one of the best cards around for image-quality freaks
Written: Jun 12 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: absolutely gorgeous image quality, outstanding 2D performance w/good 3D performance, dual-head capability w/TV out, beautiful DVD decoder quality, very good software controls
Cons: not the fastest for 3D games; a little pricey
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| dorkus's Full Review: Matrox Millennium G400, (16 MB) AGP Video Card |
what a fantastic card! i replaced my voodoo3 2000 AGP because the image quality was so terrible; not just 3d rendering, but just normal 2D in Windows looked absolutely awful on the voodoo, with washed-out color and poor focus at higher resolutions. the G400 MAX dual is a little pricey (around $180 when i bought it from mwave.com), but being a image quality freak it seemed like the ideal card for me. Matrox is famous for their static image quality, and i can tell you, from the first moment i had the card running on my machine, i was floored by its incredible image quality. sharpness, color saturation, and overall definition are fantastic, far better than any of the 3dfx cards and a notch or two (albeit subtle notches) above the excellent Riva TNT cards (haven't looked at GeForce yet). The high-quality RAMDAC and color circuitry employed really do shine, even when just looking at your Windows desktop!
in addition, you get DualHead capability for any combination of two monitors or TV outputs. i haven't tried the TV out much, but my friend who also has a G400 MAX says the DVD quality when viewed through the S-Video output is absolutely gorgeous, far better than your run-of-the-mill MPEG decoder included with most DVD-ROM drives. the software controls are first-rate, with advanced control over most anything you'd want to play with. in particular, the Matrox PowerDesk settings are very convenient for optimizing the refresh rates/screen settings for any monitor at any resolution.
3D games are perhaps its only weakness, where its frame-rate performance falls short of the newer GeForce cards, but it is certainly no slouch. i'd say with a fast machine, frame rates are almost comparable to a TNT2 Ultra, not shabby at all, and the 3D rendering quality is beautiful. on my Athlon 650, i get very smooth frame rates with Quake3 on 800x600 with most all rendering features cranked up.
i have always been impressed by the quality of Matrox products, and from day 1 of owning this card i've been absolutely satisfied with it in every respect. if you're not into the fastest frame rates for games but want some of the very best image quality available for all-around use (and mind you, i still enjoy games very much with this card!), take a look at this card. highly recommended!
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
dorkus
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Member: tasty donuts
Location: New York, NY
Reviews written: 17
Trusted by: 4 members
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