Matrox working on new GPU?

[Darksaber]

Here is something for the rumor mill: Seems like Matrox is up to something - maybe a new GPU? Mosaid Memorize, a memory controller development firm, said that Matrox Graphics would incorporate DDR IP (intellectual property) memory interface and controller product "into future Matrox Graphics 90nm professional graphics controllers". So what does that mean? Is Matrox working on a Vista ready part with at least Shader Model 2.0? Maybe they will go straight for DirectX 10 and Shade Model 4.0. Only time will tell.

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[XeoNoX]

i dont get it. what makes some of their video cards so expensive in the $500 plus range??
i always thought ATI and NVDIA are better, then why pay that much for a matrox? what makes them so special?

 

[DaMulta]

S3 is comming

 

[Alec§taar]

i dont get it. what makes some of their video cards so expensive in the $500 plus range??

Performance: It's like buying a "high-end" engine for a car more-or-less... you pay for performance, because in both cars & computers, imo @ least? Speed = MONEY!

i always thought ATI and NVDIA are better, then why pay that much for a matrox? what makes them so special?

Matrox was ALWAYS great @ 2d display... imo, ever since the "Millenium I & II" series back circa Windows 3.x - 2000, when I last ran those (around 1992-2000) video cards? They had the BEST 2d display, bar-none!

Now, w/ this? They MAY have an "opportunity" to 'seize the bull by the horns' on VISTA & do great things in the 3d world as well... you never know!

APK

P.S.=> It's not like this company doesn't have "muscle & know-how" for R&D... they do, but they have to tackle 2 giants in the gaming area in NVidia & ATI... apk

 

[Ketxxx]

Now, w/ this? They MAY have an "opportunity" to 'seize the bull by the horns' on VISTA & do great things in the 3d world as well... you never know!

For that, they will have to shoot for stellar SM3 performance off the bat, no excuses. otherwise nobody would buy it. i dont seen anything in the slightest wrong with sm2 once everything is set as it should, in fact u cant even see the difference in sm2 vs sm3, but thesedays despite knowing this not even i would buy a card that "only" supports sm2.

 

[bruins004]

I wouldnt be suprised to see quite a few DVI outputs on these new video cards either. Matrox cards have always had 2 of them at least.

Also, dont be suprised to see a new DualHead2Go or TripleHead2Go for DVI since I remember reading on their site (sorry dont remember the link) that once DVI became more mainstream they were going to make ones for DVI.

I agree they are a good company, but to compete and give their products a good run, they have to lower their prices. They have always been a lil too expensive.

 

[XeoNoX]

Performance: It's like buying a "high-end" engine for a car more-or-less... you pay for performance, because in both cars & computers, imo @ least? Speed = MONEY!



Matrox was ALWAYS great @ 2d display... imo, ever since the "Millenium I & II" series back circa Windows 3.x - 2000, when I last ran those (around 1992-2000) video cards? They had the BEST 2d display, bar-none!

Now, w/ this? They MAY have an "opportunity" to 'seize the bull by the horns' on VISTA & do great things in the 3d world as well... you never know!

APK

P.S.=> It's not like this company doesn't have "muscle & know-how" for R&D... they do, but they have to tackle 2 giants in the gaming area in NVidia & ATI... apk

I guess people must really like their 2D performance then to pay that huge amount of money, every time a new Millenium Card came out it always seemed inferior to the 3dfx,ATI, and Nvidia cards in 3d performance and the new matrox cards would always be more.

What are they paying that much money for the matrox??..... high speeds in 2d Performance?
come on now.......seemed kinda pointless to me.

 

[Alec§taar]

I guess people must really like their 2D performance then to pay that huge amount of money, every time a new Millenium Card came out

I did back during the Win3.x-Win9x transition MOSTLY... best you had, circa 1991-1997 was "Windows Accelerators" @ best in Win3.x!

So here in Win3.x? It was really the best you could hope for... 2d proficiency.

OpenGL/DirectX 3-6 on 9x/NT was only really taking hold once 3dFx took over in the 3d display realm (1997-2000) typically & available to all, but not really until 9x/2000 init. period around 1997 onwards...

So, from 1992-1997, Matrox helped in 2d, but later 3dFx &/or NVidia did a better job on 3d by far, & decently close on 2d to Matrox, imo @ least.

What are they paying that much money for the matrox??..... high speeds in 2d Performance?

Yes, as I said above: There was a time it was ALL you really had in Windows (3.x mostly)...

come on now.......seemed kinda pointless to me.

Who knows what they're up to now, but the fact is, they had great 2d display in the past, & need to concentrate on 3d... maybe, this is their "challenge" to the ATI/NVidia "hegemony of industry dominance"...

APK

 

[XeoNoX]

well back in those day my trident held up fine, i never really saw a need for speed in 2d. mainley what im getting to is that i rembmer a couple years ago around 1998-200 when they still had high prices for 2D video cards when 3d was already starting to dominate the market. Im surprised really matrox is still around, they better do something soon or they'll end up like 3dfx.

Either way, i hope they come out with something worth while, that will take the video card industry by surprise, i love surprises!

 

[Alec§taar]

well back in those day my trident held up fine, i never really saw a need for speed in 2d.

Oh, I did, because they were w/ out a doubt, faster!

E.G.-> On ISA bus 486 SX/25 machine I had, I ended up updating/upgrading it to a Diamond Stealth 24 ISA "Windows Accelerator" w/ 1mb of RAM on it (up from the 256k SVGA Trident I had (probably same as yours))...

Then, when VLB hit (VESA LOCAL BUS), I updating from the Diamond Stealth 24 ISA to a Diamond SpeedStar 64 (w/ 2mb of WRAM on it) Vesa Local Bus model...

Faster still, & the benchmark I used to use (WinTune 20 (16-bit) - WinTune 97 (32-bit)) bore that out for me, everytime, especially vs. the old Trident 256k ISA card I stepped that system up from!

Fact is/funniest part: I still have & occasionally USE that latter machine...

(An old 486 Dx/4 133mhz CPU, 32mb FastPage 70ns 30-pin RAM, & Dual WD "Caviars" 424mb each in RAID 0 via TekRam VLB 16mb Caching IDE disk controller + VLB Diamond SpeedStar 64 Windows Accelerated Video... running Windows NT 3.51 fully patched!)

mainley what im getting to is that i rembmer a couple years ago around 1998-200 when they still had high prices for 2D video cards when 3d was already starting to dominate the market. Im surprised really matrox is still around, they better do something soon or they'll end up like 3dfx.

I never even looked @ them again, surprisingly enough, after 3dFx came onto the scene: They were my FIRST cards, away from Matrox in fact (when the 3d gaming wave started around 1997)... then, NVidia was my fav., once they bought out 3dFx from 2001-current time!

Either way, i hope they come out with something worth while, that will take the video card industry by surprise, i love surprises!

I agree... change can be GOOD: BUT, it's going to be 'tough sledding' imo, vs. NVidia &/or ATI in the 3d market... but still, I hope they do 'upset the applecart', because it makes the others (big others) try even harder imo!

APK