200 anymore. I sold it to a house/flat-mate of dZeus in fact But he runs Linux on it

And dZeus is right, I won't be installing XP anytime soon. (or even just "anytime")

Too bad that Microsoft is back to her old self. Removing Java and removing OpenGL is very typical for the company

In my opinion, not XP is the best windows ever, but w2k.

[JLP]

Randy Simons:
You can get Java whenever you want. Just go to Sun's Java page and download Java 2 Runtime Environment or download Microsofts version of JVM using Windows Update.

[Randy Simons]

Thanks for tip, but since I'm using Opera I don't need the non-standard-compliant MS JavaVM anyway

[Greebe]

BTW that's not the same Randy I was thinking of