More on Matrox G200 Video Cards.......from Matrox press release
Montreal, Canada, May 1, 1998 - Matrox Graphics Inc. today introduced a new standard in quality and performance with the
Matrox Mystique G200 - its next generation graphics accelerator targeted at the 3D game and home market. The Matrox
Mystique G200 is the first accelerator that offers equally high performance for 3D games, 2D, video and 'out to TV' applications.
Fitted with 8 or 16MB of SDRAM, the Matrox Mystique G200 will sell at $169 for 8MB.
The Matrox Mystique G200's significant advances in quality and performance are attributed to the new MGA-G200 graphics
chip, which integrates a high-speed 230 MHz RAMDAC, a unique 128-bit DualBus architecture, a full-featured 3D rendering and
setup engine including a new Symmetric Rendering Architecture (SRA) which fully utilizes the capabilities of the AGP 2x bus.
Results from the Ziff-Davis WinBench 98 show that at resolutions up to 1280 x 1024 at 24-bpp, the Matrox Mystique G200
achieved a score of 159 million WinMarks. Supporting all 19 tests under 3D WinBench98, the Matrox Mystique G200 achieves a
score of over 700, and accelerates real-time 3D rendering of today's Direct 3D and Quake-based 3D games with superior 3D
image effects. Game developer's will particularly benefit from the Matrox Mystique G200's 16MB of SDRAM which provides
enough memory to process 32-bit Z-buffering for precision true color rendering at 1280 x 1024 resolution.
Home users will also be able to take advantage of exciting, multimedia applications like hardware video capturing and editing,
hardware DVD video, and 'TV on the PC', by adding any number of low-cost upgrades for the Matrox Mystique G200. In
addition, the Matrox Mystique G200 provides maximum support for Intel's next generation of processors and chipsets, as well as
new features that will be introduced with the upcoming releases of Windows 98 and NT 5.0.
The industry's top 2D performer
The Matrox Mystique G200 delivers the industry's top 2D acceleration with a newly developed 128-bit DualBus design. This
design employs two independent 64-bit buses that operate in parallel inside the graphics chip to effectively double the raw
performance of most 2D operations. The 64-bit granularity of the 128-bit DualBus means that for frequent copying of small
bitmaps and fonts, performance is much higher than with a traditional 128-bit architecture. Additionally, the 128-bit DualBus
architecture uses Dual Command Pipelining, which permits read and write phases of consecutive commands to be overlapped
and executed simultaneously. Coupled with today's fast SDRAM, the 128-bit DualBus clearly positions the Matrox Mystique
G200 as a world leader in home PC acceleration. With an emphasis on quality, the Matrox Mystique G200 integrates a
high-speed 230 MHz RAMDAC to deliver the highest refresh rates, including over 85 Hz at 1600x1200 resolution for flicker free
monitor refresh.
Ziff-Davis WinBench Business 98:
1024 x 768 @ 16 bpp: 163 million WinMarks
1024 x 768 @ 24 bpp: 160 million WinMarks
1280 x 1024 @ 24 bpp: 159 million WinMarks
1600 x 1200 @ 24 bpp: 149 million WinMarks
In addition, the Matrox Mystique G200's 16MB of SDRAM and integrated 230 MHz RAMDAC introduces a new standard in
display quality. Home users will be able to take advantage of true, photo-realistic displays at resolutions as high as 1920 x
1200, while maintaining high system performance and a high screen refresh rate. Entire Web pages, multiple documents and
windows can be viewed on screen at once without requiring the user to scroll or zoom into their documents.
Advanced 3D gaming features: Performance and Image Quality
The Matrox Mystique G200's advanced 3D feature set brings arcade 3D realism and real-time responsiveness to PC games.
Achieving a 3D WinBench score of over 700 at 640 x 480, the Matrox Mystique G200 accelerates Direct3D and Quake-based
applications with full 3D image effects, including advanced alpha-blending, bi-linear filtering, tri-linear mipmapping, fogging,
anti-aliasing and specular highlights. The Matrox Mystique G200's advanced 3D setup engine processes over 1.5 million
triangles per second and is capable of processing full-featured Direct 3D and OpenGL triangles, strips, fans, and vectors. The
Matrox Mystique G200's 3D setup engine also contains large amounts of dedicated on-chip cache to support parallel instruction
execution, as well as to minimize the amount of information travelling on the AGP bus.
To further maximize 3D game performance, the Matrox Mystique G200 employs a new Symmetric Rendering Architecture (SRA)
that supports read and write operations from system memory. The benefit of this feature is that bus mastering is maintained and
the MGA-G200 can continue to work in parallel with the CPU and help maintain high performance. The AGP writes are used
within the context of the SRA to minimize the amount of texture memory utilized in applications and increase performance.
"Through the use of advanced 3D features like tri-linear filtering, 32-bit color and wicked alpha blending, the rendering quality
of the Matrox Mystique G200 is unrivaled," says Jason Della Rocca, Developer Relations Manager, Matrox Graphics. "And with
its full set-up engine it just screams on all of today and tomorrow's hot 3D games!"
