***Matrox Parhelia....It's Coming......

[stingbandel]

I can't wait to hear the news in summer. There will be more competition between ATi, NVidia and Matrox if the news is true.








Darno

 

[Czar]

paulzebo,
I agree that Matrox has had some trouble getting enough cards on the market in the begining, thats only because there are so many Matrox FanBoys like me and amish



<< Plus NVIDIA by size has far better driver support >>


That is so far from reality, there is a reason why Matrox is the only graphics card maker that can certify their own WHQL drivers.

 

[Czar]

<< If it is edram based as the bandwidth suggests then would the card have the need for 64 / 128 mb of memory?(except for textures i suppose) and if it does have both edram and normal memory would you not expect a strange figure e.g 64 + 12 or 128mb + 12 >>


According what the mods on murc forums have been leaking out then it does not have edram.

 

[Biggs]

Although I'd really like to replace my jurassic G400 with this card...

I'd believe it, when I see it.

Go Matrox!

 

[Electric Amish]

<< I'm sorry but I'll have to wait until this thing actually reaches the shelves in quantity. Matrox has had plenty of good ideas and products in the past.......... BUT....they failed to deliver on time or in quantity. And that's why I have NVIDIA in my unit. Remember the G400? It was only about 3 months from when the reviewers had the card until the public got it. They had the same issue with the G200. Amish, it's great to have big ideas and great prefab boards, but implimentation of the distibution/manufactoring plan are more critical to me than what Matrox currently offers. Plus NVIDIA by size has far better driver support. Be careful Amish, You're out omongst the English. >>



The reason for the low supply at the beginning is that Matrx doesn't want third party card manufacturers mucking up their designs with inferior parts, so they build all the cards themselves instead of having twelve different maufacturers.

Yes I remember the G400. I still run it in my gaming machine!

amish

 

[ToBeMe]

<< All I can say is yes it is a rumour >>

 

[busmaster11]

*cough cough* bitboyz Glaze3D *cough cough*

 

[Mitzi]

I hope it doesn't turn out to be vapourware - my G400 is getting crusty and I've been considering upgrading it for weeks now.

 

[Daovonnaex]

Matrox never "failed" to deliver. After the somewhat successful G400, Matrox faced a choice: move into the 3D gaming market, or concentrate on your core market. Matrox chose to concentrate on its traditional customer base, workstations and business; that was probably one of the reasons the G800 was canceled. It's possible that they are engineering a new 3D gaming product, but I will believe it when I see strong evidence in its favor.

 

[MURC]

It is a very wise choice to say that you'll believe it when you see it, that's what I keep telling folks. The MURC is not one for starting rumours, this is in fact our first, we have reported on others posted elsewhere but could not exactly be held accountable for those, a great many sites reported them. I allowed the Parhelia item to be posted after seeing the evidence and while that's not really any backup for you guys as such I myself have put a lot of faith in it if that means anything There as no alterior motive in posting in other than to pass on what we thought was some rather interesting news even if it did have to be kept a little wooly to protect the innocent. After having nothing more than the G450 and G550 in recent years you can't blame us for getting a little excited.

The G800 saga was in fact down to Matrox, it orginated in a roadmap given out (unofficially) by one of their European offices to a website that posted it. Matrox also released several drivers that were not properly cleaned up and contained reference to several products that were then in development. The G800 did not survive the technology transfer to a retail product due to various issues and ended up as the G550. Obviously given that then there is the concern that any new product currently in development will go the same way, but hopefully in this case they'll get it right, time will tell. Just keep an open mind, the greater the competition in this field the better it gets for us!

Ant

 

[Daovonnaex]

<< It is a very wise choice to say that you'll believe it when you see it, that's what I keep telling folks. The MURC is not one for starting rumours, this is in fact our first, we have reported on others posted elsewhere but could not exactly be held accountable for those, a great many sites reported them. I allowed the Parhelia item to be posted after seeing the evidence and while that's not really any backup for you guys as such I myself have put a lot of faith in it if that means anything There as no alterior motive in posting in other than to pass on what we thought was some rather interesting news even if it did have to be kept a little wooly to protect the innocent. After having nothing more than the G450 and G550 in recent years you can't blame us for getting a little excited.

The G800 saga was in fact down to Matrox, it orginated in a roadmap given out (unofficially) by one of their European offices to a website that posted it. Matrox also released several drivers that were not properly cleaned up and contained reference to several products that were then in development. The G800 did not survive the technology transfer to a retail product due to various issues and ended up as the G550. Obviously given that then there is the concern that any new product currently in development will go the same way, but hopefully in this case they'll get it right, time will tell. Just keep an open mind, the greater the competition in this field the better it gets for us!

