Two years ago there were two ways you could get an awesome 2D/ 3D graphics system. One was to get a 4MB RIVA board from the company that had virtually no name, NVIDIA. The second was to get a 3dfx Voodoo board to handle 3D and a Matrox Millennium to handle 2D. The reason for the first configuration was simple. A cheap one-card solution and you kill two birds with one stone. The second seems, by today’s standards, absurd. The fact of the matter was the Voodoo boards couldn’t do any 2D so you needed a second card for both.

The Matrox Millennium was the best 2D card out there. It was an 8MB card that supported more colors and higher resolutions than the RIVA. Its drivers were mature unlike the early nightmare drivers of STB’s Velocity (From personal experience it was really, really bad.) The Millennium had limited 3D ability. Then Matrox released their G100 and G200 product lines. These were major steps forward for Matrox. The G200 did not just have good 3D performance but it set a new standard for the 3D quality. The problem with the G200 was the OpenGL driver was too little too late. Matrox introduced the Millennium G400 as not just a performance upgrade, but a board with a new broader feature set.

The Millennium G400 is a major leap forward for Matrox. While the Millennium G400 is not going to kill the slew of new boards coming out just in time for the Christmas buying season, such as the GeForce 256 based products, Rage Fury MAXX, or S2000 boards in raw speed, Matrox has two big advantages. First off, it has super visual quality. Secondly, it has DualHead technology. This is the real advantage the Millennium G400 is going to have this Christmas. Some cards allow for simultaneous viewing on a monitor and a TV screen. The disadvantage with previous implementations has been that you had to run your monitor at the same resolution/ refresh rate as the TV. If you'’ve ever tried it you’ll probably agree that it is not an optimal solution. Enter Matrox.

Graphics Cards Matrox Millennium G400 32MB w Products Compare Prices & Save on Graphics Cards at DealTime! Search by brand or type to find the best price across 100s of stores! Shop by Top Models: Matrox Millennium G450, (32 MB) AGP Video Card  4 store offers from $30 - $96 Hewlett Packard Matrox G450, (16 MB) AGP Video Card  2 store offers from $42 - $49