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  • Vanilla G400 32MB mod

    Hi everybody,

    I recently exchanged my G400 16 MB through a 32MB model. I did some modifications as I had a heat sink together with some thermal adhesive lying around . It`s stable @ 145/195 MHz core/RAM with an active cooler (the RAM is the limiting factor), but I leave it with passive cooling @ 135/180 MHz core/RAM.

    Interesting was that MGA Tweak reported the old one to be clocked at 125/166 MHz (SGRAM) and the newer one to be @ 120/160 MHz (SDRAM).

    MK
    Attached Files
    Last edited by MK; 2 March 2002, 18:24.
    <font size="1">
    Celeron II 700 @ 1,1 GHz
    ASUS CUSL2-C, Bios 1009 final
    Alpha 6035MFC, 60 -> 80mm adapter
    2 x 80mm Papst Cooler 19/12dB
    256 MB PC133 Crucial 7E (CAS2)
    Maxtor Diamond MAX VL40
    ATI Radeon 8500 64MB @ Catalyst 3.0
    Hauppauge WinTV TV-Card
    Iiyama Vision Master Pro 400
    Plustek Optic Pro U12B
    HP Deskjet 959C
    Plantronics LS1 Headset
    all on W2k Professional SP2
    </font>

  • #2
    I suppose you weren't using the slot next to the AGP slot anyway.
    <TABLE BGCOLOR=Red><TR><TD><Font-weight="+1"><font COLOR=Black>The world just changed, Sep. 11, 2001</font></Font-weight></TR></TD></TABLE>

    Comment


    • #3
      Cool!

      I didn't know theere were programs out there that allowed you to OC Matrox cards, wil this MGA Tweak work on a G550 aswell?
      I'd like to Glide my T-Buffered foor up nVidia's Transformed and Lighted ass...

      Comment


      • #4
        ?

        What company made those ramsinks and where did you get them?
        I'd like to Glide my T-Buffered foor up nVidia's Transformed and Lighted ass...

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Cool!

          Originally posted by xbnmx
          I didn't know theere were programs out there that allowed you to OC Matrox cards, wil this MGA Tweak work on a G550 aswell?
          Sorry, MGA Tweak (made by kjliew, moderator of the MGA Tools forum) is made for G400 and earlier cards, so AFAIK it will not work on a G550. Too bad, since MGA Tweak really is the "power user" app to overclock a Matrox card.

          Other utilities that can be used to overclock a Matrox card are:

          -Matrox Tech Support Tweak Utility (very plain, just 1 slider for overclocking)
          -PowerStrip (not very much to adjust here either)

          Some people have also modded their Matrox BIOS to permanently overclock their cards, but I think also this one only applies to the G400.

          I haven't seen that many people interested in overclocking the G550, I guess the people that want a fast Matrox card have generally bought themselves a G400 (MAX).

          Comment


          • #6
            ?

            Why is it that they've gone with the G400MAX?
            I'd like to Glide my T-Buffered foor up nVidia's Transformed and Lighted ass...

            Comment


            • #7
              whoa, nice one that looks great. i modded my g400max with a big old heatsink, and some ramsinks attached with artic silver epoxy, but it did not make any difference to the speeds i could run (stuck at 165/220)

              have you got any benchies for us???
              Dell Inspiron 8200
              Pentium4m 1.6
              640mb pc2100
              64mb gf440go
              15" uxga ultrasharp
              40gb 5400rpm hdd 16mb cache

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              • #8
                xortam - no not really!

                xbnmx - the ramsinks are nothing more than an old cpu heat sink I had lying around cut into appropriate pieces. Oh, and I used a dremel for that. The gpu sink is the original Intel boxed cooler that came with my celery I am using at the moment.

                roadie - I was just benching a little bit with Fraps 1.7 and Colin McRae Rally 2.0. The jump from the 16 MB version to the 32 MB version brought the biggest improvement, because 800 x 600 @ 32 Bit was not jerky any more. Though I noticed a performance increase from stock settings to 145/195 MHz too.

                MK
                Last edited by MK; 3 March 2002, 07:12.
                <font size="1">
                Celeron II 700 @ 1,1 GHz
                ASUS CUSL2-C, Bios 1009 final
                Alpha 6035MFC, 60 -> 80mm adapter
                2 x 80mm Papst Cooler 19/12dB
                256 MB PC133 Crucial 7E (CAS2)
                Maxtor Diamond MAX VL40
                ATI Radeon 8500 64MB @ Catalyst 3.0
                Hauppauge WinTV TV-Card
                Iiyama Vision Master Pro 400
                Plustek Optic Pro U12B
                HP Deskjet 959C
                Plantronics LS1 Headset
                all on W2k Professional SP2
                </font>

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: ?

