Matrox Introduces New Chips

On Wednesday, Matrox Graphics of Montreal announced the details regarding two new graphics chips for AGP systems: the low-end MGA-G100 and the high-end MGA-G200.

The G100 is being pushed as a low-cost high-performance solution for AGP systems in the sub-US$1,500 price range. The chip features faster graphics acceleration than previous MGA chips with a 230MHz DAC, supports up to 8MB of memory for 24-bit color up to a maximum resolution of 1600x1200, and supports multimedia upgrades.

The MGA-G200 chip is what Matrox is defining as the no-compromise chip. Complete with 2D, 3D, and video acceleration, the chip hopes to push the edge of performance in all areas of computing with its first family of AGP graphics chips.

Supporting up to 16MB of memory and a 230/250MHz RAMDAC, the MGA-G200 is optimized for the Pentium II, DirectX, OpenGL, and AGP 2X. The chip will be the first to use Matrox's new 128-bit DualBus architecture that helps any application perform at greater resolutions.

The chip also supports many of the standards as well as new hardware effects that have put a new face on 3D gaming. 3D features include: bilinear and trilinear filtering, superior alpha blending, specular highlighting, fogging, anti-aliasing, Z-buffering, multiple texture rendering.

Newer effects for the chip's setup engine can calculate triangles in Direct3D and OpenGL, as well as strips, fans, and vectors.

Multimedia users get full-screen video on both chips with support for horizontal and vertical interpolation. Gamers looking to play games on something bigger than a monitor also get a video output port alongside a video input port. The G200 has an MPEG-2 decoder as well.

Both boards offer support for Windows 95, and when Windows 98 launches, the chips will offer the new multiple monitor feature, which allows gamers to run more than one monitor from a single PC. Also, it will be compatible with Microsoft's upcoming DirectX 6.0 API.

Considering Intel's announcement of the cacheless Pentium II, Matrox looks as though it is hoping to hit those consumers in the "basic PC" market with the MGA-G100.

As the computer industry works all the angles to get more PCs into homes at lower costs, Matrox may have part of the solution with the G100.

For gamers looking for something with a little more meat, the MGA-G200 chip offers a wider range of options.

Matrox did not specify a release date for the new chips.