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Matrox cards overclock findings

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First post, by Nemo1985

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I'm messing with my matrox cards collection and I'm trying to test their overclock capabilities, here are my findings, all the matrox cards uses dividers and the clock between core and mem is ganged:

Matrox Mystique 618-02 Rev: A: original clock 60\90, no room for any overclock due to the 12ns memory.
Matrox Mystique Hybrid 644-03 Rev: A: It uses the new 220 ramdac plus the old 1064SG-D chip, the clock is the same as the original mystique but it uses 10ns memory which allowed me to overclock the card up to 76\115 (if cooled 80\120 can be reached but with some memory corruption).
Matrox Mystique 220 644-03 Rev: A: Same as above it uses the new 1164SG-A core which is the same as the old one, same overclock results 76\115 (if cooled 80\120 can be reached), there are rare versions with 8ns memory they probably allow to reach higher speeds, unlucky the price for those card is unreasonable.

Matrox Millennium 590-05 Rev: B: Factory speed is 66 mhz for both core and memory, I was able to overclock it to 74 mhz. For gaming is pretty useless due to the lacking of 3d features.
Matrox Millennium II 708-04 Rev: A: Newer chip and features on par with Mystique 220, not always faster quite the opposite, again the stock speed is 66 mhz overclockable only to 72 mhz due to the video ram limit.
Matrox Millennium II AGP 672-04 Rev: A: Same as the pci model, maximum clock is 72 mhz, faster due to the use of agp bus, it's superior to Matrox Mystique 220, but you need an agp capable motherboard, it's not worth.

Matrox G200 834-00 SDRAM: Cheaper version of G200 with sdram, despite of that the most funny to overclock, standard clock is 85\113, I was able to reach 110\147 it's probably possible to squeeze some other mhz, it uses 8ns sdram.
Matrox G250 873-03: Same as G200 sgram version but the core has been die shrinked and it's without heatsink, clock is higher: 105\140, overclock wise it's very disappointing, I tried to install a heatsink but I couldn't go higher than 110\147, the limit is the core, the card hangs if I try 115 core speed, it has been probably pushed to the limit already, it uses 5ns sgram which in theory supports the speed up to 200mhz.

Matrox G400 MAX 906-04 REV : B: I have two versions of the card, one is the older 906-01, the other the -04 rev b, the difference (thanks to the vogoners who told me) is that the rev b supports the agp 4x correctly, the original clock is 150/200 overclock wise they are almost the same (a couple of mhz better the rev b), I have been able to reach 165/220, some cards are able to reach an higher clock but being the max don't expect much overclock capabilities.
Matrox G450 971-0302: 32mb version with ddr memory, original clock is 111\167, I was able to reach the 127/191, it uses ddr memory and they are rated for 5.5 ns, not bad.
Matrox G450 PCI 7003-0301: again 32mb and ddr memory 115/144 , the original core clock is a bit faster compared to the agp version on the other hand the memory is clocked much lower, I was unable to user powerstrip to change the clock because after the new one was applied the card slowed down (I found the same issues with 2 different cards at the moment), the alternative is to overclock with pins. I was able to reach 143/179, but I'm sure there is some space for higher speed, I also tried to clock the card at 200 mhz memory wise but nope, it doesn't work, screen corruption appears just after.

Matrox G550 7012-03: the original clock is 133/166, there are two versions with different rated memory 5,5ns and 5ns, I have the 5,5ns and with powerstrip there is no head for any overclock as soon I change the speed even of 1 mhz the screen gets vertical banding and increasing glitches, I'm not sure if it's a software issue, I will try to overclock with pins but I believe the 5,5ns memory version is very limited.

I will update the topic if anyone is interested, please feel free to post your experiences too!

Reply 1 of 24, by PainDictator

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Did you try the G550?

I just noticed that mine (LP PCI) is configured by PInS to 180MHz (45 PIN value) with core at 1/2 and memory at 1/1 via OPTION3. Thus the card seems to run at 90/180 on DOS.

The Windows driver configures the clock as 310MHz with 1/3 core and 1/1 memory resulting in a 103/310 configuration as advertised.

Thus, a I think the memory timings in the Pins (MEMCTLWTST value) are probably optimized for lower memory clock and Most likely limit memory overclocking.

However, singe the Fields of MEMCTLWTST seem to have changed since the G400 (some reserved fields are in use), I am currently on the way of finding out what These do.

