Matrox forum on life support

[Starfalcon]

Hmmm........looks like this forum is soon to be dead.......very sad, I feel for you Webhobbit. There must be something that can be done to get the forum moving again.

[Forge]

Yes, Matrox could release a vaguely competitive product at a price the market could support.


In other words, not really.

[absurdity]

We could start a rumor that they're working with BitBoys on a new card.

[Starfalcon]

Well, after the whole parahelia failure, I guess you are right forge. I would believe bitboys would come out with their card before matrox will come out with a competitive card. Matrox is just comtent to slip into obscurity, and have their cards become less powerful. A shame really.

[just brew it!]

Hey, I've still got a G450 running here somewhere... I think it's in one of my Linux boxes. The G450 was actually in my primary Windows workstation until about a year ago, when I finally decided that nVidia had gotten their act sufficiently together on 2D image quality that I could use a single system with an nVidia card for both work and play...

Too bad about Parhelia. I feel kinda sorry for the engineers who worked on it, I'm sure they put their heart and soul into that chip.

[Starfalcon]

That is a good idea there absurdity, matrox and bitboys get together to make a super l33t card that smokes the soon to be released 9600 MAXX. It is so crazy that someone would have to believe it.

[mac_h8r1]

Sure, get Matrox moving again. How 'bout a Parhelia FX or Parhelia XP?

[Starfalcon]

As long as they do not have to put a dustbuster on it like the NV card.

[just brew it!]

That is a good idea there absurdity, matrox and bitboys get together to make a super l33t card that smokes the soon to be released 9600 MAXX. It is so crazy that someone would have to believe it.

...and they could call the joint venture "Bitrox". Has a nice ring to it, dontcha think?

[smakkythecamel]

We could all start a rumour...

[Alex]

Yes, Matrox could release a vaguely competitive product at a price the market could support.


In other words, not really.

I wish I could see that in the near future...

[Forge]

I'm just still bitter from the BS that one Matrox rep spun me at the AMD tech tour oh so long ago.

G800 out soon, GeForce3 killer. My ass.

[just brew it!]

He may have actually believed his own BS. Was the G800 the original name for the Parhelia? If it had come out sooner, it could've been more or less competitive with the GF3, yes?

[Rakhmaninov3]

Poor Matrox. Maybe I'll grab one of their older cards with good visual quality if I put an older-parts box together one of these days.

[smakkythecamel]

We've got a few 550's at work that came in some dells. We don't get any complaints about them... I guess that is a good thing. Can't really tell much difference in image quality though, but to be honest I haven't had much time to look at them closely.

[Forge]

JBI - Nah, the G800 he was talking about became the G550. The giveaway was when he discussed their 'partial TNL' that was going to be 'just as good' and 'enable some really cool things'.

Headcasting. G550. GF3 killer.

I will never even ponder buying another Matrox product as long as I live.

[just brew it!]

Yeah, headcasting was a joke. When I saw the product announcement, my reaction was something along the lines of... "WTF?!?? Whose bright idea was this?!??"

[bsdgeek]

The G800 was originally slated to be their "return". They didn't acheive the yields they were expecting, or had bugs, who knows... Features were disabled and cut down and it became the G550. HeadCasting their way of trying to recover what they lost I guess...

The Parhelia was supposed to be finished early 2k1, but some genius *cough*Dan Wood*cough* had the bright idea of delaying it. Now if it had been released at the proper time, it would have received a warmer welcome.

[house]

CLEAR!!!!brzzzztzzzt...................................................................................................... still not looking too good.

[just brew it!]

I think they could probably survive indefinitely as a niche player. AFAIK they're the only major vendor doing a triple-head card. That, combined with their strong track record in the business market probably makes them the logical choice for financial (trading) applications, where triple head capability would give them a clear advantage.

[Starfalcon]

True brew, but when Nvidia and ATI come out with their own triple head cards, what will matrox do then. They have to put some work into getting a new, better card out that will catch peoples attention. Maybe come out with an upgraded parahelia that does not suck.

[just brew it!]

I could be wrong, but I suspect triple-head is not a big enough market for nVidia and ATi to bother with. They would rather focus on consumer/gaming cards.

It sure would be nice to have a third competitive player in the 3D market again though... I miss 3dfx!

[mac_h8r1]

Hasn't their attention turned from the enthusiast/gaming community to the developer community.

I remember ATI has their FireGL X1 cards, which, while catering to the developers, aren't publicised and reviewed.

BTW Looks like ATI has gone the way of the GeForce FX with the 256 MB card's heatsink. A shame, really.

[bsdgeek]

Most workstation cards have been like that for quite some time.

[Starfalcon]

Brew, they will have to come up with a new marketing gimmick to draw in the masses. How are ATI and NV going to sell cards if they just end up being the same. If you have each card and they get the same benchmarks and have the same features, what is the point. Having triple-head would set them apart, and make them stand out.

[SpotTheCat]

Brew, they will have to come up with a new marketing gimmick to draw in the masses. How are ATI and NV going to sell cards if they just end up being the same. If you have each card and they get the same benchmarks and have the same features, what is the point. Having triple-head would set them apart, and make them stand out.

nVidia just released their shadow deal, and if ATI can't counter than nVidia will kill ATI in the realm of DOOM III

I'm sure ATI will counter though. I have faith in both companies producing euqal cards at a fast rate so I can afford to doublt my card's performace in my next upgrade.