                  Originally posted by xbnmx
                  Why is it that they've gone with the G400MAX?
                  Most of the people already owned the G400 (which has a reasonable chance of hitting G400MAX speeds overclocked) or G400MAX when the G550 came out. I guess they looked at the scores and decided to stick with the Matrox card with best 3D performance (not to mention the fact that bump mapping is broken on the G550).
                  In 16bit modes the G550's 3D performance is pretty much the same as that of the G400MAX, but due to a slower memory interface (64bit DDR bus versus G400's 128bit SDR bus) the G400MAX pulls ahead in 32bit modes. To see an IMO pretty realistic picture of this, take a look at this review.

                  But what many may not have taken into account is that from what I've heard the G550 overclocks pretty well, which can't always be said about the G400MAX because it already is an factory overclocked version of the G400. I don't personally own a G550 so maybe someone else can enlighten you on this matter.

                  Edit: MK, now all you need is a VERY loud 6 cm fan to go with the sucker... Not that it would help, but it's all for the looks

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Tempest - I mounted the original Intel fan that came with the sink for the experiments I did. Then the card is so big, that the 1st and 2nd PCI slot are blocked completely !

                    With the passive setup you see on the pics, it only blocks the first PCI slot which I don`t use anyway. So the second slot can be used as usual.

                    MK
                    Last edited by MK; 3 March 2002, 08:12.
                    <font size="1">
                    Celeron II 700 @ 1,1 GHz
                    ASUS CUSL2-C, Bios 1009 final
                    Alpha 6035MFC, 60 -> 80mm adapter
                    2 x 80mm Papst Cooler 19/12dB
                    256 MB PC133 Crucial 7E (CAS2)
                    Maxtor Diamond MAX VL40
                    ATI Radeon 8500 64MB @ Catalyst 3.0
                    Hauppauge WinTV TV-Card
                    Iiyama Vision Master Pro 400
                    Plustek Optic Pro U12B
                    HP Deskjet 959C
                    Plantronics LS1 Headset
                    all on W2k Professional SP2
                    </font>

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      ?

                      So the fact that it's DDR memory doesn't make up for the smaller bus, which means that the G400MAX is the best performing Matrox card, beating the G450 aswell?
                      I'd like to Glide my T-Buffered foor up nVidia's Transformed and Lighted ass...

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        xbnmx - concerning 3D yes.

                        mk
                        <font size="1">
                        Celeron II 700 @ 1,1 GHz
                        ASUS CUSL2-C, Bios 1009 final
                        Alpha 6035MFC, 60 -> 80mm adapter
                        2 x 80mm Papst Cooler 19/12dB
                        256 MB PC133 Crucial 7E (CAS2)
                        Maxtor Diamond MAX VL40
                        ATI Radeon 8500 64MB @ Catalyst 3.0
                        Hauppauge WinTV TV-Card
                        Iiyama Vision Master Pro 400
                        Plustek Optic Pro U12B
                        HP Deskjet 959C
                        Plantronics LS1 Headset
                        all on W2k Professional SP2
                        </font>

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          ?

                          Will future Bios/Driver releases close the gap with 3D performance between the G400MAX and the G550? And which scales better with faster cpus and ram?
                          I'd like to Glide my T-Buffered foor up nVidia's Transformed and Lighted ass...

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            The G400 and G400 MAX are the best performers in 3D but the G450 and G550 also got their advantages higher refresh rates on secondary output and some little more features.

                            Future drivers and bios releases won't make the G550 faster, you can't change the architceture with a driver or bios update.
                            Last edited by KeiFront; 3 March 2002, 12:48.
                            Main: Dual Xeon LV2.4Ghz@3.1Ghz | 3X21" | NVidia 6800 | 2Gb DDR | SCSI
                            Second: Dual PIII 1GHz | 21" Monitor | G200MMS + Quadro 2 Pro | 512MB ECC SDRAM | SCSI
                            Third: Apple G4 450Mhz | 21" Monitor | Radeon 8500 | 1,5Gb SDRAM | SCSI

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Ya...

                              Your right about that, what are the additional features the G550 has over the MAX? And do you tink Matrox will show us anything new at Cebit?
                              I'd like to Glide my T-Buffered foor up nVidia's Transformed and Lighted ass...

                              Comment

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