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Make: Built by Matrox Graphics Inc.
Model: Matrox G400
Chipset: Matrox G400 MGA-G400A-E
BIOS String: Matrox Graphics Inc.
Pcidevs.txt: 0525h MGA-G400/450 Chipset
AGP Compliant: 2.0
MAME hwstretch: Yes.
DOS advmame 0.86 device_video auto: Perfect (pclock must be 7 or higher).
DOS advmame 0.86 device_video vbeline vgaline: Perfect (pclock must be 7 or higher).
DOS advmame 0.86 device_video_interlace yes
Vanilla kernel 2.6.1 fb: Perfect (pclock must be 7 or higher).
Linux svgalib-1.9.19 (contrib 0.83.1): Perfect (pclock must be 7 or higher).
  
VsyncMAME support: Yes.
Scitech Vbetest.exe

Comments: Looking for a card that can do everything? Look no further than Matrox's G400. It works great with AdvanceMAME, VsyncMAME, Windows MAME, dmame, AdvanceMENU, and ArcadeOS. While interlace modes at 15kHz look slightly better on Trident's BladeT64, games still look great on arcade monitors in both AdvanceMAME and VsyncMAME. The G400 offers true 3D support and older 3D games like Quake run quite nicely. Though you may have to specify some VESA modes, dmame runs fine on a PC monitor with the Gx00VBE TSR driver loaded. Unlike Trident's Blade T64, Windows MAME rocks on this card. Performance is top notch and games look great. Thanks to the work of Saka and Andrew Lewis, this card also works great with arcade monitors in both DOS and Windows. You can download their drivers here and here. Though you are not likely to find the G400 in stores, it can still be had on Ebay for a reasonable price. This card works great in Linux (it even supports 15kHz consoles).

Notes: For better DOS support update your card's bios (available at www.Matrox.com). On the G400 the display_restore no setting in AdvanceMAME makes launching games from the command line problematic at 15kHz. You should only launch games from AdvanceMENU or ArcadeOS; similarly, exiting AdvanceMENU or ArcadeOS to a command prompt is also problematic at 15kHz.

A special thanks goes out to Carsten S. Rensen for developing the Gx00VBE TSR and releasing it under GPL for everyone to enjoy.

Linux notes:

The syntax for the matrox g400 appears to have changed somewhere between 2.4.22 and 2.6.2.

for 2.4.22 use video=matrox
for 2.6.2 use video=matroxfb

Below are the entries from my grub menu. Both are for the same 80x25 text mode at 15kHz. These modes use the default device_video_format created by the advcfg.exe utility using the following numbers (notice I used a pclock of 7 not 5):

pclock 7-90
hclock 15.72
vclock 50-60

title lfs-2.4.22 matroxfb 15kHz
kernel (hd0,2)/boot/lfs-linux-2.4.22 root=/dev/hda3 video=matrox:xres:640,yres:240,depth:32,pixclock:72951,left:88,right:64,upper:16,lower:3,hslen:80,vslen:3

title lfs-2.6.2 matroxfb 15kHz
kernel (hd0,2)/boot/lfs-linux-2.6.2 root=/dev/hda3 video=matroxfb:xres:640,yres:240,depth:32,pixclock:72951,left:88,right:64,upper:16,lower:3,hslen:80,vslen:3

 
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