Matrox Mellennium Question
Chris Davis
>Is the Mellennium a decent graphics board .... is it better than the ATI 2Mb
>VRAM (the Winturbo?) Gateway offers.
<snip>
>Responses by e-mail are requested.
<snip>
I would like to request that responses be posted as well. I would be interested
in seeing this information, too.
Glenn E Durfee
I see that Gateway2000 now offers the Matrox Mellennium (175MHz, not the
220MHz) 2Mb WRAM graphics board with their P5-133XL systems.
Is the Mellennium a decent graphics board .... is it better than the ATI 2Mb
VRAM (the Winturbo?) Gateway offers.
What is the availability of driver updates for the Mellennium from either
Gateway or Matrox, of particular interest in internet ftp access to drivers.
Recounting of any good or bad experiences with the Matrox Mellennium would
be appreciated.
Responses by e-mail are requested.
Thanks,
Glenn Durfee
gdu...@cmu.edu
Chao-Hsien Chu
In article <3v3gu0$q...@news.tamu.edu>, Chris Davis <cld...@acs.tamu.edu> writes:
|> <snip>
|>
|> >Is the Mellennium a decent graphics board .... is it better than the ATI 2Mb
|> >VRAM (the Winturbo?) Gateway offers.
|>
|>
|> >Responses by e-mail are requested.
|>
|>
|> I would like to request that responses be posted as well. I would be interested
|> in seeing this information, too.
|>
Chao-Hsien Chu
ch...@iastate.edu
Chao-Hsien Chu
Here is a repost of my first hand-on experience on the OEM version
of Matrox Millennium from Gateway, plus some new observation and
problems.
----------------------------------
I received the Gateway's OEM version of Matrox Millennium graphic
card this morning (to exchange the ATI GX 2MB VRAM card), I quickly
run the benchmark from both WINBENCH and PCBENCH 9.0. List below
are the scores compared the Millennium with ATI cards (using the
same configuration and same machine):
640 x 480 8 bits mode 1024 x 768 16 bits
ATI GX Millennioum ATI GX Millennium
Graphic WinMark 16.6 19.9 14.2 20.4
Disk Win Mark 878 926 892 916
DOS Mark 1150.26 1207.96 1170.27 1207.48
CPU Mark 16 254.56 256.69 254.92 256.69
Video Score 4554.09 5594.90 4554.32 5594.38
Disk Score 757.86 781.66 737.44 780.53
From the above score, the Matrox Mlllennium clearly outperformed the
ATI GX with both Windows and DOS scores (The first two scores are
from WinBench, the others are PC Bench). It is interesting that
the Graphic also slightly increase the disk scores.
I have also run some graphic packages such as Adobe Photoshop, Corel
Draw 4.0, Powerpoint and many others, I did not experience any problem.
(Sorry, I did not run any game programs). The card has
Window driver, Autocad/Microsstation driver, OS/2 2.1 & Warp driver,
and Windows NT 3.5 driver. I only tested windows drive so I cannot
comment the stability of the other drivers. I did notice that the
windows driver is pretty good as compared with ATI's. In fact, I
like the Matrox drivers better. For example, in the Matrox, it lists
almost all major monitors (including Nokia 447X, ...) for user selection.
On the other hand, the number of monitors listed in ATI is very limited.
I also notice that my screen looks sharpper when I used 16 bits mode.
(Unlike the ATI GX card which used a light blue pallet, the Millennium
used a daker pallet. The screen looks sharpper).
Some down side, Gateway did not send me any user guide of the graphic
card, I need to try it from my experience. (Note: from two promises,
one from customer service and one from technical support, I still have
not received the manual after near two weeks). For your information, it
would be better install the disk and driver before open the cover
and exchange the board (part of the setup may be incomplete). Don't
boot the Window (remove WIN line from your AUTOEXEC.BAT file). Switch
the card. Once boot in the DOS, run windows setup from DOS (other
the window won't recognize the card, the monitor turn back and die).
Once the windows was properly updated, everything is very straight
like 1, 2, 3. The change in window mode is also much easier through
the window interface.
The card only come with 2MB WRAM. The RAMDAC is TVP3026-175 (175 MHZ).
and the accelrator is 2064 W. (You can easily find these information
from windows interface, unlike the ATI, you must press some key to
find out inside information). Note: the regular retail version has
both 175MHZ and 220MHZ but Gateway's OEM version is only 175MHZ (according
to technical support of Matrox). Also, the retail version will sent out
a CD-ROM with 3D samples and MPEG software. There is no response from
Gateway whether they will provide the CD-ROM or not.
I have encountered a couple of problems. Basically, the card will
run but the problem is clear there. According to Matrox's TS, I
may need to upgrade BIOS and driver to resolve the problems. However,
after upgrade both, the problems still there. Unfortunately, Gateway's
technical support has no help. Their response was that "They are
NORMAL". The problems are:
1. During the boot stage (after DOS and just start the Windows),
the "Windows logo" and "Copyright(c) 1993,1994 Western Digit
Corporation ... Initializing WDCDRV Version 2.5 ...." message
were DISPLAYED TWICE in the scrren and then there is a "flash
with noisy color". This never happen in ATI GX card or if I select the
VGA display mode (i.e., did not use the provided driver), the
problem is gone.
