May 16 - 23, 1999
Archive

One of the features that truly sets the G400 apart from other cards on the market is the DualHead display technology. The DualHead display allows you to use two monitors, or a monitor and a TV all with the same card. The DualHead works its wonder thanks to the second TMU on the processor and the Matrox TV-out chip. The DualHead Technology allows two separate video outputs from the same video chip, something that I have not seen done before. 

Based on recent success of OC’ing the TNT, I promptly started to turn up the clocks. With the FACTORY heatsink, I got the Viper 770 stable up to 160MHz on the core! That is a 30MHz increase. The only special cooling was the slot cooler. The memory has been cranked to 190MHz. That’s roughly a 25% increase on both settings. Without cooling? Crash.

• Altec Lansing ADA880
• Boston Acoustics MediaTheater
• Cambridge SoundWorks FPS2000
• Labtec ATX-5820
• MidiLand S2/4100
• Monsoon MM-700
• Philips DSS 330
  
  
  

The '3D Blaster Savage4' improves on 'Savage3D' by providing single pass multiple texturing. It is currently the only graphics processor that provides 'free' trilinear filtering of two textures in a single pass. With games supporting 'S3 texture compression' looming in the horizon, the '3D Blaster Savage4' should provide a richer experience in games like 'Unreal Tournament' and 'Quake 3 Arena'. However, its limited external bandwidth restricts performance at high resolutions of 1024x768, and scaleability with faster CPUs. Because of this, the key to extending 'Savage4' performance is to push memory clock to the limit, rather than graphics processor clock. At an estimated retail price of 129 USD, Creative's 32-megabyte '3D Blaster Savage4' represents excellent value for the non-hardcore gamer.

The first thing we noticed when running the UltraStar was the stealthy noise it emitted. Even in full out installs we hardly heard a noise from it. Also it's sheer speed was amazing. Even coming from Seagate's speedy Cheetah it was a large difference. Most of it was likely from the difference in buffer cache sizes. The UltraStar packs with a 4MB cache which helps in many different ways. While the drive is performing functions, it can read ahead and keep information stored in the cache, before wasting time in system memory. You can really see this in action, when installing software. Watching the install percent, you can see it jump from say 10% to 14%. This also assists in audio and video i/o, making the Ultrastar a good role for audio and video production.

• AOpen AX6BC Beta BIOS (version R2.36 B)

Matrox has entered the 3D gaming scene. The G400MAX is lighting quick in some D3D games but when multitexturing comes into play, the architecture doesn't seem quite as efficient as the Voodoo3's or TNT2's and the OpenGL really needs improving. So really hardcore gamers that live and die by Quake 2 (let's see how Quake 3 performs when the timedemo is released) might still want to go for a Voodoo3 3000 or a UltraTNT2.

Matrox definitely has a winner on their hands, the G400 is much more than everything the G200 should have been, and it's no surprise that such a combination of features, performance, and outstanding image quality will be making its way into the hands of quite a few anxious users that have renewed faith in Matrox.   Myself included ;)  Let's just hope that Matrox can iron out the last few bugs with their ICD, and work on improving performance.  Although the G400 will probably never reach TNT2 Ultra levels of performance, the closer Matrox gets, the better.   The cards are ready and out in the open, you make the decision.

The Dynamite TNT2 Ultra card is the first TNT2 Ultra card I have been able to use, with the exception of the TNT2 Ultra reference card. Even though I have not used the other cards yet I think it is pretty likely that the Hercules card will be one of the favorites of the group thanks to the 5.5ns memory that allows you to truly push the memory speed. The Dynamite TNT2 Ultra’s overclocking performance is also sure to make it one of the biggest choices for everyone looking for the best performance on the market. Now we just have to wait for the Diamond, Creative and Asus cards to show up on the front door, to see if the Hercules TNT2 Ultra is still the top performer.

• Abit BH6 BIOS Update (version KJ - 134 KB)
• Award Flash Program (version 7.05 - 24 KB)
  
  
  

• S3 Savage4 Driver (Win9X - version 8.02.11 - 2.4 MB)
• S3 Savage4 Driver (WinNT - version 8.12.02 -  648 KB)
  
  
  

FREMONT, CA - May 19th, 1999 - Hercules Computer Technology, Inc., a leader in high-performance 3D graphics accelerators, today announced the 32MB Hercules Dynamite TNT2 UltraTM, its highest performing graphics and multimedia accelerator based on NVIDIA® Corporation's new RIVA TNT2 UltraTM graphics processor.  
Hercules’ superior High-Performance/Wide-BandwidthTM board design and powerful software support in combination with active on-board cooling assures outstanding performance and stability.  Retail models of the Hercules Dynamite TNT2 Ultra will ship at default settings of 175MHz engine clock and 200MHz memory clock, defining the next generation performance standard to beat. 

The Voodoo3 3000 offers super fast performance at a good price. If you're looking for the ultimate  video card that will let you frag more in Quake 2 or Unreal, this is it! There's nothing faster. Other video cards may give prettier pictures but none can match the sheer speed of the Voodoo 3 3000, especially when overclocked.

The bottom line with a product like this is how well it emulates the real thing. Let me say it like this: the wheel was the first step in bringing realism to the racing scene, and this is the next logical step to the true simulation. Having driven a high-performance stick shift vehicle my whole driving life and taken numerous laps at the local Road America track, I can say that the RS Shifter is the most impressive advancement for the racing scene that we've been exposed to in a quite some time.

