Bezell,
From my research the G400max has better drivers for the dual display than the TwinView
True
As for 2D quality, I've read that the two were pretty close. So G2MX Twin view offered 2D quality close to Matrox
Nope - well, depends on the resolution you use. At higher resolutions, definitely not. From Anand's review of the G450:
<<
Matrox has always been the king of 2D image quality, and the G450 does nothing to change that title other than reinforce it. The sharp 360MHz RAMDAC the G450 borrowed from the G400MAX provides for a very sharp display at 1600 x 1200 and even at higher resolutions provided that you have a high end monitor capable of displaying such resolutions.
On our Sony FD Trinitron GDM-F500 display the G450 provided a sharper picture than any competing card we tried, but that is to be expected from Matrox. What was even more impressive was that the image quality of the secondary display at 1600 x 1200 was definitely acceptable. >>
There was another review I can't find at the moment that found that 640x480 wasn't bad but by the time you reached 1024x768 you could definitely distinguish between the Matrox and the MX. If you've used and gotten accustomed to Matrox's 2D, you get VERY sensitive to poor quality 2D. I've had friends with nVidia cards say "Hey my card's got excellent 2D" and when I see it myself, I find it so poor I couldn't put up with it.
There's also TV-out quality. Matrox and ATI are usually better than nVidia on this. Both Matrox and ATI use their own proprietary stuff for TV-out. nVidia boards generally use the Brooktree/Conexant BT8xx or Chrontel 7000 chips, which rather consistently in the few TV-out reviews I've seen don't compare to Matrox or ATI. FYI, Tom's Hardware did a MX comparison, and the Leadtek had the worst TV-out. Check
here.
better 3D
Depends on how you define "better." Speed, yes the MX wins out. Quality, the Matrox wins out. Plus remember at this point in time there aren't any overclock utilities for the G450 that can get it to the same clock speed as the G400Max.
less cost
Not really. The G450 DualHead with 32MB DDR RAM costs $145-150; TwinView cards with TV-out aren't much cheaper than that.
G800 would be killer but by then other manufacturers are going to come out with something else. Just like how 3DFX screwed themselves by releasing the Voodoo 5500 too late and is being murdered on the market
True. Except you can now get a V5500 for a low as $138 with some careful shopping. At that price, I'd recommend it over a non-TwinView MX even though it doesn't have hardware T&L. And 3dfx is waiting in the wings with their Hidden Surface Removal drivers which are showing a lot of potential.
Good luck with your setup. Like I said above, I'd double check on that Leadtek.