2. The second problem happened in running the PCBENCH 9.0. The
first time, the copyright message (texts) shown as garbage.
There is no problem of running the benchmark, the results
showns in chart is OK, but the "Table of results" and "disclosure"
information (texts) all shown as garbage (similar to the
copyright information). (Note: There is no such problem with
the ATI GX card.)
Good Side:
1. The technical support from Matrox is willing to help.
2. The BIOS is software flashable (unlike ATI GX is hardware binded).
3. The VGA support is controllable from a pin switch.
4. I have tried the 3D samples go with the driver disk. With 2MB in the
board, you can only run 640x480 mode with 16 bits. The speed is
very impressive and the motion is very smooth.
5. The amount of RAM is upgradable. Also, there is a daughter-board
to add the video capture and TV tunner functions.
My conclusions are: it is a good graphic card with future potential.
The driver and BIOS are unstable (version 1.2 and version 1.5). Be
prepare to face some annoyed problems if you want a fast WINDOW and DOS
graphic card. I will take the risk to keep the card and hoping that
Matrox will improve the driver and BIOS eventually.
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Chao-Hsien Chu, Ph.D. |
| Department of Management TEL <+1> 515-294-9693 (O) |
| Iowa State University FAX <+1> 515-294-6060 |
| 300 Carver Hall e-mail: ch...@iastate.edu |
| Ames, Iowa 50011 TEL (+1) 515-232-3503 (H) |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
I don't have NT, OS/2, and Windows 95 in my machine so I cannot answer question
regarding those. For DOS and Window, I would be please to answer any
question from try (Sorry, I don't have any user guide except a
readme file in the disk).
--
Chao-Hsien Chu
ch...@iastate.edu
Mark Let the Fame Begin Chen
in 640x480 with 2megs WRAM....
really? You mean it isn't like 2megs VRAM where you can get
24bit color at 640x480?
I didn't think it made a difference...
with 2 megs you *should* be able to get 640x480x16.7million(24bit)
and even 800x600x24bit.
am i wrong on this?
mark
rk...@eniac.seas.upenn.edu
No, the Millenium only gets 640x480x16 bit when uses 3D acceleration.
For regular Windows stuff, etc., it's as usual. From what I
understand, the 3D acceleration uses a triple-buffering scheme.
Stan Gerick
Does ATI have a uninstall?
If not, do you know what file you can safely remove?
I am going to have to go through the same process when my machine comes
in. I is being delivered with a ATI, and gw2k is following up the
machine with the Matrox.
Stan Gerick, ger...@tenet.edu
Jim Seagraves
--
=========
Jim Seagraves
Digital UNIX Technical Partnership Eng. Grp.
Digital Equipment Corp., MS: ZKO3-2/U20, Nashua NH 03062
Voice/FAX: +1.603.881.6199/6059, enet: be...@decvax.dec.com, 2m: N1FFW
URL: http://www.zk3.dec.com/~beau
#include <employer_standard_disclaimers.h>
See http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/whites for JPEG/GIF photo samples of
the White Mts. of New Hampshire.
Chao-Hsien Chu
In article <3v8q8m$n...@remus.reed.edu>, gc...@reed.edu (Mark Let the Fame Begin Chen) writes:
|> In the previous article you said that you can only get 16 bit color
|> in 640x480 with 2megs WRAM....
|> really? You mean it isn't like 2megs VRAM where you can get
|> 24bit color at 640x480?
This is not true! You can get even higher resolution with 24 bits color
with 2MB WRAM for standard graphic. For 2D and 3D, the maximum resolution
is lower. It is true you can only play 3D object with 640x480 and 16 bits.
|> I didn't think it made a difference...
|> with 2 megs you *should* be able to get 640x480x16.7million(24bit)
|> and even 800x600x24bit.
|>
|> am i wrong on this?
|> mark
|>
--
Chao-Hsien Chu
ch...@iastate.edu
Chao-Hsien Chu
In article <3vb9ni$h...@lead.zk3.dec.com>, Jim Seagraves <beau> writes:
|> Does Matrox have a Web Page on the Internet ?
|>
|> --
|> =========
|>
|> Jim Seagraves
|> Digital UNIX Technical Partnership Eng. Grp.
|> Digital Equipment Corp., MS: ZKO3-2/U20, Nashua NH 03062
|> Voice/FAX: +1.603.881.6199/6059, enet: be...@decvax.dec.com, 2m: N1FFW
|> URL: http://www.zk3.dec.com/~beau
|>
|> #include <employer_standard_disclaimers.h>
|>
|> See http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/whites for JPEG/GIF photo samples of
|> the White Mts. of New Hampshire.
|>
Chao-Hsien Chu
ch...@iastate.edu