On Thu, Feb 03, 2005 at 12:22:36PM -0600, Ian Pilcher wrote:
> The time has come to replace my aging Matrox Millennium G200 AGP. I've
> been quite happy with it, so I'm considering the G550 as a replacement.
I'm somewhat biased, as the G550 is my card of choice 8)
> My priorities are:
>
> * Driver Stability
The only issue I've had with the Matrox X server has been that the
dual head doesn't work unless I futz with the config file.
It works in cloned mode, but not in xinerama mode. So I have
to comment out..
Screen 1 "Screen1" 0 0
restart X
uncomment the line
restart X
each time I reboot my workstation. An annoying bug thats been
there for a dogs age.
> * Open Source Driver - In addition to stability issues, I simply don't
> feel like subsidizing companies that are too lazy/stupid/whatever to
> release the specs for their hardware.
There's a binary only HAL for the Matrox cards, but I've never used it.
I believe its only use is for TV out, which Ive not had a need for.
> * 2X AGP Support - My Abit VP6 motherboard supposedly supports 4X AGP,
> but I have no idea if it actually works.
The G550 is X4 compliant, and seems to work ok.
> * 2D Performance - I don't really do anything 3D, so my top priority
> is a clear 2D picture on my old (analog-only) LCD monitor.
For me the 2D performance of a Matrox card is simply untouchable.
NVidia/ATI look blurry in comparison on the same monitor.
> * Price
I picked up my most recent one for $50 on ebay.
> * 3D Capability - I'd still like to be able to run the occasional
> OpenGL screensaver.
It works, just don't expect to impress your nvidia/ati owning friends
with its capabilities.
> * DVI output & dual-head support - These will certainly be nice when
> the time comes to replace/augment my current analog-only LCD.
mine came with 1 vga and 1 dvi output. I believe you can get
dual vga, or dual dvi if you look around.
dual-head: See above bug/workaround.
> The G550 looks good in every department except price; at $125 it's a
> bit more expensive than Nvidia- and ATI-based cards, and I suspect that
> its 3D performance is quite a bit less impressive.
Ebay.
> Given the priorities I mentioned about, is there a better option?
low-end radeons (r200 core era), or onboard graphics are your
only other options for fully opensource drivers with decent performance.
Dave