Ant >>

Most of use harbor no ill toward MURC, and much if not all of what appears on your main page is true. However, many people are irritated by the constant rumors posted in the forums. I, for one, believe that the posting of so many rumors is irresponsible, but people should realize that all things posted in a forum are not entirely trustworthy.

 

[MURC]

I quite agree that's the reason why I opened our Crystal Ball forum and marked it out as an area for speculation to keep it far away from the other forums. Unfortunately it does not stop it still being misinterpreted but trying to stop anything in a busy forum is a hopeless task as I'm sure you'll appreciate.

Ant

 

[busmaster11]

<< Matrox never "failed" to deliver. After the somewhat successful G400, Matrox faced a choice: move into the 3D gaming market, or concentrate on your core market. Matrox chose to concentrate on its traditional customer base, workstations and business; that was probably one of the reasons the G800 was canceled. It's possible that they are engineering a new 3D gaming product, but I will believe it when I see strong evidence in its favor. >>


Matrox never had the talent base the big boys had. Nvidia employs 3DFX AND SGI engineers. LOL...

Matrox wasn't going to be able to come out with a competing 3D product, though I'm sure that since the 3D market has so much more headroom at the time than what was supposedly the needs of the business user, (2D, dualhead perhaps) they would have done 3D if they could...

 

[CZroe]

I'll have to keep up with this thread...

 

[Biggs]

"Do I believe that snippet? Hell no! I would not bet my life on it. But for me it's more worth than a rumour, neither it is a certified fact, just take it as it is, an indication of what is going in Matrox'es R&D labs and wait to know if Matrox really ships or not something like that."

-Vlip


This quote from the Ars thread says it all.


Exciting times are ahead of us!

 

[grant2]

Plus NVIDIA by size has far better driver support
That is so far from reality, there is a reason why Matrox is the only graphics card maker that can certify their own WHQL drivers.

The "reality" is that matrox didn't even bother to release the proper drivers for me to play q2 with my g200.

I guess it's a lot easier for them to certifty their own drivers if they don't even bother making them... ...but that doesn't really equate to "driver support"

 

[Czar]

Hi Ant,
Welcome to Anandtech glad to see you here and I hope you stay and become a lifer

 

[Czar]

<< Plus NVIDIA by size has far better driver support
That is so far from reality, there is a reason why Matrox is the only graphics card maker that can certify their own WHQL drivers.

The "reality" is that matrox didn't even bother to release the proper drivers for me to play q2 with my g200.

I guess it's a lot easier for them to certifty their own drivers if they don't even bother making them... ...but that doesn't really equate to "driver support" >>


that is the only card Matrox has had problems with drivers, it was a long time ago and about a week or so after the G400 was released they had stable solid drivers. Shortly after they got WHQL license from Microsoft.

 

[grant2]

I guess it's a lot easier for them to certifty their own drivers if they don't even bother making them... ...but that doesn't really equate to "driver support"
that is the only card Matrox has had problems with drivers, it was a long time ago and about a week or so after the G400 was released they had stable solid drivers. Shortly after they got WHQL license from Microsoft.

Exactly, what kind of b.s. is that, a newer product gets proper software support before an older one??

Here's a thought, maybe Matrox should prepare the solid, stable drivers BEFORE releasing the product. But then, I guess that kind of kills their opportunity to screw over customers.

I also got sold a "secret" millenium g200 with SDRAM even though their promotional material promised that all milleniums came with SGRAM.

So after getting ripped off 2 times on the same card, am I a little bitter? yaa... =)

 

[Electric Amish]

<< I guess it's a lot easier for them to certifty their own drivers if they don't even bother making them... ...but that doesn't really equate to "driver support" that is the only card Matrox has had problems with drivers, it was a long time ago and about a week or so after the G400 was released they had stable solid drivers. Shortly after they got WHQL license from Microsoft. Exactly, what kind of b.s. is that, a newer product gets proper software support before an older one?? Here's a thought, maybe Matrox should prepare the solid, stable drivers BEFORE releasing the product. But then, I guess that kind of kills their opportunity to screw over customers. I also got sold a "secret" millenium g200 with SDRAM even though their promotional material promised that all milleniums came with SGRAM. So after getting ripped off 2 times on the same card, am I a little bitter? yaa... =) >>



Yeah, they were just out to screw you over!

The SDRam was not a secret. It was the OEM card.

I was happy with my G200 at the time. Nothing I played or did had any problems.

amish

 

[Leon]

<< that was probably one of the reasons the G800 was canceled >>



No, the real reason why G800 was cancelled, is because the whole G800 development team left Matrox and joined Nvidia. This caused Matrox lawsuit against Nvidia for stealing employees (dumbest kind of lawsuit that could possibly be), lawsuit that Matrox lost.

