Matrox Millennium G450 with DVI and next-generation DualHead is set to revolutionize the corporate desktop
New Matrox graphics card will standardize DualHead across more markets than ever

Montreal, Canada, June 14, 2000—Matrox Graphics Inc. today announced the Matrox Millennium G450, the first graphics card to support integrated DualHead, DVI and TV output.

As the company that pioneered DualHead technology, Matrox is now taking this award-winning dual-display feature set to a new level. The Millennium G450 brings integrated DVI and next-generation DualHead features to the corporate desktop market at a time when the competition is just beginning to implement introductory-level dual-display support. In addition to highly advanced technologies like DualHead, the Millennium G450’s leading-edge image quality, driver stability and all-around performance have readied this card to blaze trails in the world of corporate productivity and multitasking.

In addition, the Millennium G450 also doubles as a well-rounded entertainment solution for home users with 2D, 3D, DVD, TV output, DualHead gaming and more.

The Millennium G450 (retail versionⁱ)
Equipped with 32 MB of Double Data Rate (DDR) memory, the Millennium G450 card is designed around the highly integrated Matrox G450 2D, 3D and DVD graphics chip. As the Millennium G450’s power source, the Matrox G450 chip builds on the Matrox G400’s award-winning technology. Plus, it integrates a digital flat panel transmitter, TV output encoder, secondary RAMDAC and 64-bit DDR memory interface. Hosting all of these components onboard the Millennium G450 has allowed Matrox to introduce a more feature-rich product that is set to standardize DualHead across more markets than ever before. The Millennium G450’s DualHead technology provides immediate and valuable benefits by letting users double their display real estate by connecting two displays to a single graphics card. In fact, the Millennium G450 supports as many as eight different configurations of VGA monitor, analog flat panel, DVI-based digital flat panel and/or TV. Output to these displays is routed through the card’s VGA and DVI connectors and two adapter cables, which also enable output to a TV and second VGA monitor.

Merging business and entertainment
The Millennium G450 AGP 4X/2X graphics card features an impressive array of productivity-boosting hardware and software. Its powerful 2D engine, 256-bit DualBus architecture and 360 MHz primary UltraSharp RAMDAC pump out supercrisp 2D image quality at resolutions up to 2048 x 1536, at the highest color depths and refresh rates. Users in the mainstream and high-end corporate desktop markets, as well as in the 2D and entry-level 3D workstation markets, will benefit from the Millennium G450’s DualHead feature. Businesspeople and professionals can now enhance the way they use everyday applications with a selection of DualHead operational modes and next-generation software utilities. The Millennium G450 also natively supports all-digital output via the onboard Digital Visual Interface (DVI) connector. Hosting the digital flat panel connector directly on the Millennium G450 rather than on an upgrade card represents a cost savings of US$59ⁱⁱ for the buyer. So should outputting to a flat panel ever become necessary, the Millennium G450 can support it—no upgrades or additional costs are involved. Finally, the Millennium G450 is equipped with Matrox’s high-quality unified drivers, making it easy for users to install, manage and update their graphics capabilities when needed.

But even serious business types such as the Millennium G450 have to kick back and have fun. Because this card builds on the Matrox G400’s 3D and video core, it also doubles as a well-rounded entertainment solution. Value-conscious home users and mainstream gamers will find the Millennium G450 flexible enough to power educational applications, home finance applications, Web browsing, email access, DVD playback and 3D gaming—including DualHead-enhanced head-to-head gaming and Environment-Mapped Bump Mapping (EMBM) enabled games. EMBM title support is growing steadily, with more than 25 currently-shipping games taking the visual reality of 3D gaming to unprecedented levels with never-before-seen special effects and intricate visual details. This easy-to-install card also packs in unique features like Matrox’s DualHead DVDMax and TV Output, both of which will leave users pleasantly surprised. With DualHead DVDMax, people can output high quality video full-screen to a TV while simultaneously using the Windows® desktop displayed on their monitor. For someone surfing the Web for a music video, for example, this means never losing sight of the Web page on the monitor while streaming video directly out to TV.

Well timed to respond to trends
The Millennium G450 is well positioned to respond to trends that are currently changing the worlds of business and entertainment. Digital content creation is booming, with professionals and home users alike designing their own Web sites. The convergence of PC and TV offers home users more entertainment options than ever before. The Internet is feeding new, unique content into homes—content that isn’t available on TV. These trends make the combination of the Millennium G450’s graphics and DualHead capabilities even more appealing since they introduce new and enhanced ways of getting more out of the PC for these and other applications.

Pricing and availability
Priced at a cost-competitive US$145 ESP, the retail version will be available to end-users in July 2000 at the Shop@Matrox online store (http://shop.matrox.com). OEM and SI variations of the Millennium G450 will also be available via traditional distribution channels.

Drivers and O/S support
Matrox offers support for Microsoft® Windows® 2000, Windows 98 and Windows 95; Windows NT 4.0; Linux; OS/2; and the upcoming Windows Millennium®.

Software bundle
The Millennium G450 bundles Micrografx® Picture Publisher® 8, Micrografx Simply 3D™ 3, the Matrox Software DVD Player and a handful of the latest playable game demos enhanced by DualHead and EMBM.

About the Matrox G450
The 0.18-micron Matrox G450 2D, 3D and DVD graphics chip leverages a die shrink of Matrox G400 chip technology to become the most highly integrated discrete graphics chip on the market. In addition to the components and capabilities that made the Matrox G400 such a successful productivity and entertainment accelerator, the new Matrox G450 integrates a Transmission-Minimized Differential Signaling (TMDS) digital flat panel transmitter, TV output encoder, second RAMDAC and 64-bit DDR memory interface. The chip also hosts two CRTCs, which form the support base for Matrox’s DualHead feature. DualHead allows a single chip to simultaneously support independent output to two physically separate displays, including a VGA monitor, analog or DVI-based digital flat panel, or TV. Fully OpenGL and DirectX compliant, the Matrox G450 supports hardware-accelerated Environment-Mapped Bump Mapping for real-time special effects and stunning visual detail in 3D games. Furthering image quality, Matrox’s Vibrant Color Quality² (VCQ²) rendering architecture preserves trademark true-to-life color quality for cutting-edge, 32-bit color in single- and multi-textured software applications.