Matrox Mystique
The Mystique was introduced in 1996 as a way for Matrox to better compete in the new 3D hardware accelerator market.
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Released | May 1996 |
| Bus | PCI | |
| Chipset | IS-MGA-1064SG-D, IS-MGA-1064SG-H ("Hurricane") | |
| Standards | Hercules, CGA, EGA, VGA, VESA VBE 2.0 in BIOS | |
| Memory | 2 MB or 4 MB SGRAM (64-bit), upgradable to 8 MB | |
| Ports | 15-pin DSUB (video out) 15-pin DSUB Rainbow Runner Studio port 26-pin VGA Feature connector Memory expansion headers |
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| RAMDAC | 135 MHz up to 170 MHz (8-bit colour depth) | |
| Part # | MGA-MYST/2I (618-02) - 2 MB variant MGA-MYST/2BI (618-02) - 2 MB variant MGA-MYST/2BN (618-02) - 2 MB variant MGA-MYST/2/GAT (618-02) - 2 MB variant MGA-MYST/2/PCMP (618-02) - 2 MB variant MGA-MYST/2/SI (618-02) - 2 MB variant MGA-MYST/2SYS (618-02) - 2 MB OEM variant MGA-MYST/4I (644-00) - 4 MB variant MGA-MYST/4N (644-00) - 4 MB variant MGA-MYST/4/BI (644-00) - 4 MB variant |
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| FCC ID | ID7061800 | |
| Price | At launch: $499 (4 MB), $149 (2 MB SGRAM upgrade module),
Dec 1996: $259 (4MB) Apr 1997: $149 (2MB) |
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| See Also | Mystique 220, Millennium, Mystique G200 |
The Mystique was Matrox' response to gamers demands for a 'proper' 3D card with a texturing engine, since the first Millennium had none. It was their first card that was directly targeted at the consumer market.
In a single chip (the MGA-1064SG) Matrox integrated the RAMDAC and video engine with a hardware scaler. The new texturing engine handled perspective correction, transparency lookup table, lighting in true colour precision, and dithering, though despite being the best 3D card from Matrox even through 1997, it did not have bilinear filtering, fogging, mip-mapping or anti-aliasing - instead relying on "nearest neighbour" interpolation. It also didn't directly support OpenGL.
You could upgrade the memory of a 2 MB or 4 MB card by a further 4 MB with the addition of a Matrox memory expansion module (part # MGA-MYST/MOD2 or MGA-MYST/MOD2OE for 2 MB expansion, or MGA-MYST/MOD4 or MGA-MYST/MOD4OE for 4 MB expansion). As I understand it, these expansion cards were compatible with both the original Mystique and Mystique 220.
As was typical for Matrox, their 2D image quality was fantastic - noticeably better than its peers at the time such as S3 ViRGE and ATI Mach64-based cards. 3D performance of this new chip, however, was sub-par. Mystique was a much cheaper card than the Millennium with a slower RAMDAC (even though it was integrated into the single graphics processor chip) and slower memory, though its 2D performance was almost as fast as Millennium up to XGA resolutions (1024 x 768).
It supports the following VGA and SVGA graphics modes:
| Resolution | Max. Refresh Rate (Hz) | Max. Colour Depth |
|---|---|---|
| 1600 x 1200 | 60* | 8-bit (256 colours) |
| 1280 x 1024 | 85 | 8-bit (256 colours) |
| 1152 x 864 | 75 | 16-bit (65,536 colours) |
| 1024 x 768 | 85 | 16-bit (65,536 colours) |
| 800 x 600 | 85 | 32-bit (16.7M colours) |
| 640 x 480 | 85 | 32-bit (16.7M colours) |
*The later Mystique 220 is able to display 1600 x 1200 at 75 Hz refresh rate.
The first Mystiques came with a 50 MHz core and memory running at 75 MHz. Without changing the model or version, a variety of flavours seemed to follow, such as 55/82.5 MHz and 60/90 MHz. It appears Matrox spent 1996 to mid-1997 gradually raising the Mystique's clock speeds.
According to the company at the time, the MGA‑1064SG could process 25 million texels/second where the texels were perspective correct, Gouraud shaded, transparent, 8-bit Colour Lookup Table expanded to 16‑bit RGB, and Z‑buffered. Game and 3D API support included DirectDraw and Direct3D (DirectX 5.0) as well as Criterion’s Renderware.
Mystiques fitted with 4 MB from factory were upgradable to 8 MB. The 8 MB cards from factory simply had the 4 MB memory expansion module fitted. Another option header on the board allowed you to connect the Rainbow Runner - an MPEG-1 and AVI video playback module that included further video input and output ports. A Rainbow Runner TV module added a TV tuner.
