WHO buys Matrox cards?

[cputnam]

To answer your second question first, Matrox hasn't given up on WinNT support. Much of their focus lately as far as drivers is getting a "final" OpenGL ICD. This being done (although they'll probably update it), they'll probably rework the WinNT drivers.

As to who uses Matrox, the first group would be those that need the best image quality - graphics, CAD (Kruzin?). The G200 series wasn't the greatest card for gaming, but the image quality couldn't be touched.

The G400 series does well both on the graphics/CAD end and for games. Again, it may not be as fast in some benchmarks as a TNT2/TNT2 Ultra, but it's no slouch. I'm definitely not disappointed.

From what I understand, there currently isn't support for OpenGL under WinNT, at least for the G200. I believe the G400 does have OpenGL under WinNT. Since your using your 'puter for both real work and games, the G200 or G400 might be a good match.

[Ant]

There is an OpenGL ICD for both the G200 and G400 under Windows NT.

[OrangeJulius]

Thanks for responding both of you, but what about..

- your much lamented video tools for NT
- NT support for Matrox SoftDVD

Can you confirm the report that SoftDVD doesn't work with NT Ant?

[merchant2]

i don't know what a hard core gamer is , but if its some one who likes new tech likes to play games at the best they can look then thats me.

i bought a matrox becuase the g200 looked the best i had ever seen, the g400 promissed to be faster than the g200 dual head looked to be something difrent for gameing and open gl, (but even if the g400 did not have a ogl driver i probibly would have bought the 400 any way. why settle for something that dosent look as good for a gameing mode that only works on one stile of game play, quake 2/quake engine game types when d3d looks almost as good if not looking the same.

------------------
i don't know what im going to bitch about now that the avp patch is out.
p2 350 at 450, 196 meg pc100,10gig hard drive,5xdvd cl drive, xitel p. storm sound, 32meg g400 dualhead, acs altec lansing speakers+yamaha rear, ch throttle, ch force fx, ch pedeals, hp laserjet 4, epson 400 color, ctx vl950 main mag dx17t secondary monitors ? what else can i brag about ? oh two other systems k6-2 350 and k6 200.

[Kruzin]

Some people insist a "hard core" gamer is someone who counts FPS, and is only satisfied with the fastest thing on the market, regardless of visual quality.

I don't agree with that. A hard core gamer is someone who plays a lot of games (not benchmarks...plays), on a regular basis, and has a good time doing it. That person could prefer fps, or could prefer visuals, but either way...it's more the enjoyment of the games than the constant bickering over frame rates that makes a true gamer.

So, with that being my definition, I would say I fall into the hard core section. I play some kind of game almost every day. And I get a lot of entertainment from it. Got the hottest mouse, a great flight stick, and a decent wheel/pedals for my racing games. And I also prefer visual quality over fps.

There is generaly no argument, that in most situations, the G400 looks better in games than anything on the market. It was the same way with the G200. Even though I ran a Voodoo2 in my machine, it rarely got used, and eventually retired to the kids machine, despite it's faster performance. I'm sure some of you saw the the pic I posted in another thread of some of my HL scores. FPS do NOT make the gamer Now that their machine has the G200, I have swapped the V2 to a pal.

All that gaming stuff aside, I do use my PC primarily for 2D CAD every day. For this, I insist on the best looking desktop I can get. Again, there is no argument that Matrox has always led in that area, and continues to do so. The G400 has put the sharpest, brightest, most colorful picture I have ever seen on my 21" monitor, and I have tried plenty of cards.

And now that I have dualhead, I have started using the PC for home theater style entertainment. It's hooked up to my VRC/TV, and my soundcard wired up to all sorts of crap I doubt I'll ever buy another video cassette (well, maybe for the kids...they gotta have their disney tapes ). DVD all the from here on out for me...

------------------
P2-350(@103*4=412), Asus P2B(1009), 128meg PC100, MillG400 32meg(PD5.20.???), CL SB Live!Value, CL PC-DVD, Mitsumi CD-R, WD UDMA 8.4&6.4 gig, (2)USR 56k(multilinked), 3Com 905B-TX, etc...

[OrangeJulius]

WHO buys Matrox cards?


Let's rephrase this. What kind of Matrox user are YOU?

* A web designer / graphic designer / autocad/ business apps / casual gamer

* A "hardcore" gamer (whatever that means)

I'm the former; barely ever play games anymore except for the occasional Q3.. NT4 is my primary OS, and Matrox seems to be refocusing so much effort on the "hardcore" gamer now to rejuvenate it's OGL reputation .. I've never cared much about OGL and never have and suspect there's a good lot of you feel the same way..

Their NT driver support used to be ahead of 98 and now it is the other way around -- anyone notice?

[This message has been edited by OrangeJulius (edited 07-16-99).]

[Tn]

Kruzin is right. I used to be a hardcore gamer, playing a lot of different games(FPS didn't matter in Caesar 3) but now I only play TFC until TF2 comes out. So I have converted from gamer to graphics/video guy and that is why Matrox cards are the best for me. I can get the best of both worlds. Okay I'm done kissing butt do I get a free G400? Seriously though I would like to know some status on the Vid Tools so that I can install the ICD.