Matrox Millennium G400
The Millennium G400, codenamed Toucan, was Matrox' new card for 1999, with faster core and memory clocks and able to support up to 32 MB of memory.
 |
Released | Early 1999 |
| Bus | AGP 1x, 2x or 4x | |
| Chipset | MGA-G400 | |
| Standards | Hercules, CGA, EGA, VGA | |
| Memory | 16 MB or 32 MB SGRAM | |
| Ports | 15-pin DSUB (G200 only) 26-pin VGA Feature connector |
|
| RAMDAC | 300 MHz (main display), 135 MHz (secondary display) | |
| Part # | 5064-9194 Dual Head MDHA/16/0E5, G4+ MDH4A16G, G4+ MDH4A32G | |
| FCC ID | - | |
| Price | G400 - Early 1999: $149 (16 MB), $199 (32 MB) G400 Max - Dec 1999: $249, £145 ex.VAT |
|
| See Also | Millennium G200, Millennium G450 |
The Millennium G400, codenamed "Toucan", was considered very competitive for its time, especially with DirectX games. As per previous Matrox cards, it had an incredibly crisp image quality. It also supported the now common single-pass multi-texture rendering, meaning 2 textures in a single clock cycle. The base G400 could achieve a peak fill rate of 250 Mtexel/sec (calculated by taking the core clock and multiplying it by 2).
The 32 MB version has four additional memory chips on the rear side of the board. Cards that have part numbers containing SH or DH indicate single head or dual head. Part numbers with OE indicate they were for the OEM market.
The G400's AGP connector provides both the older 3.3V and newer 1.5V keys, meaning it will work happily in an AGP version 1.0 (3.3V) or version 2.0 (1.5V) motherboard slot. If used in an AGP v1.0 slot it will run at either 1x or 2x speed. If used in an AGP v2.0 slot it can run at up to 4x speed.
This card shown is a "dual-head" card (2 x 15-pin DSUB connectors) to operate dual monitors for Windows in extended desktop mode or to duplicate the same image on each monitor. The G400 was also available in single output form, which no doubt was slightly cheaper to buy.
Here's what a review at the time had to say:
"The G400 is finally here, and it is definitely not a Voodoo3 or TNT2 killer. The hard core gamer that simply wants performance will probably want to stay away from the G400, however if you don't mind not having the absolute best in 3D performance then the G400 quickly becomes a viable option.
Owners of slower computers will want to stay away from the G400, instead you'll probably want to explore 3dfx's solutions, or maybe NVIDIA's TNT2 depending on how "slow" your computer happens to be (in terms of CPU speed). Mid range systems should be fine with the G400, however don't expect eyebrow raising performance out of the card, even the MAX version. Higher end systems will prove to close the gap between the G400 and the more performance oriented alternatives; the G400 has some room to grow, so the faster your CPU, the better your G400 will perform, that's a given.
Matrox definitely has a winner on their hands. The G400 is much more than everything the G200 should have been, and it's no surprise that such a combination of features, performance, and outstanding image quality will be making its way into the hands of quite a few anxious users that have renewed faith in Matrox, myself included ;) Let's just hope that Matrox can iron out the last few bugs with their OpenGL driver, and work on improving performance. Although the G400 will probably never reach TNT2 Ultra levels of performance".
Tip: Matrox released the Matrox Tweak Utility in late 1999. This allows you to toggle V-Sync and also overclock the card. The core and memory are always locked together, so the overclock which is specified in %, will impact both by the same percent. The tool will store each overclock setting for each resolution.
Its core clock ran at 125 MHz with memory running at 166 MHz.
The G400 had similar performance to ATI's Rage 128 Pro, nVidia's Riva TNT2 and 3dfx Voodoo 3 2000.
The souped-up Millennium G400 Max, with faster core clock speed (166 MHz), faster memory (200 MHz) and a faster RAMDAC (360 MHz on the main display), was launched in late 1999. It supported resolutions up to 1600 x 1200 at 24-bit colour depth, but failed to better the faster 3dfx Voodoo 3 3000 or nVidia Riva TNT2. It was fully compatible with DirectX 6.0 and OpenGL. Due to the faster speed, the G400 Max came with a fan on top of the heatsink whereas the original G400 was passively cooled (heatsink only).
Note the two VGA outputs, which were almost a trademark of many Matrox cards of the era - this allowed you to run Windows in split screen/extended desktop mode. The topmost DSUB header is for the "main" monitor. I don't believe the G440 Max also got a single output version, like the original G400 had.
The G400 Max's AGP connector provides both the older 3.3V and newer 1.5V keys, meaning it will work happily in an AGP version 1.0 (3.3V) or version 2.0 (1.5V) motherboard slot. If used in an AGP v1.0 slot it will run at either 1x or 2x speed. If used in an AGP v2.0 slot it can run at up to 4x speed.
The G400 series supported the following graphics modes:
Millennium G400
|
Millennium G400 Max
|
Board Revisions
The following board revisions for the G400 are known: 202C, 204A, 304, 401, 401A, 402B, and 403.