The retail version of Mystique came bundled with three 3D games: MechWarrior 2, Destruction Derby 2 and Scorched Planet. IBM shipped their desktop and mini-tower PC 300PL range with Mystique cards in 1997.
Tip: If you get frequent lock-ups or freezes disable the "Use Bus Mastering" feature under the device driver Settings tab. This Bus Mastering is present on all Mystique models and will increase your frame rates but unfortunately increases instability
Summing up: Mystique had arguably the best 2D quality and performance for a 1996 and even 1997 card. For 3D gaming, performance still beat the early S3 ViRGE and ATI Mach 64 cards though 3D image quality was poorer due to its limited 3D feature set. If you have a 3dfx Voodoo 1 card, use that in conjunction with this for better 3D performance.
Board Revisions
The only known board revision for the Mystique is A, with 618-02 for 2 MB variants and 644-0x for 4 MB variants. The part number always starts with MGA-MYST, followed by a /2 indicating 2 MB or /4 indicating 4 MB of onboard graphics memory. Matrox had various manufacturing sites for the card, including Canada, USA, and Ireland. Any characters after the memory identifier likely indicate this, or who the card was destined to be sold to (OEM, large retailer, etc).
One of my readers, Petros Savvas, recently acquired an interesting variant of what appears to be a standard 4 MB Mystique on a Mystique 220 board (part #644-03). Everything on the card is as per a Mystique 220 but the chipset is the standard MGA-1064SG-H. He dubbed it the 'Matrox Mystery'.
You can see some pictures of his card here:
Model number MY220P/4BI/20, indicating it's a Mystique 220, but has an MGA-1064SG (standard Mystique) chipset
I personally think his chipset may very well be a 1164SG, since a 220 MHz RAMDAC is detected by the Matrox drivers, and the card can work at 75 Hz - two things that the original Mystique couldn't handle. But perhaps it failed the minimum quality control tests at the time of fabrication, so they stamped it as a 1064SG? I've not heard or read if graphics chipset manufacturers ever did this though in the way we know CPU manufacturers did.
Another theory is that Petros' card is actually a 4 MB Mystique card (non-220), and somehow it got an incorrect part number on the silkscreen or possibly a 'late' standard Mystique where they were trying out a new board revision for the 220 but still with the 1064 chipset.
Petros got in touch with Matrox to try to identify the card. They confirmed it was an OEM card. Explaining the 'H' suffix in the chip's ID, they wrote "The extra H was probably due to a revision of the card. It could be
because there was a component change, or any other manufacturing
change. But those won't change the product itself, that's why the
driver doesn't report it, or it won't change any of its
functionalities.". The investigation continues...
If you can confirm these theories or have other ideas, get in touch!
Competition
The original Mystique went up against the S3 ViRGE (e.g. Diamond Stealth 3D 2000XL, Hercules Terminator 3D, and Number Nine 9FX Reality 332), Tseng Labs ET6000 (e.g. VideoLogic GrafixStar 600), and a little later the ATI Rage Pro (e.g. 3D Xpression+ PC2TV, Xpert@Play, Xpert@Work, and 3D Charger).
With no support for alpha blending, texture filtering, anti-aliasing, or fogging, Mystique was poorly received from day one. Don't be fooled by performance tests that show it outperforms the Rage Pro - the Rage Pro would be doing texture filtering at huge cost to its bandwidth compared to the Mystique which wouldn't.
Matrox launched a faster Mystique in August 1997 with the Mystique 220, but the Mystique's core limitations remained. It was succeeded in late 1998 by the Mystique G200.
In the Media
Matrox says it sacrificed some effects for a higher frame rate, which might be an acceptable tradeoff for fast-paced game action. Indeed, on our 3-D tests, the Mystique spits out Direct3D frames faster than most of its competitors. The subjective game-playing experience - taking into account frame rate - place the Mystique second only to Intergraph's Reactor in this roundup.
In the 2-D arena, the Mystique was a consistent performer, placing in the top ten of tested boards on our WinMark and Winstone tests. And its video playback quality (for both .AVI and MPEG) is much improved over the Millennium's, incorporating both x and y interpolation. These are stable, intelligently designed products that stack up well against their current competition. The mature Millennium can deliver the big-screen 2-D performance business and graphics users need. The Mystique couples respectable 2-D acceleration for business applications with good - if not religiously rendered - 3-D visuals for game players."
PC Magazine, 3 Dec 1996
Matrox has given us a valiant effort, but because of the Mystique's fatal flaw, the card has already earned the nickname of the "Mistake".
