Beware, do not buy a matrox G450 used from Ebay as it is probaly an IBM OEM card. Matrox drivers do not work properly with them (I got this from Matrox directly), and IBM no longer supports this card. My system will work with the card, but colors get all screwed up (they revert to 8 bit no matter what settings used). I'll prolly just trash this thing and buy a NEW one. Jay
Is it an IBM OEM? I run mine on XP also. It works fine, but screws with all my other programs. I paid $9.95 for mine. If you paid anything under $30 its an IBM OEM. If it came with any packaging, or maual, its a Matrox retail card. Thanks, Jay
It was used. I paid like $10 for it, as I recall. I didn't get anything with it. But I am using only Matrox drivers. . .
I guess I have different settings somewhere then. Matrox says they can't help me. Neither can IBM. Bummer. I kind of want a single Quad card anyway.
Why would it matter if it was IBM oem card or not? Wouldn't it use the same drivers from xp? I just got one that was a cornerstone card off ebay and it works fine with xp. Just using the xp drivers.
For what it's worth.... I bought a couple of g450's new and they just plain wouldn't work with the most up to date drivers from matrox. Went around on the phone for a couple of hours with matrox support. Then I loaded up the drivers off the XP disc, and it's been working fine since. That's almost a year now.
No, Matrox OEM cards need updated bioses and drivers from the OEM. Which are sometimes very difficult to get, and if you do manage to get them, there is still no gaurantee it will work with your hardware (OEM's often use only predefined sets of hardware - motherboards etc...). So yes, after doing all research, I deemed it not worth the savings on the OEM cards. You can still find good deals on retail cards on Ebay, just make sure you check to make sure it is a retail card! If it's not listed, email the seller for the (complete) Model #. If your not sure about the model #, go to Matrox web site and go to the support section, do a search for the exact Model # and scan through the results. Most of the OEM cards have the respected company name, or portion of it, in the # Usually if your patient, you can find brand new cards for cheap money. I've seen AGP cards (450's) go for $35 - $45 dollars, PCI cards are harder to find, and are more expensive. But I've seen them for $69 dollars brand new. SP
When you use the XP drivers, how do you know which ones to use? Are there matrox drivers on the XP disk, or just generic XP video drivers? I may try this. Jay
XP has detection routines to figure out which driver to use. If it cannot find a match, it whines. Yes, Matrox G450 Dual drivers come with XP (and I think it's the same driver for the Quad).