Matrox G200 - Celebrating 20 Years of Graphics Excellence

[Raevenlord]

Matrox Graphics Inc. is pleased to announce the 20-year anniversary of its Matrox G200 graphics chip. The milestone celebrates two decades of dedicated, active software development and support for multiple technology nodes across countless Microsoft Windows and Linux operating systems. Developed for 2D, 3D, and video acceleration, the G200 powered a number of industry-first, graphics and multi-monitor-based product lines that delivered unprecedented image quality across one or more displays. Today, G200 is and remains the trusted and preeminent integrated graphics solution of choice for the majority of baseboard management controllers used in servers worldwide.





Matrox G200 instituted a new graphics standard in multi-display computing for a wide range of corporate, government, industrial, and end-user applications. It is widely recognized as the driving force behind the high-end professional 2D workstation phenomenon. By focusing on high-quality, Windows desktop acceleration, Matrox established the precedent for image quality on analog cathode ray tube (CRT) monitors with unrivaled visual acuity. This became the benchmark behind a number of ground-breaking and award-winning innovations including:

• MGA-G200: Revolutionary graphics chip for accelerating real-world 3D applications ranging from entry-level to mid-range CAD/animation packages to demanding industrial software to next-generation 3D games
• Millennium G200: First quad-monitor graphics card for high-performance corporate, government, and industrial applications
• Mystique G200: Leading add-in board with display plus television support for small office and home entertainment setups
• Marvel G200: Multi-functional add-in card with display, video capture I/O, and television input functionality for advanced non-linear editing systems
• G200 IP licensing: Distinguished IP cores and drivers delivering industry-leading reliability and performance in servers, plus video appliances, mobile internet devices, and more

"We are fiercely proud of providing the industry with trusted, field-proven, long-life technologies that have inspired real solutions for real-world applications," says David Chiappini, VP of research and development, Matrox Graphics Inc. "It's exciting to see Matrox G200 celebrate a 20-year anniversary-an achievement that speaks volumes of the unwavering and long-term commitment and support that we offer to our partners and customers."

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[0x4452]

I was dreaming of getting a G200 when I was a kid. There was an article about it in the local tech magazine and I was drooling over it, but couldn't afford it.

How quickly time passes and how times have changed...

 

[jesdals]

I had one of the gaming Cards, unfortunately it ran out of memory at the end. Then I got my Rage Fury, and been a FanATIc ever since...

 

[Basard]

I was dreaming of getting a G200 when I was a kid. There was an article about it in the local tech magazine and I was drooling over it, but couldn't afford it.

How quickly time passes and how times have changed...

Hehe.... the good ole days... I went with a rivaTNT, back when Creative made graphics cards.... The Graphics Blaster!

 

[Gasaraki]

Bring me back my Matrox Millennium.

Hehe.... the good ole days... I went with a rivaTNT, back when Creative made graphics cards.... The Graphics Blaster!

I had the Creative RivaTNT also.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

I think i actually have one of these in the shed somewhere. Its either a G200 or G450

 

[RejZoR]

I miss the times Matrox was among the big boys. Still give them mad respect for EMBM technology which was the first to present flat surface as something that has a depth even though it had none. We take it for granted now, but back in the day it was super advanced tech. I think Slave Zero was among first games that utilized it outside of tech demos. That was back in 1999 when Pixel Shaders were something unheard of.

 

[natr0n]

My server has built in Matrox 200e (ServerEngines Pilot II).

It games up to dx9 pretty well.

 

[Flanker]

For me it was a SIS 6326, then VIA S3.

 

[qubit]

I was still faffing around with Acorn computers back in 1998 and had a Risc PC. They were really good and the 32-bit range were the origin of the ARM* CPU, but not mainstream, so the following year I went PC and never looked back.

My first proper 3D graphics card was the Voodoo 3 PCI.

*Such an elegant, efficient design and elegant to program in assembler. Still awesome to this day.

 

[revin]

Oh how this bring's back the ole fun 386 times ! Had the one with the add on 4 Mb daughter card. Wow it was so nice
I still have a bunch of Cd's with the game's from both Mystique and Millennium's

 

[eidairaman1]

For me it was a SIS 6326, then VIA S3.

Wow I never thought anyone else would actually have the SIS 6326 chipset. That's what I started off with in a Baby/Mid AT system with a Celeron 333MHz, 256MB of PC 100/133 SDRAM, Windows 98 Second Edition. I believe either a 20 or 40 gigabyte hard drive that I was able to max out fairly quickly; with a Rockwell 56k modem. I believe it used integrated sound or some sound card I don't remember, and it used and a DIN connector for the keyboard and a serial port for the mouse.