• ICQ 99a (Win9X/NT - version 2.21 b1800 - 4.3 MB)

• E3 - Voodoo 3 3500TV
• E3 - Thrustmaster hardware
• E3 - Logitech Hardware
• E3 - Microsoft Hardware
• E3 - Razer Gaming Mouse
• E3 - Creative Hardware
  
  
  

• ATi Rage 128 Driver (Win9X - version 6.11.1 A2H (CD17))
  
  
  

AMD confirmed that, like Intel, it had reduced prices across its entire microprocessor lineup. Prices of the K6-III fell as much as 45 percent, as the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based chip maker cut the 450-MHz and 400-MHz K6-III to $220 and $185, respectively.

AMD also reduced prices on its mainstream K6-2 processor line, although the cuts ranged from a more moderate 12 percent to 29 percent. High-end 475-MHz, 450-MHz, and 400-MHz K6-2's were reduced to $$152, $112, and $82, respectively. AMD will sell the mid-range 380-MHz and 366-MHz K6-2's for $71 and $61, while OEM's designing low-end PCs may purchase the 350-MHz and 333-MHz K6-2 for $56 and $51, respectively. As previously reported, an AMD spokeswoman confirmed that a 500-MHz K6-2 is sampling to OEMs.

• S320 II BIOS update for SDRAM card (verison 1.6 - 185 KB)
• S320 II BIOS update for SGRAM card (verison 1.6 - 185 KB)

Both of the following files are required for the driver update:

• S320 II Driver Setup Program (Win9X - build 3.00.082 - 2.1 MB)
• S320 II English Driver (Win9X - build 117 - 2 MB)
  
  
  

The DiamondMax 6800 features an average seek time of 9 ms, a 2 MB buffer, and the UltraDMA 66 interface. The 2 MB buffer is 4 times larger than the buffer in Maxtor's previous generation 5400 RPM products, and incorporates high-speed 100MHz SDRAM memory for sustained UDMA-66 transfers. As a result, the DiamondMax 6800 allows computer users lightning-fast access to large files whether these files are digital video or audio, for use in developing applications, for personal entertainment, for set-top boxes, or as part of creative ventures.

With the 810 chipset, the WX6 supports: 66/100MHz Front Side Bus, Ultra DMA33/66, Two 168-pin DIMM sockets support SDRAM modules for up to 512MB, integrated AGP 2X 3D graphics accelerator with 100MHz Dynamic Display Memory Interface and On board 4MB SDRAM Graphics Memory, Aureal A3D 3D positioning PCI audio controller that supports A3D & DirectSound 3D games and 64 voice wavetable, ATX form factor, Five PCI slots and One AMR slot.

As a case in point, my PPGA Celeron 300a L8522225-0205 (Malay) works just fine at 2.0v on an my reference Socket 370 system, the Abit ZM6. Additionally, this chip will run just fine up to 4.5 x 115 at 2.2v. Yet, on any Slot1 board, using 3 different adapters from three different vendors, the chip will not run stable or struggle to pass the Winstone 99 test at 4.5 x 112! Usual symptoms are lock-ups or BSOD's.

J. C.: The fastest 3D card today is the [RIVA] TNT 2. I don't think anybody will even question that. You'd be hard-pressed to find an ATI or a 3dfx engineer who, if you really got them into a corner, wouldn't admit that.

GC: Do you think that will continue to be the case? Will Nvidia be able to hold onto its lead?

J. C.: Well, there's going to be a constant set of leapfrogs. Nvidia got the TNT 2 out faster than I think anyone was expecting. The first TNT chip defined the next generation of graphics cards: 32-bit color, 32-bit Z-buffer--er, 24-bit with 8 [-bit] stencil--multitexturing, and so on. That's basically the same spec the Rage 128, the Permedia 3, and the Matrox G400 all have. And they're all pretty damn close. Some of them can't do trilinear [filtering] on both passes; Nvidia can't, but ATI can, so that's a minor plus for them. But it's very different from the old days, when you had Voodoo 2 and a huge gap between everything else.

The new Voodoo3 Q3A drivers use a different method to turn the D3D Video Filter On. The first set of drivers put an entry in the registry set to "1" to turn the D3D Video Filter Off and removed the entry to turn it On. The new Q3A drivers always leave the entry in and change the value to control the on/off state. My code should have allowed for either method but due to a bug on my part it didn't. So I've modified the read/write portion of the code to correctly allow for either method. My code now follows the new drivers method and leaves the entry in and changes the value for state changes.

• Voodoo3 Overclocker (version 2.1 - 105 KB)
  
  
  

In terms of overclocking, the 550 definitely has the ability to run at much higher frequencies than the 500 could. While most 500MHz Pentium III's maxed out at around 560MHz (112MHz x 5.0), the 550 can easily hit 616MHz (112MHz x 5.5) with L2 cache enabled. After reaching 616MHz the ability to run the 550 any higher begins to be dependent on the quality of and the cooling applied to (if any) the processor's L2 cache. At 616MHz, the L2 cache operates at 308MHz, over 10% above its rated operating frequency. The next possible setting is 644MHz (117MHz x 5.5) which was stable with some added cooling, although your success will vary even more from chip to chip than the ability to hit 616. At 644MHz, the L2 cache runs at 322MHz, around 17% above the specified operating frequency. After 644MHz it quickly becomes very difficult to overclock the 550 with L2 cache enabled.