Higher Productivity through 2 Monitors!
Written: May 08 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: performance, features, video capabilities
Cons: not the absolute best 3D but still great
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| mdelcorso's Full Review: Matrox Millennium G400, (16 MB) AGP Video Card |
The Matrox Millennium G400 is Matrox's latest effort in the video adapter market. Matrox has long been known for excellence in the 2D market. the Millenium II stood as the standard in high end 2D graphics for years. However, Matrox didn't have any success in the 3D world. Matrox first made an effort at a 2D/3D card with the g200 series but due to massive delays in fully functioning drivers, the card never really caught on. With the G400 series, Matrox has finally created a successful 2D/3D solution.
The G400 series includes 3 different cards: The G400, G400max, and G400Marvel. The first two are similar however the G400max is clocked to a higher speed and has 32mb of ram. The G400 has 16mb of ram and a slower clock speed. The G400 processor is a 256-bit Dualbus AGP graphics chip supporting 3D rendering Array Processing with fast single pass multi-texturing. Both the G400 and the G400max support DualHead. (Beware of cheap G400 version that do not have dualhead support). DualHead allows two independent output displays with one AGP card. You can use either a TV or a 2nd monitor on that 2nd display. Using support for multiple monitors in Windows98 and Windows2000 you can expand your desktop over two monitors (a very addictive feature). 3D supports Vibrant Color Quantity2 for fast 32bit rendering, texturing, and Z-buffering. Also included is support for Environment-Mapped Bump Mapping which creates beatiful 3D images.
There are two addons available for the G400 and G400 max. The Rainbow Runner G is an additional PCI card available for about $150 that adds video capture, editing, and TV tuner capabilities to your g400. The RRG includes a wonderful software suite that make doing complicated video work easy. Windows2000 drivers for the RRG have just recently been released but are still in beta but they work. Also available is a module that allows for the connection of a Digital Flat Panel.
The G400 marvel is a combination between the G400 and the RRG. However, I recommend the combination of the G400max and the RRG instead. The Marvel is a G400 with 16mb ram combined with the video and tv capabilities of the Rainbow Runner. DualHead display using a 2nd monitor however is not supported. DualHead on the marvel only supports output to a TV or flat panel.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
mdelcorso
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Member: Michael Del Corso
Location: Berkeley Heights, NJ
Reviews written: 30
Trusted by: 29 members
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