Leon

 

[n0cmonkey]

Im hoping this is true. Im *VERY* happy with my G400DH, but people laugh when I tell them this is still the card I use in my main system. In fact out of the 4 machines I have its the best video card... Matrox has had great support on non-Windows x86 OSes and because of that I will not purchase another video card. It helps I dont play games though, if I did nVidia or ATI would get some cash from me. And of course, ATI or nVidia cards in my Macs.

 

[zippy]

<<

<< that was probably one of the reasons the G800 was canceled >>



No, the real reason why G800 was cancelled, is because the whole G800 development team left Matrox and joined Nvidia. This caused Matrox lawsuit against Nvidia for stealing employees (dumbest kind of lawsuit that could possibly be), lawsuit that Matrox lost.

Leon >>

Incorrect sir. nVidia stole Matrox employees and magically released a dualhead competitor known as twinview. It is NOT the "dumbest kind of law suit that could possibly be" because it is illegal to court employees in the manner that they did...or maybe not since Matrox lost the suit. Probably an issue of not enough evidence, but employees certainly were hired from Matrox.

<< I guess it's a lot easier for them to certifty their own drivers if they don't even bother making them... ...but that doesn't really equate to "driver support"
that is the only card Matrox has had problems with drivers, it was a long time ago and about a week or so after the G400 was released they had stable solid drivers. Shortly after they got WHQL license from Microsoft.

Exactly, what kind of b.s. is that, a newer product gets proper software support before an older one??

Here's a thought, maybe Matrox should prepare the solid, stable drivers BEFORE releasing the product. But then, I guess that kind of kills their opportunity to screw over customers.

I also got sold a "secret" millenium g200 with SDRAM even though their promotional material promised that all milleniums came with SGRAM.

So after getting ripped off 2 times on the same card, am I a little bitter? yaa... =) >>

You bought the OEM version which had SDRAM as Amish mentioned...not much of a secret.

Considering that at launch the G200 was not intended as a gaming card at all, I don't know why you bought it to play Q2. It was a 2D card which could play DirectX games and had nothing to do with OpenGL until they had to delevop an ICD for it later on for customers like you who decided they wanted to play QuakeX yet bought a card with no guarantees of that ability. Besides not being able to play Q2, how pleased were you with the card and drivers? I would wager to say that you were quite pleased, as that is what I have heard from everyone else who owned a G200.

I bought a G400 at launch. The launch drivers were 100% stable, so there goes your theory that they don't have stable drivers before release. The G400 drivers were outstanding and released frequently with improvements each release...so there goes your theory that they can get WHQL approval by not releasing drivers.

Sounds to me like you are/were unhappy with the G200 because you didn't do your homework before buying the card.

 

[grant2]

Yeah, they were just out to screw you over!

I don't think that was their goal, they just didn't care.

The SDRam was not a secret. It was the OEM card.

They advertised only 2 products, but sold 3. The 3rd, inferior product, was initially sold under the same name as one of their advertised products. At the time there was a small "outrage" at what matrox had done. The only way people figured it out was by digging through the settings and noticing that some identifying information was slightly different. If that's not "hidden" i don't know what is.

OEM means "no packaging & extras" NOT "cheaper stuff passed off as more expensive stuff."

I was happy with my G200 at the time. Nothing I played or did had any problems.

I'm happy with mine also. Aside from *never* getting the proper support to play q2 (opengl?) I never had problems either. But the fact that they basically deceived and orphaned a huge number of customers will always weigh on my mind if i consider future products from them.

(This is probably all moot though, I'm with NSF4 in doubting matrox will live up to the hype) =)

 

[grant2]

Considering that at launch the G200 was not intended as a gaming card at all, I don't know why you bought it to play Q2.

At the time it was rated as having the most attractive 3d rendering of any card available, thanks to its internal 32bit colour processing (or something like that).

Am I complaining that i wasn't getting 100fps in q2? NOOO i'm complaining that I got *ZERO* fps in quake, unless i ran it in software mode, which is ugly as hell. Some stupid onboard graphics core could have done better than the medium-priced product i bought.

Besides not being able to play Q2, how pleased were you with the card and drivers? I would wager to say that you were quite pleased, as that is what I have heard from everyone else who owned a G200.

Drivers were stable, if annoying, as a 2d card I find it adequate. But my unrefined senses cannot really distinguish "2d quality" aside from refresh rates.

I bought a G400 at launch. The launch drivers were 100% stable, so there goes your theory that they don't have stable drivers before release.

That was never my "theory".... I'm just saying Matrox isn't necessarily the infallible god of perfect drivers. Maybe I really am naive, but I think a self-proclaimed "3d card" should automatically support the "quintessential 3d game"

Sounds to me like you are/were unhappy with the G200 because you didn't do your homework before buying the card.

Ya next time I buy, i'll know not to take for granted little niceties like "support for the most popular computer game" or "specifications as advertised" before asking matrox the hard questions.