Matrox Matrox Millennium G550 Dual DVI

Matrox Millennium G550

November 9, 2001

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• Reviewed by:

  Strengths: Nothing out of the ordinary for this century

  Weaknesses: $104 for a 32mb card in 2007? The card probably cost $104 when it came out 7 years ago, very outdated.

  Overall: Be sure to shop around, you can get an ok gaming card with between 256-512mb memory for under $100 and most if not all newer cards have multiple display capabilities. Go with NVIDIA or ATI, they have generic manufacturers make the same exact cards as their brand named ones for lower prices and sometimes overclocked! Don't waste your money on this overpriced dinosaur!!!!!!

• Reviewed by: DrMichael

  Strengths: Stellar performance when used for it's intended application: Multiple monitors for CAD and business applications.

  Weaknesses: Absolutely none, when used within it's design parameters.

  Overall: I have an Engineering / design / drafting business. I have thirty-four of these cards in several brands and models of computers. My experience with this card is considerable. Downtime equals significant dollars out of my pocket per minute. I use this card because of it's extremely high quality 2D imaging, and because it is absolutely the most reliable product I can buy ... at any price. When I hear gamers complain about the G550, I know it is because they are mis-applying it. The G550 is designed specifically for 2D business applications, and is not for use in a 3D gaming environment. So... You game-playing brothers out there, don't you be dissing this fine hardware because of your inadequate technical knowledge.

• Reviewed by: briancar

  Strengths: Dual Head is neat.

  Weaknesses: Took some tinkering to get it to work on Debian GNU/Linux.

  Overall: Knowing that I wanted to install Debian Woody on this computer, I bought this older card to try to guarantee support for it. Didn't work as easily as I thought. Even after upgrading XFree86 to unstable (sid) I still could not get the card to work well enough for X to start. I got it working under SuSE 8.2, so I knew it's was working card.It is now finally working. Here's how to do it:If you want to install Debian Woody on a machine using a Matrox G550 graphics card, then realize that the version of XFree86 that comes standard with Woody won't work. After the basic install you will be stuck at a command line and must do this:1. brush off your vi editing skills and edit /etc/apt/sources.list to include only the unstable sources.2. apt-get update3. apt-get install xserver-xfree864. edit /etc/apt/sources.list back to stable sources only.5. apt-get update6. edit /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 to delete the line setting UseFBDev to true.Now it will work. [Update: Not necessary if you use the latest debian-installer for Sarge.]Also, after using this card for well over a year in an otherwise recent system I've decided this card is the weak link in that desktop. When significant system activity is ongoing the mouse is unresponsive. If I were building another GNU/Linux box I'd go with a NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200.

• Reviewed by: Contrast

  Strengths: MATROX G550 32MB DDR Super good and clear perfomance in 2D aplications, TV out

  Weaknesses: none

  Overall: I'm not a gamer, I mostly use my computer for digital audio production, scoring, web browsing and word processing. I tried a gamer card that supposedly had scores that beat the pants off of this. I then switched to G550 and the difference was night and day. Absolutely gorgeous 2D. Clear, smooth, stable and perfect color. Makes my work easier. I can now use the higher resolutions my monitor supports without the eyestrain. Haven't installed it onto Win XP yet, but the installation onto Millenium was a snap. If you're a worker and not a gamer, this is THE card.

• Reviewed by: petercp6

  Strengths: Dual monitor output DDR memory on board, best 2D quality

  Weaknesses: no 64MB or 128

  Overall: I bought this card for it's two monitor capability and have had no problems under Windows 98. I built a new system with a Soyo Dragon Plus motherboard and AMD 1800 CPU. The card drove an old standard VGA on the first bootup. I added a second VGA and had no problems with the dual monitor setup. I then added a LEADTEK WINFAST TV2000XP TV/FM MULTIMEDIA CARD which worked great on both monitors. I've since swapped to better monitors with no problems, except for a little flicker on the secondary monitor which was solved by increasing the refresh rate from 72 to 90. This may not be a gaming card but the video is as crisp as anything I've seen on a VGA monitor.