Honestly it would have been nice if 3dfx and Matrox had remained competitive in the 2D/3D hardware acceleration department catering to the gamers, maybe it would have provided inspiration and keep both Nvidia and ATI at the time on their toes to keep on pressing forward with better and better Hardware that is also backwards compatible.

 

[londiste]

Honestly it would have been nice if 3dfx and Matrox had remained competitive in the 2D/3D hardware acceleration department catering to the gamers, maybe it would have provided inspiration and keep both Nvidia and ATI at the time on their toes to keep on pressing forward with better and better Hardware that is also backwards compatible.

Well, I don't know. Backwards compatible in that era of GPUs is a stretch. Before Microsoft threw Direct3D into the mix, compatibility was beyond awful. Everyone and their dog had their own API or at least a variant or subset of OpenGL. Glide/MiniGL/MeTaL/Redline, even OpenGL implementations from everyone tended to be lacking in important areas. Truth is, things only started to become standardized when Direct3D (5/6) came along. OpenGL followed after a while but extensions remained a bit of a headache for a while.

That box. Omfg, the nostalgia

 

[eidairaman1]

Well, I don't know. Backwards compatible in that era of GPUs is a stretch. Before Microsoft threw Direct3D into the mix, compatibility was beyond awful. Everyone and their dog had their own API or at least a variant or subset of OpenGL. Glide/MiniGL/MeTaL/Redline, even OpenGL implementations from everyone tended to be lacking in important areas. Truth is, things only started to become standardized when Direct3D (5/6) came along. OpenGL followed after a while but extensions remained a bit of a headache for a while.

That box. Omfg, the nostalgia

Im getting at DX9 implementation at the time. Seems DX has slowed down.

 

[xantippe666]

Still keeping the legendary G400 on the shelf..

 

[stimpy88]

I loved my Millennium, but Matrox had no clue what 3D was, or how to make a graphics card that was suitable or usable for the turn of the millennium, quite ironic really...

 

[Flanker]

Wow I never thought anyone else would actually have the SIS 6326 chipset. That's what I started off with in a Baby/Mid AT system with a Celeron 333MHz, 256MB of PC 100/133 SDRAM, Windows 98 Second Edition. I believe either a 20 or 40 gigabyte hard drive that I was able to max out fairly quickly; with a Rockwell 56k modem. I believe it used integrated sound or some sound card I don't remember, and it used and a DIN connector for the keyboard and a serial port for the mouse.

Mine was AMD K6-2 600MHz, 128 megabytes of RAM iirc. 20GB of HDD. Onboard modem. Had onboard sound as well, but lost the driver disk, couldn't find it on the internet either so ended up with ESS Solo-1. Inputs were handled by PS/2. There was a least one USB port but had to install drivers to make it usable. It was barely able to run RuneScape lol. No thanks to Internet explorer 6 and Sun Java.

That graphics chip had lots of issues with Red Hat Linux. Windows ME was such a mess but I ended up installing XP on it and was actually pretty smooth.

 

[JMccovery]

Wow I never thought anyone else would actually have the SIS 6326 chipset. That's what I started off with in a Baby/Mid AT system with a Celeron 333MHz, 256MB of PC 100/133 SDRAM, Windows 98 Second Edition. I believe either a 20 or 40 gigabyte hard drive that I was able to max out fairly quickly; with a Rockwell 56k modem. I believe it used integrated sound or some sound card I don't remember, and it used and a DIN connector for the keyboard and a serial port for the mouse.

I had 2 SiS 6326 cards: a 4MB PCI version that was used on my VIA VP2 Baby AT Socket 7 board (which I think I was running a non-MMX Pentium, so long ago, can't fully remember), and a 4MB AGP version (both $50 or so each) That I used for my Asus P5A-B and P5A Aladdin V Super 7 boards until I got my Riva 128ZX (man, those were the days; overclocking Pentium MMXs to 300+MHz, K6-2s to 450/500MHz).

When I bought the first 6326, I fired up Sidewinder, and my jaw hit the floor. Looked way better than anything the PS1, Saturn or N64 could ever produce. Was absolutely hooked from then on.

 

[CandymanGR]

My first true 3d accelerator was a Matrox Mystique (lol, it didn't even had texture filtering in hardware, but it was fast). And i 've played and finished Half Life in a G400. I was in love with Matrox back in the day, until nvidia came up. Great times...

 

[biffzinker]

Bring me back my Matrox Millennium.



I had the Creative RivaTNT also.

Diamond Viper 770 TNT2 Ultra, got it as a Christmas gift from my parents for a Athlon XP build.
https://assets.hardwarezone.com/2009/reviews/video/Viper770ultra/V770ultra.htm

Had the 3Dfx Voodoo in my PowerBase 240 next to the on board ATI Rage IIe.