Matrox Millenium G550 - good choice?

[Dave Jones]

On Thu, Feb 03, 2005 at 12:22:36PM -0600, Ian Pilcher wrote:
 > The time has come to replace my aging Matrox Millennium G200 AGP.  I've
 > been quite happy with it, so I'm considering the G550 as a replacement.

I'm somewhat biased, as the G550 is my card of choice 8)

 > My priorities are:
 > 
 >   * Driver Stability

The only issue I've had with the Matrox X server has been that the
dual head doesn't work unless I futz with the config file.
It works in cloned mode, but not in xinerama mode. So I have
to comment out..
    Screen      1  "Screen1" 0 0

restart X
uncomment the line
restart X

each time I reboot my workstation. An annoying bug thats been
there for a dogs age.

 >   * Open Source Driver - In addition to stability issues, I simply don't
 >     feel like subsidizing companies that are too lazy/stupid/whatever to
 >     release the specs for their hardware.

There's a binary only HAL for the Matrox cards, but I've never used it.
I believe its only use is for TV out, which Ive not had a need for.

 >   * 2X AGP Support - My Abit VP6 motherboard supposedly supports 4X AGP,
 >     but I have no idea if it actually works.

The G550 is X4 compliant, and seems to work ok.

 >   * 2D Performance - I don't really do anything 3D, so my top priority
 >     is a clear 2D picture on my old (analog-only) LCD monitor.

For me the 2D performance of a Matrox card is simply untouchable.
NVidia/ATI look blurry in comparison on the same monitor.

 >   * Price

I picked up my most recent one for $50 on ebay.

 >   * 3D Capability - I'd still like to be able to run the occasional
 >     OpenGL screensaver.

It works, just don't expect to impress your nvidia/ati owning friends
with its capabilities.

 >   * DVI output & dual-head support - These will certainly be nice when
 >     the time comes to replace/augment my current analog-only LCD.

mine came with 1 vga and 1 dvi output. I believe you can get
dual vga, or dual dvi if you look around.

dual-head: See above bug/workaround.

 > The G550 looks good in every department except price; at $125 it's a
 > bit more expensive than Nvidia- and ATI-based cards, and I suspect that
 > its 3D performance is quite a bit less impressive.

Ebay.

 > Given the priorities I mentioned about, is there a better option?

low-end radeons (r200 core era), or onboard graphics are your
only other options for fully opensource drivers with decent performance.

		Dave