The Mystique is a solid performer with a few key pieces missing. The lack of filtering can be seen as nothing less than a fatal flaw."
NEXT Generation, February 1997
An advert for the Millennium and Mystique, Dec 1996
An advert for the Mystique,
Apr 1997
Setting it Up
I have no information on configuring the Mystique.
Downloads
Operation Manual Get in touch if you can provide this missing item! |
Original Utility Disk Get in touch if you can provide this missing item! |
Video BIOS ROM Get in touch if you can provide this missing item!
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Images
The Mystique went through a number of different revisions from 1996 to 1998.
Mystique Part Numbers
2 MB cards all have part number 618-xx. 618-02 was the first (and only?) of the 2 MB range.
4 MB cards all have part number 644-xx. 644-00 was the first of the 4 MB range, followed by 644-01. Mystique 220 cards started with 644-03.
All Mystique cards had chipsets and model numbers with "MGA-MYST/" or "1064" on them. If you see a card with model number prefixed MY220P/ or a chipset with 1164, these are the later Mystique 220, though they share the name part numbers (618-xx or 644-xx) as the standard Mystique.
The only chipset variants I know of are the 1064SG-D, 1064SG-G, and 1064SG-H.
Matrox used two suppliers for the Mystique's video memory: Samsung (KM4132G271Q-12) and NEC (D481850GF-A12).
They used three suppliers for the Mystique's BIOS chip: ST Microelectronics (M28F512), Texas Instruments (TMS28F512A) and AMD (AM28F512).
On some cards the lower memory upgrade slot may appear to show four rows of sockets - this is actually just two rows. The headers came in two varieties on these cards, ones that just had two single-row holes and another that had a top and bottom 'clamp' to connect to each pin on the upgrade board. They are both compatible with each other.
Mystique 2 MB card (618-02 Rev. A):
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Model and Part #: MGA-MYST/2BI, 618-02 Rev.A Main Chip: IS-MGA-1064SG-D, dated Week 31, 1996 RAM: 2 MB Samsung SEC KM4132G271Q-12 (83 MHz) BIOS Chip: ST Microelectronics M28F512 (64 KB flash) |
This card came with 2 MB on the board, though it is the slowest of the Samsung memory variants, running at 83 MHz.
Mystique 4 MB card (644-00 Rev. A):
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Model and Part #: MGA-MYST/4I, 644-00 Rev.A Main Chip: IS-MGA-1064SG-D, dated Week 8, 1997 RAM: 4 MB Samsung SEC KM4132G271Q-12 (83 MHz) BIOS Chip: ST Microelectronics M28F512 (64 KB flash) |
Mystique 4 MB card (644-01 Rev. A):
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Model and Part #: MGA-MYST/4I, 644-01 Rev.A Main Chip: IS-MGA-1064SG-D, dated Week 8, 1997 RAM: 4 MB Samsung SEC KM4132G271Q-12 (83 MHz) BIOS Chip: ST Microelectronics M28F512 (64 KB flash) |
This card came with 4 MB on the board, though it is the slowest of the Samsung memory variants, running at 83 MHz.
Mystique 4 MB card (644-03 Rev. A):
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| Model and Part #: MY220P/4BI/20, 644-03 Rev.A Main Chip: MGA-1064SG-G, dated Week 15, 1997 RAM: 4 MB Samsung SEC KM4132G271BQ-8 (125 MHz) BIOS Chip: ST Microelectronics M28F512 (64 KB flash) |
Like Petros' card I mentioned earlier, this one is also a curiosity. A 1064SG on a Mystique 220 board! In this case the chipset is a 'G' variant, and the board came with the fastest memory available (even on the 220), running at 125 MHz.
Conclusion
As far as I can tell, all standard Mystique cards came with 83 MHz memory from either Samsung (SEC) or NEC. The Wikipedia entry for the Mystique mentions at the very bottom: "Original Matrox Mystique has 170 MHz RAMDAC and is based on MGA 1064 GPU. The later version, Mystique 220, has 220MHz RAMDAC and is based on MGA 1164 GPU. Other than that, there is basically no difference between two versions of the card. The major problems of Mystique were never resolved. However, benchmarking concludes that Matrox kept including minor changes in Mystique without informing the customers, so later Mystique versions, like the one made by Compaq (on the picture above), can have 220 MHz RAMDAC and identify themselves as Mystique 220 while having old 1064 GPU."
This sounds correct based on my findings, with 1064SG chipsets being detected as a Mystique 220 with 220 MHz RAMDAC present, so if your card happens to have a 1064SG on part number 644-03 or it has -8 memory (125 MHz) you probably have a later card that is actually a Mystique 220.
