We are Nvidia.. You will be assimulated..Resistance id futile.

[BipolarBill]

Oh yeah...I'm sure that these new cards will rock the game graphics world. Personally, I prefer Matrox cards when I don't need great OpenGL performance. Their 2D desktops are to die for.

Oh well, a week isn't that long. Besides, I have other things to do.

[Kruzin]

Oh...I don't think OpenGL performance is going to be a concern with this new card

[silverfish51]

To be honest, I really don't care what card I have, just that it does it's job and does it well. I just happened to always get 3dfx in the beginning, then Nvidia after my Voodoo3 2000 just couldn't cope any more.

It just happens that I could get a cheap GeForce3 and overclock the shinola out of it straight from the box... buuut then what's new? I did that with every cpu I've ever owned too (which just happens to have always been Intel )


Intel: We have a new idea for a great cpu!
AMD: Let us guess, on made entirely out of money?
Intel: Yeah!
AMD: ...
Intel: But not just money... Look, clock locked money!
Nvidia: You do realise that you'd probobly sell more chips if they were'nt clock locked?
Intel: Really? But... But... We own Canada...
Ati: Big deal, we just bought Australia and New Zeland.
Nvidia: So? We own the moon... yes, the moon! We mean, how cool is that?
AMD: Yeah well, we're just going to stick with England and that little island on the bottom bit, y'know...
Ati: The Isle of White?
AMD: That's the one.


*hmm* It's late...

~
Silver

[Rugor]

Matrox Parhelia

3DLabs P10 VPU

Matrox has a habit of pulling an ubercard out of nowhere then vanishing. Will history repeat? If Matrox does another G400 they will rule the industry, briefly, but will they be able to hold it together?

And the 3DLabs P10 looks incredible too.............

Nvidia and ATI need to keep their eyes open--- they aren't running a two horse race anymore. SiS Xabre may be a contender, but both Matrox and 3DLabs have the proven ability to make a killer card.

[DABSON!~]

Yup lets wait and see if Matrox can pull another rabbit out of it's hat....But this time the Rabbit is made of GOLd!

[Kruzin]

Well, let me spread some rumors that have been posted around the net

512bit GPU...an industry first (or close tie with P10...we'll see who actually hits the market first)
256bitDDR (giving 512bit theoretical-another first)
~19GB of memory bandwidth
DX9 displacement mapping hardware support
DX9 pixel shader hardware support
TripleHead support (with the ability to run OGL games spanned across 3 displays)
and the list goes on...

If these rumors pan out, I'd say Matrox will hold on for a while this time (though they've never left my systems for any length of time to start with)

[BipolarBill]

Own up, Kruzin! You game on an nVidia product, don't you?

[Kruzin]

I am happy to say I just finished over an hour of UT on my trusty G550. I haven't played UT in a while (I usually play TFC). I must say, i'm still perfectly content with how the G550 handles my games.
But I do greatly look forward to Parhelia.
I'm already running a 21" and 20" montior on dualhead, and I'm trying to aquire another 20" for the other side of the 21". I can't wait to try fraggin in panoramic trihead mode
(if the rumors are true)

The latest rumor is that the latest Doom rehash will be displayed by Carmac running on a triple display rig, powered by a new, unannounced card....hmmmm....

[Rugor]

I know Matrox can release a top of the line card, the only question is can they hold the position through more than one product cycle?

The G400 was brilliant, but they never followed it up properly.

[Kruzin]

Originally posted by Rugor
The G400 was brilliant, but they never followed it up properly.

I guess that depends on your point of view.
Matrox does not have a 6 month product cycle.
They never have, in over 25 years of buisiness.
They have always followed a 3 year cycle. A breakthrough chip they pump out for a year, followed by a couple years of refinements.
They followed G400 up with tuned versions (G450 and G550) of the chip, adding features here and there, and reducing price greatly along the way.
And they sold LOTS of them to OEMs and corperations.
And those sales have sustained them quite well.
So from a buisiness point of view, I'd say they followed G400 up quite well, while watching Diamond, #9, 3dFX and others go out of buisiness while nVidia and ATI hacked it out.

Well it's been three years, and they are due again. nVidia and ATI will not catch up to Parhelia in their next product cycle.
And If I where to make a bet, it would be that Matrox will continue to pump out revolutionary cards every three years long after nVidia goes out of buiz, or is closed down for one of their stock fraud fiascos.

[Rugor]

When I say that Matrox didn't follow up properly on the G400, I am not saying that they stopped producing cards and making profits, what I am saying is that they released one very good card and then ceded that market segment back to the competition.

Matrox's approach to the aftermarket 3D accelerator field is a bit odd. They introduce a card that is easily the best in class, and make inroads into a new market segment. Then they keep producing variants on that card until it is no longer competitive in that segment before coming up with a new design. To use your own numbers Kruzin, they are effectively ceding the gamers market to the competition for two out of three years.

My question is why do they expend the resources to get into that market segment if they don't intend to keep a presence there. I don't mean to denigrate your G550, but it's not a card that was designed or marketed as a gaming card. If they want to keep any portion of that market, they need to maintain a viable presence throughout their own three year cycle.

[Lycia]

That's disgusting.

[Edited Quote out **Imperion1**] Material has been removed.

[silverfish51]

agreed, but just ignored it and went back to overclocking my gf3...

*hmm* I still have gaming mags from as far back as 1996, and the ad inside the november issue of pc gamer for the Matrox Mystique (£120,) and had a little graph in it comparing it to two other cards; fyi it was a from winbench test with the Mystique having 44m, the Diamond Stealth 2000 xl at 35.5m and finaly the ATI 3D Xpression at 34.2m...
IIrc I had an orchid voodoo1 accelerator card (a whole 4megs) around that the time...

To be honest, I really hope competition heats up for the card companys, it's always good to see them bring out shiny new technology to keep ahead of their competitors. In turn increasing graphic capabilitys of the comps and the games... Maybe one day true cinema realistic enviroments will be the de-facto standard in games.

~
Silver

[rraehal]

I have used a lot of video cards in my day. I love the 3Dfx cards. Too bad XP doesn't support all of them. Nvidia cards rock. They work extremely well for every thing I have ran on them. ATI - well I have one now and it works with DirectX 8.1 dxdiag.exe but will not run a single game designed for dx 8.x and higher. I just recently purchased a Raedon 8500. It rocks like the Nvidia cards. I am not sure where to go. ATI or Nvidia. My own experience shows me both are solid.

[DABSON!~]

Originally posted by rraehal
I have used a lot of video cards in my day. I love the 3Dfx cards. Too bad XP doesn't support all of them. Nvidia cards rock. They work extremely well for every thing I have ran on them. ATI - well I have one now and it works with DirectX 8.1 dxdiag.exe but will not run a single game designed for dx 8.x and higher. I just recently purchased a Raedon 8500. It rocks like the Nvidia cards. I am not sure where to go. ATI or Nvidia. My own experience shows me both are solid.

ATI is better but I do like nvidia cards for long lasting gaming...