Conclusion
The Power Desk feature will most likely preserve Matrox's market shares in the business sector. 3D performance is still on the same level as it was in late 1999. Consequently, 3D gamers should consider some of the other graphics cards out there. For 2D usage, I can imagine lots of possible applications and potential savings especially if you want to use two monitors.
That's why the card can be recommended for business-only users. Think about the workplace of a web designer, developer, purchaser or even a dispatcher. Two monitors are certainly useful for those kinds of tasks. Matrox is still the reference point in this sector, but we'll have to keep an eye out for nVIDIA's launch of their own TwinView system for GeForce 2 MX cards. For the time being, the solution provided by Matrox makes a very good impression thanks to flexible setups and intelligent drivers. Taking this into consideration, the price of approximately $149 is certainly acceptable.
Ever since 3D acceleration became popular, the graphics market has changed. Of course you can still divide it into high and low end, but the Millennium G450 cannot be pegged as one or the other. The skinny 3D performance makes the G450 a low-end 3D-board, while the 2D features are definitely high-end. Don't be surprised - that's probably exactly what Matrox wanted.
The next chip generation called G800 is meant to get close to the top of the performance pile again. Hopefully this attempt will be successful, as Matrox still has a lot of support in the market along with a respectable market share of approx. 8%.
