Gamers looking to upgrade their video cards are in an unenviable position this season. As if deciding between the multitude of the latest and greatest Savage4, Voodoo3, and TNT2-based products wasn't hard enough, Matrox Graphics just added two boards of its own. Running on the newly developed G400 chipset, the Millenium G400 and the slightly beefier Millenium G400 MAX, both announced from Matrox this morning, are sure to make a tough purchasing decision even tougher. Here's how these two break down.

　　The Millenium G400 is unofficially clocked at 125MHz, although Matrox has yet to confirm this figure. It is capable of handling most of today's graphics standards like 32bpp 3D rendering, 2048x2048 texture sizes, a 300MHz RAMDAC and full AGP support. Additionally, the Millenium G400 has the ability to support two simultaneous and independent displays through the use of Matrox's DualHead Display technology. Users will be able to connect a combination of two CRT monitors, a CRT monitors and a TV, a CRT monitor and a digital flat panel, or two digital flat panels to the card at once to view multiple Windows applications. The DualHead Display technology can also be used to stream a DVD signal to one monitor while displaying the Windows desktop on the other.

　　Matrox is also heavily touting the Millenium G400's support of environment mapped bump mapping. This is basically the ability to add static and animated "bumps" onto the surface of any 3D image, dramatically enhancing its visuals. This is currently used in games like Slave Zero, Expendable and Black & White to simulate effects like water, mirages and air turbulence.

　　Matrox's second offering, the Millenium G400 MAX, has a feature-set very close to the vanilla Millenium G400. Its processor, however, is clocked at 166MHz instead of 125Mhz and yields about a 30% increase in 3D performance. This too, however, is an unofficial figure. Likewise, the card's RAMDAC has been bumped to 360MHz for increased clarity under 2D applications. This results in resolutions as high as 2048x1536 in true color at an 85Hz refresh rate.

　　Both cards will ship with Rage Software's Expendable, as well as other Windows applications and will be available by mid-June. Pricing is as follows:

　　Millenium G400 16MB - US$149 Millenium G400 32MB - US$199 Millenium G400 MAX 32MB - US$249