Matrox G400

[Breaker]

Hi all,

I've decide to go with AdvanceMame and the Matrox G400 card with a D9200.

I checked eBay and there are several G400 cards currently up for auction however, I have a few questions before bidding:

1) does it matter if the card is single/dual head?
2) should I go for a 16 or 32 Mb version?
3) anything else I've missed?

Thanks!

[whammoed]

I recommend against it.  G400 is a great card except for the low 15Khz resolutions.  It is tough to get low enough pclocks.  See this site for other recommendations:
http://easymamecab.mameworld.net/
I went with a radeon 7000

[Breaker]

Hi whammoed,

Thanks for the site.

I took a look and the G400 card is highly recommended but there is no review of the ATI 7000. I have also read that some folks have had problems with ATI cards and have found the G400 to be very reliable.

I'm a complete newb to the video card arena so I'm not sure what pclock is or why supporting low pclock rates is an issue?  For example, what would I be sacraficing by going with the G400 over the ATI.

Thanks!

[whammoed]

In my experience, you would be sacrificing running the low 15Khz resolutions.  Those resolutions normally require low pclocks.  You can adjust them to run at higher pclocks but I was not able to fill the screen with the image doing this.  If you have a few hours to spare you can check out this thread I started when I was having trouble with the g400:
http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=4;action=display;threadid=21402;start=new
I have had no problems with the radeon 7000 and I would doubt you would have any trouble with any other radeon.  You can get around the issue by running the low resolution games at double their resolution but to me that would defeat the purpose of having a d9200.  If you want to use a computer monitor or a plain vga arcade monitor then the g400 is an excellent choice. For a standard resolution monitor, stay away.

[Breaker]

Thanks Whammoed,

I have an ATI Radeon 8500 on hand which I'm not using...would this be a potentially good candidate for the AdvanceMAME + D9000 combo?

Cheers.

[whammoed]

I would think you would have similar success to what I have had with the 7000.  Definitely give it a try.  You will likely need to use the SVGA library instead of framebuffer if you are using linux.  If you will be using linux take a look here:
http://web.tampabay.rr.com/whammoed/whammocade/software.htm

[APFelon]

I ran my MAME cabinet with a G400 in MSDOS without a hitch. I don't know the technical aspects, but every game ran fine and without issue. I have since upgraded to the ArcadeVGA card for various reasons, but if you want to run just MAME under DOS, the Matrox G400 should be just fine.

APf