Millennium P650 -- More Room, Less Heat, All Matrox
Written: Mar 12 '05 (Updated Mar 14 '05)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Excellent 2D/3D dual-monitor graphics, Cool and Quiet, Powerful Software, DVD Viewing
Cons: We can't stand it when we go to work and there's only 1 monitor!
The Bottom Line: The P650 is a full-featured, dual-digital/analog monitor card that is more than capable of handling professional video editing now and in the future. A $90 upgrade will enable 3 monitors.
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| silverstreak9's Full Review: Matrox Millennium P650, (64 MB) AGP Video Card |
OVERVIEW
The Matrox Millennium P650 is a workhorse that delivers excellent image quality across two monitors without working up a sweat inside the computer.
It was our choice when we built a video editing computer in a Small Form Factor case (Antec Aria - Review.) It is an excellent choice for other business, commercial and graphics tasks.
Video editing and audio production demand room on the desktop and a measure of quiet in the edit bay. The Matrox Millennium P650's use of passive cooling (heatsink only) is silent.
Having said that, 3D gamers will look at its specifications and shake their heads in bewilderment. 64MB of RAM? Industry driven advertising has taken its toll on what's really needed for "the rest of us." More on that a bit later.
This card was an upgrade from the Matrox Millennium G550 graphics card we reviewed earlier. That review spells out the fundamentals of dual-head logic: More productivity.
You shouldn't be even considering this card if you're not thinking about the productivity gains that come with an expanded desktop across two monitors. That's the design and its customized for either dual-digital or dual-analog.
We guarantee that once you use dual-head displays, you will never want to return to a single monitor.
In addition, Matrox makes a TripleHead Upgrade Kit for the P650. You can drive 2 analog LCD's (or CRT's) and a single digital or analog monitor for three full screens of deskspace. (You can also connect a television monitor to view the output of your digital video editing project.)
SPECIFICATIONS
The Matrox Millennium P650 packs a lot of power in this $150 card.
- 64MB DDR Memory
- 256-bit GPU with 128-bit DDR Memory Bus
- AGP 8X, 4X, 2X (Requires 1.5v or 0.8v AGP slot -NOT 3.3v!)
- DVD Video Acceleration
- 2D/3D Acceleration
- 10-bit Gamma correctable DAC's for crisp display
- Dual DVI Outputs (adaptors can be used for Analog monitors)
- 1600 X 1200 (max) resolution for dual digital monitors
- 1920 X 1440 (max)resolution for dual analog monitors
- Glyph Anti-aliasing for crisp text rendering
- Compliant with DirectX and OpenGL
We purchased the O-E-M version of this card from Newegg. Because we already had the TV-output cable (that came with our G550 card) we didn't order that upgrade. The O-E-M version ships with two DVI-to-Analog adaptors.
HARDCORE GAMERS VS. MULTI-MONITOR EVANGELISM
Surveys have been done to try to determine how people are actually using their systems. Jon Peddie Research estimates PC "hardcore gamers" make up a market of no more than 7 million users. But they spend, on average, $2,000 a year on hardware and another $300 on games.
JPR estimates another 30 million people are "casual gamers" who spend anywhere from $150 to $1600 a year on their computers and peripherals.
Now let's see, in 2004, 180 million people bought computers.
All of that translates into the fact that fewer than 20% of users are driving the 3D graphics marketplace toward bigger, faster, hotter and very-much-more-expensive video graphics cards.
You can buy into that logic or not. There are the numbers.
Tom's Hardware Guide did a good overview and came to this conclusion: 80% of us have no reason to invest our money in a modern and expensive 3D Graphics card.
(http://www.tomshardware.com - How much Graphics Power Does a PC Really Need?)
So Why Aren't Users Going to Multiple Monitors?
Again, we turned to Jon Peddie Research (http://www.jonpeddie.com) for some actual answers.
It was a real eye-opener.
Although JPR estimates productivity gains of 42% with dual monitors and finds interest among users, it also finds a lack of user awareness.
Have you ever walked into Costco, Circuit City or Comp USA and seen a computer set up with dual-monitors?
I haven't. I've seen it at trade shows but nowhere else.
While we didn't pay JPR $2,000 for the full report, here's a couple of paragraphs from its Executive Summary.
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Another commented, "Never viewed multiple displays in computer stores," and another said, "There is too little information and knowledgeable help in stores. I would buy a second monitor sooner if I knew more about setting-up of dual monitors on PCs."
Several of the respondent's comments indicated the survey introduced them to the concept of multiple displays. One respondent said, "Not sure I know what you are referring to—multiple display???" Another commented, "Sounds great, don't know enough to comment more." Many asked for more information about it.
Source: http://www.jonpeddie.com/special/MultDisp.shtml
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The findings should fuel some hard thinking by manufacturers of both graphics cards and LCD monitors.
We can tell you that setting up dual-monitors is simple. In most cases, you won't have to do anything but plug them in and turn them on. Read on for more information about how you can customize your setup.
WHERE DOES THE MILLENNIUM P650 FIT IN?
Matrox has a tiny slice of the Graphics Card Market. But it is a company that has deliberately focused on multi-monitor displays for the last decade or longer. While it's Parhelia offers cutting-edge graphics, Triple-Head support and more right out of the box, it's a bit of overkill for what we needed.
