iXBT Labs - Computer Hardware in Detail

Platform

Video

Multimedia

Mobile

Other

January 2002 3Digest - Matrox G450



By Andrey Vorobiev

This chip is presented by Matrox Millennium Matrox Millennium G550 32 MBytes DDR SGRAM, AGP videocard.

Features:

  • Matrox G550 chip, 125 MHz clock rate;
  • 32 MBytes DDR SGRAM memory in 2 Samsung 6ns microchips, 162 (324) MHz clock rate, 64-bit bus;
  • Peak fill rate in the multitexturing mode is 250 megapixels/sec and 500 megatexels/sec.

Doesn't overclock.

This is the latest Matrox's development, these cards are just appearing on the market now. We've observed Matrox G550 in out review, thus all interested may read more information there. I'll just say that this board, like its predecessors, is designed for a business market sector, and the greatly improved 3D core (according to specifications) didn't lead to any perfomance boost. I.e. a videocard'2001 from Matrox is at the level of G400 two years ago (not mention G400 MAX). They have improved the core, but things are right where they started. It's not even the fault of pared down memory bus (NVIDIA GeForce2 MX400 has the same features: 2 pipelines, 4 TMUs, 128-bit SDR- or 64-bit DDR memory), it's something else. There's an opinion that caches were pared down (or just thrown out) to make the production cheaper. There are not so many differences from G400 DualHead by means of 2D-sector aspects. And I can't understand the point of releasing old product under new cover.

As all family of Matrox SOHO videocards has almost left the class of perfomance 3D-accelerators and is now positioned by the manufacturer for 2D-graphics market, we cancel reviewing these cards from the angle of 3D-graphics.

For the 20th of January 2002 the latest drivers version from Matrox is PowerDesk 6.82.

As we can see 6.82 version is better in many cases from the angle of perfomance.

Everything, concerning 3D perfomance, is in the review of this card.

Below are screenshots taken on this card and reference ones taken on NVIDIA GeForce3.

Games / Cards 1 2 3 4 5 6
Matrox G550
NVIDIA GeForce3

Games / Cards 7 8 9 10 11 12
Matrox G550
NVIDIA GeForce3

Games / Cards 13 14 15 16 17 18
Matrox G550 -
NVIDIA GeForce3

Games / Cards 19 20 21 22 23 24
Matrox G550 - -
NVIDIA GeForce3

Games / Cards 25 26 27 28
Matrox G550
NVIDIA GeForce3

Game list:

  • 1. Return to Castle Wolfenstein
  • 2. Unreal2 - for GeForce cards, Unreal - for all other
  • 3. Comanche4
  • 4. No One Lives Forever
  • 5. Serious Sam
  • 6. Colin McRAE Rally2
  • 7. Red Faction
  • 8. Rally Trophy
  • 9. Sacrifice
  • 10. Venom
  • 11. Need For Speed V (Porshe 2000)
  • 12. Real MYST
  • 13. Blade of Darkness
  • 14. Giants
  • 15. 3DMark2001: Game1
  • 16. 3DMark2001: Game2
  • 17. 3DMark2001: Game3
  • 18. 3DMark2001: Game4
  • 19. 3DMark2001: Dot3
  • 20. 3DMark2001: EMBM
  • 21. 3DMark2001: Vertex Shaders
  • 22. 3DMark2001: Pixel Shaders
  • 23. Black & White
  • 24. Undying
  • 25. Anachronox
  • 26. Max Payne
  • 27. AquaNox
  • 28. Serious Sam II

2D quality is perfect, but a little worse than that of Matrox G400.


Article navigation:



blog comments powered by Disqus

  Most Popular Reviews More    RSS  

AMD Phenom II X4 955, Phenom II X4 960T, Phenom II X6 1075T, and Intel Pentium G2120, Core i3-3220, Core i5-3330 Processors

Comparing old, cheap solutions from AMD with new, budget offerings from Intel.
February 1, 2013 · Processor Roundups

Inno3D GeForce GTX 670 iChill, Inno3D GeForce GTX 660 Ti Graphics Cards

A couple of mid-range adapters with original cooling systems.
January 30, 2013 · Video cards: NVIDIA GPUs

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Surround 5.1

An external X-Fi solution in tests.
September 9, 2008 · Sound Cards

AMD FX-8350 Processor

The first worthwhile Piledriver CPU.
September 11, 2012 · Processors: AMD

Consumed Power, Energy Consumption: Ivy Bridge vs. Sandy Bridge

Trying out the new method.
September 18, 2012 · Processors: Intel
  Latest Reviews More    RSS  

i3DSpeed, September 2013

Retested all graphics cards with the new drivers.
Oct 18, 2013 · 3Digests

i3DSpeed, August 2013

Added new benchmarks: BioShock Infinite and Metro: Last Light.
Sep 06, 2013 · 3Digests

i3DSpeed, July 2013

Added the test results of NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 and AMD Radeon HD 7730.
Aug 05, 2013 · 3Digests

Gainward GeForce GTX 650 Ti BOOST 2GB Golden Sample Graphics Card

An excellent hybrid of GeForce GTX 650 Ti and GeForce GTX 660.
Jun 24, 2013 · Video cards: NVIDIA GPUs

i3DSpeed, May 2013

Added the test results of NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770/780.
Jun 03, 2013 · 3Digests
  Latest News More    RSS  

Platform  ·  Video  ·  Multimedia  ·  Mobile  ·  Other  ||  About us & Privacy policy  ·  Twitter  ·  Facebook


Copyright © Byrds Research & Publishing, Ltd., 1997–2011. All rights reserved.