I have dusted off a Gigabyte i5 machine and discovered there are no
drivers for my beloved Matrox P650 graphics card past XP x64.

I thought I'd get a cheap and cheerful card to replace it. They all seem
to be either NVidia or these made up Chinese names.

Many, if not most, of them are flagged "Low Profile". Back in the day that meant a shorter bracket to go in a small case, nowadays I'm not so sure -
made worse by some of them having an "LP" suffix that apparently means Low Power.

In the end I got one which showed a picture of two brackets so I feel reasonably confident it will fit.

Does LP mean something different nowadays?

--
Jeff Gaines Dorset UK
Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his friends for his
life.
(Jeremy Thorpe, 1962)

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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Hi Jeff,

Jeff Gaines <jgnewsid@outlook.com> wrote:

I have dusted off a Gigabyte i5 machine and discovered there are no
drivers for my beloved Matrox P650 graphics card past XP x64.

I thought I'd get a cheap and cheerful card to replace it. They all seem
to be either NVidia or these made up Chinese names.

Many, if not most, of them are flagged "Low Profile". Back in the day that meant a shorter bracket to go in a small case, nowadays I'm not so sure - made worse by some of them having an "LP" suffix that apparently means Low Power.

In the end I got one which showed a picture of two brackets so I feel reasonably confident it will fit.

Does LP mean something different nowadays?

As far as I know this still means the same thing. I have low profile
raid cards and audio cards which usually come with a short bracket as
well as the card itself being shallower in depth to fit into some slimline case.

You could always install Linux/*BSD on there and continue to use your
beloved Matrox card. I'm fairly sure xfree86 still has drivers for it.

Also, just because the manufacturer doesn't have drivers for the
specific OS on their site, don't assume that it won't work without giving
it a go. Lots of stuff just works these days...

Best regards,

Ian

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 25/05/2023 in message <u4m5pe$34n0s$1@dont-email.me> IanJ wrote:

Hi Jeff,

Jeff Gaines <jgnewsid@outlook.com> wrote:

I have dusted off a Gigabyte i5 machine and discovered there are no
drivers for my beloved Matrox P650 graphics card past XP x64.

I thought I'd get a cheap and cheerful card to replace it. They all seem
to be either NVidia or these made up Chinese names.

Many, if not most, of them are flagged "Low Profile". Back in the day that >>meant a shorter bracket to go in a small case, nowadays I'm not so sure - >>made worse by some of them having an "LP" suffix that apparently means Low >>Power.

In the end I got one which showed a picture of two brackets so I feel >>reasonably confident it will fit.

Does LP mean something different nowadays?

As far as I know this still means the same thing. I have low profile
raid cards and audio cards which usually come with a short bracket as
well as the card itself being shallower in depth to fit into some slimline >case.

You could always install Linux/*BSD on there and continue to use your
beloved Matrox card. I'm fairly sure xfree86 still has drivers for it.

Also, just because the manufacturer doesn't have drivers for the
specific OS on their site, don't assume that it won't work without giving
it a go. Lots of stuff just works these days...

Best regards,

Ian

Thanks Ian :-)

I got a gobbledygook Nvidia GT 210 for £30, such an old design all the benchmarks crash! In the end my HP Z620 seems the best bet so I will stick
to that.

There were graphics cards around £2K, what sort of programs need something
like that?

--
Jeff Gaines Dorset UK
It may be that your sole purpose in life is to serve as a warning to others.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)