Reply 2 of 24, by Disruptor

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Matrox G450 PCI 7003-0301 REV_A: does not initialize with just 20 MHz on PCI bus. AGP bridge chip is not stable when being operated with 40 MHz without adding a heatsink (tested on a 486 with 40 MHz FSB).

Reply 3 of 24, by TM30

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Hi there, which Version of the G550 LP PCI do you have? The DDR SGRAM or DRR BGA RAM Version?

Reply 4 of 24, by PainDictator

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TM30 wrote on 2025-07-10, 12:10:

Hi there, which Version of the G550 LP PCI do you have? The DDR SGRAM or DRR BGA RAM Version?

Have multiple. What are you looking for?

Reply 5 of 24, by TM30

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I want to know If they overclock differently because of the memory Type.

Reply 6 of 24, by PainDictator

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TM30 wrote on 2025-07-14, 07:40:

I want to know If they overclock differently because of the memory Type.

AFAIK only the PCIe Version uses BGA memory while the AGP/PCI versions are all non-BGA. Did you see something else?

So beyond memory clock its not really apples to apples.

Still, interesting to see if it make a difference. Will try to find some time to check this (have 5-6 boards to compare).

Reply 7 of 24, by TM30

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My PCI Version has BGA DDR RAM. And very late PCB Date of 2012. And one Sticker even says 2014

Reply 8 of 24, by PainDictator

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Nice. Never Seen before. However, my PCIe is similar.

Will test soon. No time today.

Reply 9 of 24, by PainDictator

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Okay did a quick test today using my implementation of the Amiga driver.

I found all of my PCI/AGP cards use 5ns Samsung chips so I picked Up a random one (G55+MDHA32DB). Have only one BGA card using Hynix chips (G55-MDDE32F). Used that for testing.

Since I test in an Amiga 4000 using a PCI Bus Board, I used a mechanical PCI/AGP Adapter and an active PCI/PCIe adapter rspectively.

Tested Memory in 5MHz increments using a 1:1 memory and 2/5 core divider, starting from 200/80. This leaves the core underclocked in all relevant scenarios. Cards are AFAIK advertised as 166/125.

Findings are simple: The non-BGA does 220MHz, the BGA just the 200.

Reply 10 of 24, by TM30

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Thank you! So the PCIe Version with BGA clocks worse than the other ones. Another downside of the PCIe Version is the low stock GPU clock of only 104Mhz.
See here: https://512bit.net/matrox/matrox_g550.html

Reply 11 of 24, by PainDictator

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Indeed.

Good Point about the Stock clock. I attributed the performance difference to the PCIe adapter, but driver uses the PInS settings unless over locking values are provided

Reply 12 of 24, by PainDictator

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TM30 wrote on 2025-07-19, 12:30:

The memory ratings on this Site are bs. Just readings from the Chips that are misinterpreted. FP-28 is a 175MHz Chip, so 200mhz is actually a Great result.

2,8 means here 2x2,8=5,6ns -> ca. 175MHz

Probably the Marketing guy thought having „DDR“ values Sounds better.

Reply 13 of 24, by TM30

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Yes some of his ns-specs of the Vram are BS. But nevertheless this site is a good source for information IMO.

I Just got my First G550 PCIe LP but it is NOS and still sealed. The struggle (of opening) is real ...

Reply 14 of 24, by PainDictator

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Know the Problem.

Need to get one of those BGA AGP cards now that I know they exist 😉

Reply 15 of 24, by PainDictator

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BTW: My G550 AGP overclocked in the tests to 160/220. didnt dare more core because the Heat is bad

Reply 16 of 24, by TM30

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G550 AGP with BGA RAM? Never Seen one of those.

Put a Fan on These G550 as they really get hot even without OC! 160/220 is pretty good I think.

Last edited by TM30 on 2025-07-20, 08:18. Edited 2 times in total.

Reply 17 of 24, by PainDictator

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TM30 wrote on 2025-07-19, 18:19:

G550 AGP with BGA RAM? Never Seen one of those.

Put a Fan on These G550 as they really get hot even without OC!

I mean your PCI model 😉

Things got Mixed Up in My head …

And yes, will put a fan. Its scaring hot Even without overclocking

Reply 18 of 24, by TM30

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The only few pictures i have found for my PCI G550 BGA Version come from China, so maybe they were sold mostly there...

Btw Here is my NOS G550...

Reply 19 of 24, by PainDictator

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Very nice condition. Aliexpress?