Matrox Millenium G550 tech. preview here at AT

[zippy]

G550

Reading...

 

[Pariah]

Not exactly a review. A review should require that you actually have a card.

 

[snow]

sad

 

[NFS4]

Yep, I', getting rid of my 64MB GeForce2 GTS for that card!!!

 

[zippy]

Man...that's kinda weak from matrox. Sheesh...and I almost always stand by matrox.

 

[BFG10K]

It has DDR RAM but it's still only 64 bits wide. This card is going to be extremely memory bandwidth limited, especially if the core speed has been bumped up.

 

[jeffrey]

Just read the article. Don't read it if you are in a good mood. The card will be enough to bring you down.

 

[Sugadaddy]

Well, they said they weren't in the 3D game cards market anymore, but what I don't understand is what have they been doing in the last 2 years? I know it's probably hard to improve when you're only concentrating on 2D, but come on...

 

[pen^2]

yeah, if you are not in the 3d market why bother using expensive ddr ram in the first place? gee, makes me wonder...

 

[Remedy]

The 64bit DDR is much cheaper to use in mass quanities than 128bit SDRAM. But it will endup performing similar to 128bit if it is clocked high enough. I belive the G450 has 166 64bit DDR ahem 333mhz memory clock. Now if this was an intergrated solution it would be something to be proud of. The thrill is gone, whoa the thrill is gone

 

[pen^2]

remember what romero used to say about the nexgen matrox product? i am not accusing him of anything, but maybe we shouldnt live by the quake god's words...

 

[dawks]

Care to sell it to me NFS4?

 

[Deskstar]

I don't see any great "advance" over the G450 in the 2D display (same RAMDACs) and, of course, neither the G450 nor the "new" G550 are even contenders in the 3D arena. I had higher expectations for the G550, that regretably are not fulfilled.

 

[Hawkeye_(BEL)]

Sad indeed.

Does Matrox really think HeadCasting Technology is of ANY use ? Do they really think we are morrons ?

Excuse me, I understand that this is a pure 2D business card, but even then, making a completely new card for such a rediculous technology is a ripp off...

 

[Pocatello]

I'm sure that the G400Max owners will be glad to know that their videocards aren't stale and out-of-date compared with the latest and greatest from Matrox. Which is good, compare with what nvidia is doing to their customers every 8-months period, right?

 

[bacillus]

looks like I'll be holding on to my max a while longer! :Q

 

[Biggs]

Can't wait for the next round of "rumors"!

 

[Mem]

Maybe oneday Matrox will decide to come back into the gaming world with a real gaming card,it`s not the same without them,now our choices are between,ATi,Kyro & Nvidia.When it comes to 2D Matrox was & is King.I was not expecting much from the G550, just as well from the reading the preview.

BTW so this over at Aceshardware,

<< Matrox representatives however confirmed (again!) that Matrox is still working on a high-end (gamers?) videocard, which should see the daylight in the first half of 2002. >>

I hope it`s true &amp; worth the wait.

 

[snow]

While it is sad, in terms of 2D ATI is picking up the slack just fine and their 3D and image quality are superb. Hope Matrox gets back into it, but in the meanwhile ATI is doing just fine by me.

 

[Remedy]

I think the HeadCasting technology is good thought. Every person in the world doesn't have a DSL or Cable connection, thier are still ppl that can only get 56K for the next 5 years(think Idaho). What i don't understand is, why does everyone just expect Matrox to come into the gaming card industry and introduce a Flagship killer? The only thing i can see Matrox implenmenting on their &quot;gaming card&quot; is a TBR solution, thus they had this on their M3D card back in the day. Maybe we can see an evolution.

Deskstar, If you read it, it states its the same G450 Just modified to have the features it includes now.

 

[NFS4]

<< I'm sure that the G400Max owners will be glad to know that their videocards aren't stale and out-of-date compared with the latest and greatest from Matrox. Which is good, compare with what nvidia is doing to their customers every 8-months period, right? >>


Matrox G400 Max video cards ARE stale and out of date compared to the industry, forget Matrox's slow a$$ in general.

And it is not good. At least NVidia advances the genre, all Matrox is doing is rehashing old stuff...even more so than 3Dfx did.

 

[Remedy]

Well bran, if you look at the market their shooting at, why would they need to waste R&amp;D funds on exclusive Hardware for an Industry that doesn't need it? Nvidia is into gaming heavliy, do you think Nvidia would be getting by with the same TnT core to this date? No because it's all about supply and demand. We as gamers and other hobbyist don't need HeadCasting technology or Highest 2D quality and Dual Head features. So are part of the Demand is less than what? 10%? They have every right to neglect us and keep doing what they do for the business market. Rehashing old stuff? IF i am correct isn't Nvidia the company that refreshes every 6 months with an Ultra version to a Product that capable of being ultra in the first place and then selling it back to the consumer as a upgrade? Nvidia has to be consistent with their end or else they wouldn't have the control they do now. Matrox on the other hand, just doesn't need to jump into a situation where they know they would end up spending more than what they can sell.

The HeadCasting Features are something i would like to see embedded into laptops and PocketPC's for wireless scenerios. a PocketPC with that kind of TnL feature would be worthy. IMHO atleast.



<< Certainly, what made Matrox its fortune was the fact that its Millennium boards ended up in the high-end and workstation PC lines of the tier one OEMs. In 1997, the year of Matrox' $690 million sales, for every single OpenGL 3D accelerator board that was sold into the NT workstation market, you probably would have had 10 Matrox Millennium boards being sold through the same OEM. That's Matrox' market. That's where Matrox excels. >>




This what i was trying to explain.

 

[KrispyKremer]

This new Matrox card is obviously not targeted to the majority of Anandtecher's. I had a Matrox G400 Max when they first came out and it was a competitive card to what was out at the time. Nowadays, Matrox is mainly going after business machines.

Hopefully they'll release the G800 or whatever they end up calling it to go up against the GeForce 3 and Radeon 2.

 

[Remedy]

Their so called &quot;Gamers&quot; cards won't see the day of light till 2002 as said in anands intro. By that time the Geforce3 will have 128 megs, what audeience are they trying to target? The Mx version of the GF3 will most likely be out an price competitivly. Then you have ATi who will have a nice share of this part of the market and enough momentum from their previous card. Next is Kyro3 with the right amount of clout, More than a handful of Pvr fans will and are already looking at this card slated for Q4 of this year. So where is the rest of percentage of ppl who want to just put their faith(dollar) into matrox for gaming? Not enough to even launch against the competition...

 

[HaVoC]

Matrox &quot;fans&quot; (Why a video chip/card company would have self-proclaimed fans is beyond me, but that's a different discussion) need to realize that Matrox made a good business decision here. Let's face it, they know they don't have the engineering/R&amp;D resources to compete with nVidia and ATi on the performance 3D market. Why not stick with the OEM/business sales market that was so lucrative in the past?

The only problem I see for Matrox's strategy is that nVidia and ATi make cheapo OEM variants of their cards and essentially beat Matrox at their own game. OEM market for corporate desktops need cheap chips that offer a stable driver set.

While the headcasting technology is a step in the right direction for 3D animation meets conferencing, it alone is not enough to justify purchasing this card over competitor solutions.