[NEWS] - Matrox P750 review

[CougTek]

Icrontic reviewed the newly introduced and more affordable version of the Parhelia GPU : the P750.

Dual monitor capable video cards have a primary and a secondary display. The secondary display gets the "leftovers". In other words just enough to display a desktop image. One monitor or the other has to be designated as a primary but not both. Software programs may require for part of the workspace to be in the primary display and will not work in the secondary display. This is where Matrox has leapt ahead. The Matrox Millennium P650 and P750 have no secondary display. The Millennium P650 and P750, like the Parhelia, have dual 400 MHz RAMDAC’s for dual 2048 x 1536 resolution support and fully symmetric DualHead. There is also dual hardware overlay support for video in a window in either display. You'll often find that video only plays on the primary display for competitors cards.

Many of us, not being gamers, should be quite interested in such a graphic card. I surely am.

 

[CougTek]

The Matrox Millennium P750 was intended to be tested on the ASUS A7N8X v.2.0 motherboard. There was a problem. After repeated attempts a new NFORCE2 motherboard was employed but the problem persisted. It is a known issue with Matrox cards and NFORCE2 chipsets. The Millennium P750 fell into the same hole. We asked Matrox and this is what they had to say.

"We are aware of the issue that currently exists with Matrox graphics cards and nForce motherboards and at present we haven't had the opportunity to address it with the manufacturer."

The issue is with Direct3D applications and the fact the card will lock the desktop or not load the application at all. The Matrox statement is nebulous at best but it comes down to driver problems. On one side or the other somebody hasn't got things quite right; be it Matrox or NVIDIA.

Unfortunate, but nice to know before buying

 

[Tea]

This is why I like VIA chipsets. No unexpected surprses. I know a lot of people walk around chanting "VIA = crap" all the time, but, when you get right down to it, they work. I like thingz that work.

(Not criticising Nvida, it's great to have an alternative; but if I'm building it and it has to be ready by 5 o'clock, then there is no way I'd use anything except VIA.) (Well, OK, sometimes I use AMD 761s, but they are half VIA anyway, and tend to be fussier about compatibility. For "just works" peace of mind, VIA rUleZ. Or riLeZ. Or zomething.)

 

[time]

I think the problem is Matrox. It's called ATTITUDE (or arrogance).

Can you believe this?

You should know that we won't address any issues with that chipset [nForce2] as well.

 

[e_dawg]

This is why I like VIA chipsets. No unexpected surprses. I know a lot of people walk around chanting "VIA = crap" all the time, but, when you get right down to it, they work.

They have improved these days, this has definitely not always been the case. The Athlon had much to do with this, as VIA chipsets became increasingly popular with the success of AMD's formidable CPU. Intel's lack of a good chipset after the dominant BX until the i815 and i845 (and the whole Rambus fiasco) caused people to turn to VIA even for Intel CPU's. Popularity (and numerous complaints) eventually resulted in better support as devices and drivers weren't just designed to run on the dominant Intel chipsets. I would say that VIA only really tamed their compatibility demons when the 8233 southbridge replaced the 686 series (think KT266 era).

I do have an idea why you have had so much success with VIA chipsets, though. If the systems you build are mainly for office-type work, you wouldn't be seeing the numerous problems created by using more advanced graphics and sound cards, which is where most of the problems occur with VIA chipsets.

The fact that they are now on the 12,000th build of their 4in1 drivers helps, too

 

[Explorer]

...Many of us, not being gamers, should be quite interested in such a graphic card. I surely am.

Just like the existing Matrox G450 and G500, these cards are really meant for anyone doing professional 2-D work, meaning page layout (Adobe Pagemaker, Quirk X-Press), photographic imaging (Adobe Photoshop), video editing (Adobe Premiere, Vegas Pro), music (Sound Forge, Cakewalk, ACID, etc.), and any of the hundreds of other applications that require accurate colour rendition, high sharpness, and fast panning and zooming at high spatial resolutions -- as well as multi-monitor usage. The P-650 and P-750 are simply "inexpensive" Parhelia boards.

As for 3-D gaming, I would suspect that they are on par with a 1.5 year old nVidia offering.

 

[Explorer]

I think the problem is Matrox. It's called ATTITUDE (or arrogance).

You should know that we won't address any issues with that chipset [nForce2] as well.

Hee hee... not much of a surprise. I didn't read the article, but this is not new for Matrox.

Matrox have ALWAYS tested and developed on mobos / systems using Intel chipsets. If another chipset manufacturer doesn't follow Intel standards closely, then a Matrox graphics card may very well not work on said system.

Back in the days of the G200, Matrox had a problem with a Via chipset where the computer with this Via chipset would not get past POST with a Matrox G200 Millennium plugged in to the AGP slot. After a few months they finally fixed the boot up problem with a graphics card BIOS update that got around Via's aberrant method of IRQ chaining (which, I believe also caused mucho probleme with SoundBlasters).