G400 Price VS Performance

[The Rev]

Hello MURC,

Well first my config:
Celeron 300A @ 450
128MB Ram
Diamond Stealth II S220
Sony 420GS 19" Monitor

I bought the S220 to hold me over until I decide between the TNT2 or VooDoo3. But then the G400 came into the picture. I enjoy playing video games and using 3D Studio Max/Photoshop.

-I heard the TNT2 had murky 2D, and I love crisp 2D. So i'm not sure if the TNT2 is for me.

-I can get a VooDoo3 3000 for $90 and 2000 for $50. Its cheap.

-The G400 seems to be tops. It has crisp 2D and good 3D accel. Nice eyecandy too. I don't need DualHead.

I can find a OEM G400 SH 16MB for $115 (incld. shipping). But for 32bit 3D I hear its good to have 32MB(agree/disagree?). For the OEM G400 SH 32MB I land up paying $160 (incld. shipping). I can get the G400 32MB Retail for $165 (incld. shipping). The pricing must reflect the demand.

-Where and how much did you pay for your G400?

-Is the G400, in your opinion, worth the extra $ then just getting a cheap VooDoo3?

-I hear the G400 can play games at high resolution without lag. Are games like Kingpin/Half-Life/Q3Test playable at resolutions over 1024x768?

The card I buy needs to last me, at least, until the newer batch of video cards are released. But that might be awhile.

Hope I can find a G400 32MB for cheaper than $160.

Thank you,
The Rev

[SCompRacer1]

Hi The Rev,

The G400 was the card that finally got me to get rid of my VooDoo II cards. Previously tried other chipsets, those ended up in friends computers. I have a G400 16MB OEM card for now, didn't want to buy big in case of compatibility problems which happened anyway.

I use 3D Studio MAX R2 too, and despite Open GL problems with my ECC memory enabled on an ASUS P2B-LS MB, I elected to keep the card and even order a MAX. (This 16MB card is sold already). I turned off my ECC memory in BIOS in order to do this hoping for (but not expecting) a fix from ASUS. Though you can run 3D Studio with Direct3D drivers, Quake II needs Open GL to look good! Thats how motivated I am to make this card work.

I paid $120 for the 16MB at a computer show in July, and the 32MB was going for $170. This pricing could all change by next month due to high demand as retailers have been known to take advantage in pricing of high demand items.

[The Rev]

SCompRacer1,


It seems almost everyone that has a G400, or used one, loves it. Most people that don't like it, have driver problems or such, and don't want to put in the effort to fix them. I honestly like doing tech support so if I Have a driver problem, more fun for me.

The magic number (resolution) for the graphic-heavy games seem to be 1024x768. Maybe people can run games like Kingpin at 1600x1200 fine, but without all the eyecandy turned on? The G400 sounds well worth the money. From what I hear, its worth the extra cash for the 32MB version.

Its getting hard to find a vanilla G400. The are getting bought up real fast. Can't even find indivuals selling them (like on EBay).

Still hoping I find a G400 for a decent price!

-The-Rev-

P.S. What was teh problem you were having with your G400? Was it fixed?

[SCompRacer1]

The Open GL/ECC memory problem is not fixed and is not a Matrox problem. Matrox tech support went so far as to assemble an ASUS P2B series MB with ECC memory to verify this problem. They contacted ASUS about it, as MB's from other manufacturer's they tested do not have this problem with ECC memory enabled and are waiting for a response.

This effort has made a lasting impression on me as surely this problem will only affect a small percentile of end users. It represents a level of personal attention to a problem that is near unheard of these days in large corporations.

The ASUS P5A socket 7 MB says that ECC memory is not supported if bus speed is greater than 83 Mhz, but no mention is made of this in the P2B series MB. So ASUS may not answer them at all, using my small percentile example above.

Try <a href="http://www.pricewatch.com/">http://www.pricewatch.com/</a> but watch the fine print as some of these sellers can put surcharges on orders or use handling fees that boost price. Call to be sure, especially if they have an 800 number, but most of these prices are for online ordering though some will honor the price to get the sale.

[This message has been edited by SCompRacer1 (edited 08-09-99).]

[Genom]

Well, I've got a g400 retail. I paid 200 bucks US for it, of course, buying it the same week it was in retail, thats why the premium price. Anyway, if you use higher end app's, go for a Dualhead board. I have been very happy with dualhead myself, having gotten a secondary 19" monitor to add to my current one (both are Viewsonis PS790's) and Working any kind of app with 2 monitors is a dream. Especially window heavy stuff like 3DSMAX. Photoshop is also nice to open the image fullscreen on the main monitor and putting all the tool windows on the second one.

Games overall are pretty quick. D3D games like Pod racer and Midtown Madness run best for me (Midtown Madness does over 25fps at 1600x1200) Opengl stuff (IE, Quake based games) also run pretty good depending. I personally dont run quake2. Quake 3 at 1024x768 with all eye candy on is totally playable with very little slowdown in intesne ricket fights (but thats that damn smoke trails fault). Kingpin is also pretty quick, having big textures more than high res models mainly. No fps for ya, but it feel's fast all the time. Half-Life is my only problem game, beeing very choppy at 1024x768. Although from all indications this is a known problem that will hopefully be fixed in the next driver release (yeah yeah yeah, soon, whatever, soon is 2 days to me, not 30).

Anyway, thats my $0.39

[The Rev]

Yeah I've been to pricewatch, killerapp, bottomdollar, and pricescan.

Alot of reseller's have the G400 for $138 and have a shipping charge of $11+ and strange extra handling charges and such. Kinda sad

-The-Rev-