advice please - G400, G450 or G550

[Frank Marshall]

Greets,

I just saw a great price on a G550 (less than half RRP) and just assumed it was the best Millennium card you could get. After reading the "G450-out, G400-in" thread, I'm not so sure anymore. Is it possible a second-hand or a run-out price on an earlier model could suit my needs better

I will be editing home videos some of the time, so good DVDmax and TV out is important. I'll be swapping between a TV and a CRT monitor on the dual-head function, with a CRT primary monitor. At some time in the future, I want to upgrade to LCD. I don't play video games at all but 3D is important in that I want to tinker with 3D modelling and animation.

Thanks in advance.

[Kruzin]

For TV-out, G400 was the best of the G series.
It was also the fastest of them for 3D purposes (especially the G400-MAX).
G450/G550 offered a higher resolution for the second head, if you are running high res dual CRT displays (G550 also had DVI stock, which could be added with an upgrade to G400), but G400 was the only one with an external maven chip to run tv-out in hardware, vs. the software modes of g450/550.

I have had all of the above, and the one I kept, mainly for the purpose of tv-out, was the G400. My G450 and G550 have been handed down to friends/family, while G400 has remained in my kid's PC, hooked up to our 31" TV, for DVD viewing.

G400 is also the only one of the G series that can handle DOS tv-out.

[Frank Marshall]

Thank you for the quick and informative response.

Will the new p650 or p750 significantly improve on the 3D/TV capabilities of the G400-MAX? I certainly can't make the stretch to a Perhelia at the moment.

[ElDonAntonio]

Don't know for TV features but according to Matrox, the P650 is 5 times faster than the G450 in 3D Mark 2001, and the P750 is around 6 times faster.

[Wombat]

I don't think the p650 outputs to the TV without buying an optional cable.

[UtwigMU]

Note that early G400's are AGP 2x only and won't function in AGP 8x (1.5V) motherboards.

[Kruzin]

Yes, they will.
All G400s are capable of 3.3 or 1.5v operation.
With certain mobos, they need a minor mod to kick into 1.5v mode.

[Frank Marshall]

Are there indeed two versions of the G400 MAX (an earlier and later run). If so, I assmue the later version is better but how can one know which is which when buying?

Thanks.

[Kruzin]

The later G400s have a '4A' in the part number on the sticker on the card.

[UtwigMU]

The latter version's only difference is that it works without modding in all 1.5V AGP slots.

Kruzin already told you how it's marked.

[Frank Marshall]

Is that the only difference? That is, there's no difference in performance? If there is no difference in performance or features (other than support for 1.5V AGP) then that's all the information I need to make an informed purchasing decision.

Thank you all for your help.

[Kruzin]

the 4A models can run AGP4x, the early models are 2x.
Other than that, they are the same.

[Chrono_Wanderer]

If you are not in a rush, maybe wait for the P650...