P650 ?

Hello all,

I'm considering about ordering a P650 but I wanted to know whether some of
people here could answer some questions about it.
I have a G550 (after I had a G400) and I'm rather happy with it, except
these facts :

- I cannot find a driver that perfectly works with my system (Asus TUSL2-C,
Celeron 1300 and Windows XP Home). The last ones (5.88) are the best (the
5.86 are a plague for my system that often reboots or has garbage on screen
with them). With the 5.88 there still are some apps that hang or make my
system reboot (Netscape 7/Mozilla, some IRC clients, some games) - my system
is ok besides (I tested my SDRAM with MemTest etc. and the G550 driver seems
to be faulty - with my system I mean, I assume they might work fine with
others)

- I have to change the resolution to see movies on my TV (switch from
1280x1024x32M colors to less colors or a lower resolution), which is not a
big problem I admit it

- this card is rather slow with 3D games. Ok I know this is not a card for
gamers, but I'm not actually a gamer either. I just play some games
sometimes... and I don't need the last ATI/nVidia card for them.

And here are my questions about the P650 :

- Does the tv-out work fine ? Is my resolution problem solved (with a better
ramdac ?) ?
- Are the drivers ok ? I mean, for a current use... Graphic apps, Internet,
etc. and Windows XP...
- Does it work correctly with games ? I don't expect it to be very fast...
But just faster than my G550... That's all.
- Does it have the same banding problem than the Parhelia ?
- Is it not dangerous it has not a fan but only a heatsink, comparing to the
Parhelia or the P750 ?
- Are there problems I'm don't know about ?

And why I still want a Matrox and not another graphic card :

- I'm very maniac about the quality/sharpness display. The Matrox cards
shows a display and characters sharp and crisp... The other graphic card are
not that good and I don't want a blurry display. The colors are very good
too (I have a digital camera and use to spend time in modifying pictures I
take).
- I don't consider the P650 very expensive comparing to other graphic cards
made by a known brand...

Could you tell me what you think about all this ?

Thanks all :-)

JR

Ash wrote:

Hello all,

I'm considering about ordering a P650 but I wanted to know whether some of
people here could answer some questions about it.
I have a G550 (after I had a G400) and I'm rather happy with it, except
these facts :

- I cannot find a driver that perfectly works with my system (Asus TUSL2-C,
Celeron 1300 and Windows XP Home). The last ones (5.88) are the best (the
5.86 are a plague for my system that often reboots or has garbage on screen
with them). With the 5.88 there still are some apps that hang or make my
system reboot (Netscape 7/Mozilla, some IRC clients, some games) - my system
is ok besides (I tested my SDRAM with MemTest etc. and the G550 driver seems
to be faulty - with my system I mean, I assume they might work fine with
others)

It sounds very odd for video drivers to cause a system to reboot when launching
IRC clients and Mozilla. Maybe the heatsink on your video card has been knocked?
You could try getting one of the overclocking utilities for the Gxxx cards, and
try underclocking it and see if that improves things.

On Sat, 12 Jul 2003 20:17:02 +0200, Ash pondered exceedingly, then took quill in
hand and carefully composed...

| It sounds very odd for video drivers to cause a system to reboot when
| launching
| IRC clients and Mozilla. Maybe the heatsink on your video card has been
| knocked?
| You could try getting one of the overclocking utilities for the Gxxx
| cards, and
| try underclocking it and see if that improves things.
|
|
| Thanks for your answer. I already thought about that and replaced the
| heatsink with an active fan from TenMax... and the problem remains...
| I don't think it's actually due to internet but maybe to some graphic
| library or weird procedure (or even some incompatibility with my
| motherboard). Internet Explorer 6 and mIRC work fine and without these
| faulty apps (Netscape, Virc, etc.) my computer is very stable.

Netscape 7 causes problems for me too with G400. I just can't run it. Mozilla
1.4 runs with no problems.

Larc



§§§ - Please raise temperature of mail to reply by e-mail - §§§

Hello,

I've answered your questions in your original note below...

Russ

"Ash" wrote in message
...
Hello all,

I'm considering about ordering a P650 but I wanted to know whether some of
people here could answer some questions about it.
I have a G550 (after I had a G400) and I'm rather happy with it, except
these facts :

- I cannot find a driver that perfectly works with my system (Asus
TUSL2-C,
Celeron 1300 and Windows XP Home). The last ones (5.88) are the best (the
5.86 are a plague for my system that often reboots or has garbage on
screen
with them). With the 5.88 there still are some apps that hang or make my
system reboot (Netscape 7/Mozilla, some IRC clients, some games) - my
system
is ok besides (I tested my SDRAM with MemTest etc. and the G550 driver
seems
to be faulty - with my system I mean, I assume they might work fine with
others)

- I have to change the resolution to see movies on my TV (switch from
1280x1024x32M colors to less colors or a lower resolution), which is not a
big problem I admit it

- this card is rather slow with 3D games. Ok I know this is not a card for
gamers, but I'm not actually a gamer either. I just play some games
sometimes... and I don't need the last ATI/nVidia card for them.

And here are my questions about the P650 :

- Does the tv-out work fine ? Is my resolution problem solved (with a
better
ramdac ?) ?
For me, it works fine. No problem at all.

- Are the drivers ok ? I mean, for a current use... Graphic apps,
Internet,
etc. and Windows XP...
I have WinXP and the current drivers seem to work perfectly fine. I'm a
graphic designer so I use Adobe and Corel products all the time. So far, so
good.

- Does it work correctly with games ? I don't expect it to be very fast...
But just faster than my G550... That's all.
It's definitely faster than the G550. I play Unreal at 1024x768 at highest
quality and frame rates are quite acceptable when playing on the Net. The 2D
image quality on this card is the best I've seen yet. I used to own a G400
Max, G550, and an ATI Radeon 9000 Pro and so I've had something to compare
it to. Oustanding sharpness on text.

- Does it have the same banding problem than the Parhelia ?
Sorry, I can't answer that based on personal experience. However, from what
I've read on the forums, it doesn't suffer the same problem as the Parhelia.

- Is it not dangerous it has not a fan but only a heatsink, comparing to
the
Parhelia or the P750 ?
The heatsink is huge and is quite adequate for cooling. The clocking on this
card is 190/230 and I ran it at 250/250 (P750's clock speed) and played
Unreal for over 30 minutes with no problem. I do, however, have a
well-cooled case with three fans. I've settled on running the card at
205/250. I use Powerstrip for overclocking.

- Are there problems I'm don't know about ?
Don't know of any problems. Why not go to the Matrox forums
(www.matroxusers.com) and get more feedback from other Matrox owners?
Just thought of one problem - If you own an ASUS P4P800 or P4C800
motherboard, you'll need to apply a BIOS fix in order to get into the
motherboard's BIOS screens (screens are garbled). If you get the card, you
should download the latest BIOS anyway.


And why I still want a Matrox and not another graphic card :

- I'm very maniac about the quality/sharpness display. The Matrox cards
shows a display and characters sharp and crisp... The other graphic card
are
not that good and I don't want a blurry display. The colors are very good
too (I have a digital camera and use to spend time in modifying pictures I
take).
- I don't consider the P650 very expensive comparing to other graphic
cards
made by a known brand...

Could you tell me what you think about all this ?

If you are concerned about 2D and play the occasional game, look no further
than this card (or P750). It has the best 2D image I've ever seen on my
monitor. Period.
Good luck!


Thanks all :-)

JR