Board revision for the G400 Max include: A and B.
Competition
In the Media
Integrated Solution - The G200 offers both 2D and 3D acceleration. Matrox has almost always provided the fastest 2D cards on the market and the G200 raises the bar once again.
Good Performance - Direct3D tests we've seen put it on par with Voodoo 2. OpenGL tests remain to be seen.
Decent Price - Boards should cost as little as $150 in 8MB configurations.
Excellent Image Quality
Cons
Matrox has a rocky track record; the Mystique suffered from very poor 3D performance.
On The Horizon
There is current no information regarding Matrox's next generation of chips."
PC Accelerator, Issue 1 September 1998
Unlike most other vendors here, Matrox offers an array of add-ons - TV tuner ($150), DVD decoder ($80), video-editing daughterboard ($80), and digital flat-panel connector ($50) - so you can change the Millennium as your needs evolve. The more expensive Marvel includes an integrated TV tuner and TV-out capabilities, and it accepts most of the same options as the Millennium. A slick external cable box for the tuner eliminates the need to hunt behind the PC when attaching a digital camera, VCR, camcorder, or cable TV lead. We found the Marvel's on-monitor TV quality fine; the color was well saturated and the picture almost as sharp as a dedicated TV set. The tuner is controlled via a virtual remote control with easy access to picture adjustments.
Both cards share a common installation routine and most driver features. We had no problems setting up either one, and Matrox's interface offers a robust array of controls for customizing monitor settings and the Windows desktop. The Marvel has additional controls for its multimedia tools, plus a setup utility that walks you through configuring and testing the video ports and cabling. The manuals are clear, and there's quick-start guide for setting up the Marvel's more elaborate cabling.
When it comes to 3-D performance, the Matrox chip is a step behind the newer offerings from nVidia and 3Dfx. Results were in the middle of the pack. The chip also registered some minor quality flaws involving certain MIP-mapping, texture rasterization, and geometry rasterization features. But our test games played without any discernible artifacts or jittery screens, and games seemed particularly vivid - possibly enhanced by Matrox's new Vibrant Color Quality (VCQ) technique. The 2-D test scores were better, negligibly behind those of the leaders, and the Video Bandwidth results (an indicator of signal quality) were among the best we've measured.
The Marvel's software bundle is excellent, and includes Ulead Photo Express 2.0, Ubi Soft's Tonic Trouble, and a trial version of VDO-Phone Internet Trial. In addition, the bundle includes the new Avid Cinema video editing software, a joint effort between Avid and Matrox.
Generally, the Marvel and Millennium are stocked with features and software well suited for their intended markets. For the price, we wish the Marvel delivered better 3-D performance. For business users interested in a solid 2-D card with good enough 3-D and room to grow, the Millennium is an excellent choice."
PC Magazine, 1st December 1998
Since high-res rendering doesn't mean much without visual candy (a lesson Matrox learned a long time ago), the G400 lays out the goods with perspective correction, trilinear and anisotropic filtering, and per-pixel mipmapping. In order to improve on the G200's high-color rendering process, Matrox added alpha-blending units to the G400's internal pipeline to maintain color vibrancy throughout games packed to the gills with alpha-blended effects and multitexturing. Bring on board a 16- or 32-bit z-buffer and an 8-bit stencil buffer, and the G400 is ready to take on all corners.
The G400 is also the first 3D chipset to support environment-mapped bump-mapping in hardware, allowing surface detail to be increased through an extra "bump" layer without a big performance hit. As opposed to the embossing bump-mapping supported by the other chipsets in this feature, the G400's environment-mapped bump-mapping is more versatile and visually appealing, since all height, depth, and lighting calculations in the bump layer are done on a per-pixel basis.
There's a hell of a lot of innovation going on under the hood of the G400, such as built-in support for dual displays - a handy feature for creative types and gamers who need to bathe themselves in extra monitor emissions. Matrox pulls off this trick by packing two separate CRT controllers onboard and allowing each to independently fetch display data from different locations in the frame buffer or directly from AGP memory.
Enhancing the G400's DualHead features even further are new display tools that allow you to select a portion of the screen on one monitor and zoom in close on the other. For 2D video, the G400 offers MPEG-2 motion compensation to aid DVD playback, as well as a realtime aspect-ratio conversion so you can view letterbox movies full-screen without the black borders.
The G400 will make its initial appearance in the final Millennium boards to be released this millennium. It will be available in a mildly-clocked version and a super-clocked version, dubbed the G400 MAX. Shipping in June, the Millennium G400 will come in 16 MB and 32 MB configurations, and the Millennium G400 MAX will be a 32 MB-only part. You can also bet that Matrox will release a TV-tuner/video editing version of the G400 later this year."
Maximum PC, July 1999
Setting it Up
I have no information on configuring the G400 or G400 Max.
Downloads
User Manual Get in touch if you can provide this missing item! |
Original Utility Disk Get in touch if you can provide this missing item! |
Video BIOS ROM Get in touch if you can provide this missing item!
|
More Pictures
A Millennium G400 Max
The Millennium G400 Max retail box