One of the cornerstones of the new 3D architecture of the MGA-G200 is Vibrant Color Quality rendering (VCQ). VCQ rendering
uses 32-bpp color accuracy throughout the rendering pipeline and is capable of rendering displayed images in 32-bpp color
from source texture maps of up to 32-bpp color. Even when the display is set to 16-bpp rendering, all internal calculations are
executed with 32-bit accuracy and the end result is dithered down to 16-bpp from a true color palette. Finally, the VCQ
architecture provides high quality analog color output to deliver sharp contrast and vibrant colors to avoid bland or washed out
images.
The Matrox Mystique G200's support for up to 16MB of SDRAM ensures superior image quality and rendering precision for
today's Direct 3D and Quake-based 3D games, as well as tomorrow's next generation of games which will use more complex 3D
geometry. Capable of rendering target frames in true 32-bit ARGB, the Matrox Mystique G200 provides true 24-bit color
rendering without color banding or color quantization, and support for 32-bit Z-buffering for exceptional rendering precision.
The Matrox Mystique G200 represents the most evenly balanced 3D game product on the market today with 3D performance
levels that satisfy even the most demanding user.
Video engine
The Matrox Mystique G200 incorporates a high performance video engine for high quality video playback and superior software
MPEG-2 playback acceleration. Fitted with both a front-end and a back-end scaler, as well as true overlay capabilities and color
space converter, the Matrox Mystique G200 ensures high image quality at high frame rates for seamless playback of today's
multimedia CD and DVD titles. In order to perform video texture mapping, the video engine also capitalizes on the use of video
streams as a source for texture mapping. In addition, the Matrox Mystique G200 builds on Matrox's reputation of providing
maximum multimedia upgradeability. Its MGA-G200 CODEC ports allow the Matrox Mystique G200 to support a wide variety of
peripheral devices including hardware DVD acceleration for superior MPEG-2 video playback, hardware Motion-JPEG for video
capture and editing, and other video encoders/decoders.
'Out to TV'
The Matrox Mystique G200 also provides video output capability for displaying PC applications on a TV with Matrox's new
MGA-TVO video chip. Users can take advantage of the larger size of their big screen TV for viewing any number of different PC
applications, including 3D games, multimedia slide shows, and Web pages. The MGA-TVO video chip preserves image quality
by using an advanced, flicker-reduction and text enhancement technique that provides flicker-free displays and crisp TV images
for text and graphics. The Matrox Mystique G200 effectively brings PC applications out of the computer room and into the living
room for the whole family to enjoy.
Full AGP 2X support
The Matrox Mystique G200 AGP 2x device fully benefits from the 528 MB/sec bandwidth offered by the AGP bus. The Matrox
Mystique G200 supports all advanced AGP 2x functions, including side band addressing, extremely deep read and write
pipelining and high speed texturing from AGP memory (Direct Memory Execute). Unlike some other AGP 2x graphics chips
available, the MGA-G200 supports read operations from system memory and write operations to system memory. In addition,
the MGA-G200 employs a unique bus mastering method called Intelligent Scatter Gather Bus Mastering. This method is
capable of bus mastering scattered data from the entire range of system memory without requiring the host CPU or the AGP
chipset to process graphics data. These unique chip features ensure that the Matrox Mystique G200 will maintain maximum
performance in the areas of 2D, 3D and video.
Upgrades for Mystique G200
A number of low-cost upgrade products for the Matrox Mystique G200 will be available later this year. These upgrades will keep
home users at the cutting edge of multimedia technology. These include the new Rainbow Runner G-Series, Matrox's next
generation video editing card which combines hardware Motion JPEG video capture and TV tuning for watching and monitoring
TV on the PC, in addition to holding live video conferences over the Internet. Then there is the exclusive Matrox DVD Video, a
hardware DVD video daughter card for hardware accelerated MPEG-2 video playback for image quality on the television that is
nearly three times better than conventional VHS machines.
Software bundle
Included with the Matrox Mystique G200 will be an assortment of popular software titles for the home. Featured will be a hot 3D
game, more than 20 3D game demos, and home productivity software; each one adding incredible value for the end-user.
Pricing and availability
Mystique G200 with 8MB will be available for $169 ESP starting Q2 1998.
Mystique G200 with 16MB will be available for $269 ESP starting Q2 1998.
Matrox DVD Video will be available for $79 ESP starting Q3 1998.
Matrox Rainbow Runner G-Series will be available in Q3 1998. Price to be announced.
Matrox TV will be available in Q3 1998. Price to be announced.
About Matrox
A Montreal-based graphic chip designer and board manufacturer, Matrox Graphics Inc. is a leader in the graphics industry. In
1993, Matrox was the first to introduce a 64-bit graphics engine for the PC market with its MGA Series and the first to introduce
high quality video editing to the consumer market with its breakthrough Rainbow Runner Series in 1997. Matrox's innovative
graphics and video technology has been recognized with an unprecedented 300 international awards over the last five years.
With 20 years of experience, Matrox continues to deliver leading edge solutions to the graphics and video industry at the best
price/performance. |
