One of the most hyped features of the G400 is its DualHead output capabilities. Thanks to its dual CRTCs the G400 can output two separate video signals to either two monitors or to a monitor and a TV. The best thing here is that it can use different resolutions, color depths and refresh rates for each signal. What this means to the end user is that you can, for example, have a DVD movie playing on your TV with an output resolution of 800 x 600 pixels at 60hz while keeping your desktop running on your 19" monitor at 1280 x 1024 at 85hz. If you work in web development, you can create your work on a large 19" or21" monitor at high resolution while outputting what you are working on to a 15" monitor at 800 x 600. The possibilities are staggering.

The second hyped feature of the G400 is it's Environment Mapped Bump Mapping (EMBM) capabilities, which has been seen in images around the web, especially from Rage's Expendable where the procedural textured water bumps have made a big buzz. EMBM is a feature supported in Direct X 6 which is visually superior (although more costly in overhead) to the embossed bump mapping which most of today's video accelerators support. Though EMBM is by no means perfect as, thus far, it hasn't successfully been put to use in scenes where the "bumps" have anything other than a shiny or metallic type appearance.

Radical Fish Demo Shot

EMBM can definitely add to a game's visual appearance. While some of the examples included with the G400 don't really impress much, the sweet looking water distortion effect and the "Radical Fish" demo (the only instance where the feature wasn't over used but instead used moderately and hence successfully), which created a realistic looking three dimensional skin on the fish, really stand out. Rotating the fish and seeing the light reflect off of its scales was very impressive to say the least. If this is even a hint of where the future of real-time 3D graphics is heading, we're in for some very eye pleasing visuals in the year to come.