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Matrox Millennium G450

When Matrox got in touch with us about reviewing the Millennium G450 it brought up a couple of interesting issues. While the original G400 had been a very big step forward in display quality and 3D displayed effects there have been several cards released since then that offer similar quality with higher performance. So the question became could a video card designed for the business world compete with cards that were geared towards the home consumer or gamer? The gears started turning in my head and I decided this would be a very interesting review.

Features
The Board
  • 0.18 micron technology
  • AGP 1X, 2X, 4X
  • 360 MHz RAMDAC
  • 32 MB DDR memory
  • 256-bit DualBus
  • DualHead Display
  • Environment-Mapped Bump Mapping
  • Integrated TV encoder and DVD playback
  • 2048 x 1536 max resolution primary display, 1600 x 1200 secondary display


(click for larger image)

Matrox G450 home page
$145 USD

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
8/10

First Impressions

One thing that is very noticable is how scanty the packaging for this unit is. Other manufacturers have gone to boxes large enough to hold a motherboard. That may do wonders for keeping the things from walking off store shelves but to the uneducated buyer it gives the impression of more product. I'm pretty wary of marketing concepts that were perfected by cereal makers.

Inside the box resides the card, which was surprisingly small. It is nearly identical to a Voodoo 3 3000 in size that I compared it to - but the PCB of this board is packed full of many more components. What is immediately apparent is that it has the capability for dual display which Matrox calls DualHead. Another thing that stood out was that the unit doesn't feature a fan on its heatsink - and the heatsink is equipped with a grounding wire! I began to wonder just how much static electricity can a video card make?

Also included in the box is a thorough instruction manual, the dongle cable that allows the second unit to display on a television, and the driver CD. I have to point out that the manual included with this card is a real hard-bound book. No wimpy quick hookup guide here folks. So we've covered the very basic information here. Let's talk about what could make this card interesting to you.

 





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