*BSD News Article 64744


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From: more@stekt.oulu.fi (Jyrki Alakuijala)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.development.apps,comp.os.linux.development.system,comp.os.linux.x,comp.os.linux.hardware,comp.os.linux.setup,comp.unix.bsd.386bsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc,comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.video
Subject: Re: Matrox Millennium and hardware acceleration
Date: 1 Apr 1996 13:29:34 GMT
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>Depending on my knowledge The matrox is not really 3d accelerated, but it
>[...]
>
>Am I right. (or is telling this thing violation of nda? )

I think it is fair to call matrox really 3d accelerated.
We have experienced about 200%-300% improvement
in rendering speed when compared to Microsoft SW
OpenGL. 

Matrox did not help us much though; our software
graphics library is already about 500% faster than MS
opengl in our application domain and we were pretty
disappointed in Matrox Millenium 3D performance.

However, there are good solutions for OpenGL even
in microsoft environment. For example Intergraph 
TDZ-300 (even with 1T) provides about 10-100 times 
the speed we have got from a matrox millenium in
ppro or dec alpha 233 mhz.

I cannot recommend millenium to any other use than 
making it a 1600x1200 true color card. I guess there 
are not that many affortable 8 MB frame buffers around, 
are there? 

The hardware in matrox seems to be ok. Matrox produces a 
fairly sharp image, even with the highest resolutions.
However, the mga drivers have always been a problem.
Matrox seems to have no quality procedures other than
trying the drivers for two minutes or so. I have had
problems with *all* the NT drivers (about ten different
versions for 3 different cards...) i ever used for various 
matrox products. Currently I am using my 8 MB Millenium
(in DEC Alpha) in 1024x768 24 bpp mode just because the 
high resolution modes crash in bitblitting large bitmaps.

--Jyrki