For 2D use, office, Internet, working with 2d graphics, DVD playback, or
authoring, you wont' find a better card then the Matrox G400, 450 or 550.
They are all pretty much the same card. But the G400 is 128 bit while the
G450 and 550 are 64 bit. I use my Marvel G450 32 megs of RAM to play Unreal
Tournament and does OK for me....but I don't play much and I'm not that
particular about game performance. I mostly play chess.

  For office, Internet work, and NO games a G200 is hard to beat. I have
installed these in my sisters computers, and many office computers. I use a
PCI Marvel G200 under 98 and XP, and even the ancient G200 has recent XP
drivers posted at the Matrox sites.They all have great drivers with
unmatched stability.  Driver features are great as well. I am addicted to
pixel touch, which hot key zooms the screen to 2 magnification levels, and
it works individually, on multiple monitors..something else I am addicted to.

However, when it comes to games, super high resolutions, any kind of CAD
that involves 3D rendering, the G400 and above show very poor performance
relative to Nvidia and ATI. I have been an exclusive Matrox user for a
long, long, time. I am about to build a P4 3.06 box and this time I am not
going to go with the high end Matrox Parhelia. For a lot less money, and a
lot better performance, I am going to get an Asus dual head Geforce Ti4200
and take my chances with the drivers.

But for your needs you won't do any better then a G400, G450 or G550. And
you will never have a problem with your video drivers, or a complaint from
your wife!

Rode
The NOSPIN Group
http://freepctech.com

>Any comments on the Matrox G400 (or even the G200) AGP video card for an
>"older" P400 computer? My present Diamond Viper 550 has driver problems
>under XP. Actually, XP has better drivers than earlier versions, but I still
>have some refresh problems where the screen is not repainted properly. This
>is my wife's computer and it bothers her, she then bothers me

>My plan is to install a Matrox G400 that seems to have better software
>drivers, but comments would be appreciated. This is not for games, but for
>normal office applications.
>
>Peter

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