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Matrox

Review: Matrox Millennium G400 9.10.99
By: Jarret Griffis

 
This time last year, the G200 went head-to-head with the Voodoo 2 and Riva TNT.  However, the performance, in both Direct3D and OpenGL, wasn't up to snuff with the competition, and even though it had some excellent features, the G200 was never part of the hardcore gamers wanted list.  Perhaps the most detrimental aspect of the card was the lack luster OpenGL performance; while Direct3D was acceptable, OpenGL creeped along like a turtle with a broken leg.

Matrox has lined up to the starting gates once again, but this time with an excellent performer in all areas.  Running games in OpenGL, even with an ICD still in its infancy, was a treat, as the problems that plagued the G200 are no longer present. Direct3D, as expected, was fast and furious.

Test Rig:

Pentium II 450

128MB PC100 SDRAM

Abit BX6 2.0

Matrox Millennium G400 (32 meg)

 



 



 

The G400 stacks up very well against the competition.  3DMark '99 scores indicate almost identical numbers for both the TNT2 and Millennium.  Higher resolutions don't seem to have a big impact on performance, which means the relatively low numbers seen in Quake 3 Arena begin to pan out at resolutions higher than 1024X768.  

32-bit color is also notable.  There were no real penalties for running the higher color deph; I noticed only a slight performance hit in every game tested.

On the OpenGL side of things, nothing changes.  The performance was still more than acceptable in every area.  It's obvious that Matrox has done some serious work to their ICD, as the difference from this year to the last is profound.

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