Matrox G550 vs ION 2
Primary details
GPU architecture, market segment, value for money and other general parameters compared.
| Place in the ranking | not rated | not rated |
| Place by popularity | not in top-100 | not in top-100 |
| Architecture | GT2xx (2009−2012) | G500 (2001−2005) |
| GPU code name | GT218-ION-A3, GT218-ILV-A3 | Condor |
| Market segment | Laptop | Desktop |
| Release date | 10 January 2010 (14 years ago) | 1 January 2001 (23 years ago) |
Detailed specifications
General parameters such as number of shaders, GPU core base clock and boost clock speeds, manufacturing process, texturing and calculation speed. Note that power consumption of some graphics cards can well exceed their nominal TDP, especially when overclocked.
| Pipelines / CUDA cores | 16 | no data |
| Core clock speed | 405 / 475 / 535 MHz | 125 MHz |
| Number of transistors | 260 million | 10 million |
| Manufacturing process technology | 40 nm | 180 nm |
| Power consumption (TDP) | 6/12 Watt | no data |
| Texture fill rate | 4.000 | 0.25 |
| Floating-point processing power | 0.03424 gflops | no data |
| ROPs | 4 | 2 |
| TMUs | 8 | 2 |
Form factor & compatibility
Information on compatibility with other computer components. Useful when choosing a future computer configuration or upgrading an existing one. For desktop graphics cards it's interface and bus (motherboard compatibility), additional power connectors (power supply compatibility).
| Interface | PCIe 2.0 x16 | AGP 4x |
| Length | no data | 168 mm |
| Width | no data | 1-slot |
VRAM capacity and type
Parameters of VRAM installed: its type, size, bus, clock and resulting bandwidth. Integrated GPUs have no dedicated video RAM and use a shared part of system RAM.
| Memory type | DDR2, DDR3 | DDR |
| Maximum RAM amount | 512 MB | 32 MB |
| Memory bus width | 64 Bit | 64 Bit |
| Memory clock speed | 790 MHz | 332 MBps |
| Memory bandwidth | no data | 2.656 GB/s |
| Shared memory | - | no data |
Connectivity and outputs
Types and number of video connectors present on the reviewed GPUs. As a rule, data in this section is precise only for desktop reference ones (so-called Founders Edition for NVIDIA chips). OEM manufacturers may change the number and type of output ports, while for notebook cards availability of certain video outputs ports depends on the laptop model rather than on the card itself.
| Display Connectors | No outputs | 1x DVI, 1x VGA |
API compatibility
List of supported graphics and general-purpose computing APIs, including their specific versions.
| DirectX | 11.1 (10_1) | 8.0 |
| Shader Model | 4.1 | no data |
| OpenGL | 3.3 | 1.5 |
| OpenCL | 1.1 | N/A |
| Vulkan | N/A | N/A |
| CUDA | 1.2 | - |
Pros & cons summary
| Recency | 10 January 2010 | 1 January 2001 |
| Maximum RAM amount | 512 MB | 32 MB |
| Chip lithography | 40 nm | 180 nm |
ION 2 has an age advantage of 9 years, a 1500% higher maximum VRAM amount, and a 350% more advanced lithography process.
We couldn't decide between ION 2 and Matrox G550. We've got no test results to judge.
Be aware that ION 2 is a notebook card while Matrox G550 is a desktop one.
Should you still have questions concerning choice between the reviewed GPUs, ask them in Comments section, and we shall answer.
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