Review of the Matrox G400 MAX

GL Performance

Obviously, Matrox still has some work ahead of them regarding the optimization of their OpenGL driver. In virtually the entire Quake II tests, the G400 MAX falls short of the competition. In general, the only time the G400 MAX jump ahead is when it's run at 1600x1200. Once the driver reaches it's maturity, we hope to see it do even better all around if it wants to remain competitive.

GL Performance - Quake II CRUSHER.DM2 (16Bit)

NOTE: At the 1280x960 resolution the G400 MAX has some driver issues that would now allow it to run properly. Also, the Voodoo3 at 1600x1200 would not run without crashing.

The G400 MAX OpenGL driver definitely needs some work, as the card is unable to compete very well until the highest resolution.

Things start to get very ugly for the G400 MAX as the CPU speed decreases. It almost falls last at all resolutions.

Anyone who owns a Celeron 400 and cares about Q2 performance will probably want to stay away from the G400 MAX at this point in time. The performance isn't really in the ballpark. Hopefully once the OpenGL driver is enhanced this won't hold true anymore.

With a little more driver work the G400 MAX might be acceptable when working with a K6-3 450 but right now the scores dip below the acceptable performance level compared to the other cards.

A G400 MAX and a K6-2 are definitely not a good combination at this point in time. With these two together, the performance is horrible.