Matrox G450 (8/8) Conclusion
What can we conclude from all this? Well, I think we can safely say that this isn’t going to be a card for gamers. A TNT2 Ultra gives you far better performance at a fraction of the price. But even the older (!) G400MAX seems a better choice for the gaming audience. And let me say again: All tests were run with sound disabled! It’s basically the same in the 2D benchmarks. The G450 simply can’t distance itself enough from the competition to justify its price. "Real" 2D benchmarks have become quite rare or are just too old to be useful. 2D performance isn’t really much of an issue anymore nowadays anyway – modern chips are all about on the same level. Matrox still reigns supreme where 2D features and functionalities are concerned, though, Especially if you’re thinking of using Win2000 or NT. If you’re even remotely considering a quick game now and then, just let me make you aware that you’re going to be pretty much limited to playing at 800x600-16. The G400MAX seems to be the better choice for this kind of "mixed use". The G450’s estimated retail price of DM 400.- seems rather high, especially in light of the fact that that’s about what you can expect to pay for a G400MAX now. Well, simplification of the layout and the "downsizing" of the memory bus was meant to save costs, so let’s see what happens to the prices once the card is available in stores. Matrox demands a hefty price for its 2D functionalities. This is only going to be acceptable for a very limited audience, however, as they just don’t balance out the 3D weaknesses. You would think that no one would even consider releasing a video card without decent 3D performance…well, you’d think… Not even the very decent software bundle can make up for this. Note: I made a poll on the site about the rating system. The old rating system was 33% wight for all points. 85% were for a new rating system with 50% weight for performance and 25% for the other points. Also see the poll results here.
Overall results VGA cards:
Explanation of the rating system
Results with the old rating system (33-33-33) ATi RADEON 64MB DDR: 93%
Lars "Borsti" Weinand - August 2000 Translation by Benjamin Kraft Questions? Opinion? - Go to our Forum! |
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Copyright: 13.09.2000 -
RIVA
Station 2000 - Lars Weinand Translation by Benjamin Kraft URL of this Article: www.rivastation.com/g450_e.htm - If you want to link to it, please use this URL! :-) |
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