Because of its dual-head capabilities, crispness, passive cooling and lower price, the Matrox Millennium P650 fits our video editing applications and our budget well. (The Parhelia sells for around $340 in 128MB and $550 in 256MB versions.)
The P650 delivers excellent results for our video editing with full-motion video in both monitors and not a hint of "stutter" seen in some of the other cards we've tried to use.
Matrox ships a software package called PowerDesk-HF with the card. Here's where you get to see the expertise of a company dedicated to dual-monitor displays.
- Multi-Display Setup lets you choose how you want your two screens to display. You can choose to have the desktop stretched across two full displays (where a typical 1024x768 display becomes 2048x768) or 2 displays independent of one another or 2 displays in "clone mode" where they are copies of one another. You can adjust the display properties of each monitor and re-order the displays (which one is on the left, etc.)
- Monitor Adjustments Adjust the visible area and refresh rates. You can enter your monitor's optimal refresh rate.
Quality and Performance Settings Adjust text gamma, the Maximum number of simultaneous colors (up to 1 billion) accelerate drawing of a color mouse pointer or enlarge the pointer.
The Matrox Glyph Anti-aliasing is enabled by default. Very nice. This "smooths" images and text alike to make them clearer and more readable. I'm not sure anyone else has this.
This also allows you to adjust Game and 3D settings to take advantage of the features of specific programs. There's a scanning feature to find software that can take advantage of DirectX or OpenGL features.
Video Playback Settings allows you to designate where you want to use Matrox's PureVideo/DVD Max that will play a DVD in a window on one screen and fullscreen that same video in the second monitor.
This is a good way to view DVD's. You just minimize the window and can carry on working in one monitor while the DVD plays fullscreen in the second one.
In addition, you can assign hotkeys that will enable you to quickly turn on/off the DVD Max feature or pan and zoom your video. There's hotkey assignments for capturing to a file or the clipboard, swapping the Active monitor etc.
We find the Zoom feature very useful, especially when we're working in Photoshop, Fireworks or Adobe Premiere Pro. A hotkey combination brings up a "crosshair" in place of the cursor. Holding down the mouse key allows us to select an area of the screen. When the button is released, the selected area appears fullscreen in the second monitor. That area can then be "panned" with the mouse cursor. The smaller the area you select, the more magnification you'll get.
You really get a better idea of how the edges of 3D effects will appear on the final product and you can adjust softness, pixel width of borders etc. to get the best results.
- Desktop Management enables you to choose whether you want to "roll up" windows with [Shift]+ Minimize when minimizing a window on the desktop. You can enable "Snap Windows to Edge of Display" and designate the number of pixels from the edge, set window positions to automatically be saved and restored etc.
A key feature in this part of Matrox's toolbox is the ability to center dialogue boxes. One of the complaints about dual monitors has always been that a "center-screen" dialogue box comes up right in the middle, divided between two screens.
Matrox allows you to set the default to solve that problem. We have our system set so that when a dialogue box comes up center screen...it's in the center of the one display where the mouse pointer is...not stretched in the middle of the two displays.
Another issue: Maximizing a window spreads it out across the entire two screen desktop. Matrox allows you to set your display adaptor so it will only maximize in one display (you designate,) like the one that contains the original window.
All of these are features are more evidence of Matrox's dedication to dual-head displays and another reason why we've repeatedly chosen their graphics cards for the purpose.
Kudos to Matrox for including context sensitive help and full explanations of all the features. Some of the features are very technical, or require a lot more information to fully understand. Matrox help makes it a lot easier.
CONCLUSION
The Matrox Millennium P650 is what we like to call "the Poor Man's Parhelia!" Costing hundreds of dollars less, it delivers excellent results.
The P650 even uses the Parhelia driver set. That doesn't mean all of the software features are available (you will be advised.)
Right now, we're using the card with two 15" analog LCD monitors. But we have great hopes that we'll soon have dual digital 19" LCD's as we upgrade our video editing suite.
But the Matrox Millennium P650 should be viewed as not just a video editing card, but a general purpose graphics card for business and professional applications.
At around $150, we think this card is not only a prefect solution today for what we need, we think it's going to serve those needs for years to come. We're not even thinking of Triple-Head display right now, but when we do, the Matrox P650 is ready with an upgrade kit.
Highly recommended!
TEST SYSTEM
Here's a look at our test system we built specifically for video editing. Highlighted links will take you to our reviews of those particular components.
Intel D865GLC Motherboard (Micro-ATX) with onboard audio
Intel P4 3.2GHz CPU (Northwood)
1 GB Crucial DDR RAM (PC3200)
1 Matrox P650 Dual Monitor Video Graphics Card (8X/AGP)
1 Matrox RT.X100 Xtreme Pro Video Capture and Acceleration card
1 Western Digital 120GB EIDE "Special Edition" HDD for the OS and Software
1 Western Digital 250GB SATA HDD for storing and editing Video Projects
1 Western Digital 160GB SATA HDD for exporting video and extra video storage (external)
1 Highpoint RocketMate 1110 External SATA Drive Case
1 Plextor 16X DVD burner
2 LCD monitors (Analog)
Antec Aria Small Form Factor (SFF) Case with 300W PSU
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 154
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Epinions.com ID:
silverstreak9
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Location: Atlanta, GA
Reviews written: 38
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