Matrox about to be lapped by Nvidia

[flenn]

jhalada makes a good point. No matter how many (or for how much) they're selling online, it's not as effective as what they could do through conventional distribution channels. Actually, it's not even close.

I can't imagine that Matrox has the money or the expertise to restructure themselves into an effective direct sales company. It wouldn't make sense, even if they could. They have dedicated distributors/dealers that want (and can sell) their products. They just have to ship them. That said, where the hell are these things? Whether you agree or disagree, you can't deny that the longer Matrox takes to offer product in volume, the more time the competitors have to take away market share.

[KvHagedorn]

You're right, Ant. I would love to see every Compaq, HP, Mac, Dell, etc. ship with a Matrox inside, but they are not really the leader there either. ATI and Diamond still seem to take most of the mainstream OEM business. Dell doesn't sell Matrox, last time I looked. HP uses them in their Kayaks, but that's hardly mainstream. Increased capacity would do us all good, I think. It can only get better.

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Kind Regards,

KvH

[Rags]

No, they did not get it from the online store, when I asked, they said they got it from their OEM supplier, who was getting a steady supply from Matrox, although the demand for the card was driving the price up, that is why they were being sold for such a high price. I believe that many other channels have had a chance to get the card, but the price wasn't right, so instead of taking a loss on all of the preorder sales, they would rather wait for the supply to go up, letting the prices go down. I am sure that the demand in the end is definitely higher than the supply, and the only remedy for this is either for Matrox to produce more cards, or the wholesalers not to take preorders (which, in turn puts up higher demand, thus higher prices). This particular store sells the G200 for 149, and the V2 12MB for 169, if this tells you anything. They take advantage of people who don't know any better(which are most people who are going to be taking their systems there for upgrades/services), which really sucks.

Rags

[KvHagedorn]

By the way, if the suits from M are watching, and they want more OEM business, this empty TI plant is 60 miles down the road from DELL, and Texans usually like to buy locally

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Kind Regards,

KvH

[Dilitante1]

KvH, there is an ex-air force base waiting (in a tax free state) for Matrox to arrive by Pan-Am, starting this week i think...they did announce they were starting local flights real soon... so they are welcome as far as i'm concerned...then they can play games with the locals at Cabletron (10miles up the road).......and get them motivated again...

-Dil

[KvHagedorn]

No income tax in TX either. Temple's centrally located, with excellent transportation (I35, BNSF rail hub).. and NO SNOW!

(I swear I'm not on the chamber of commerce , but one nice industry and this town will take off. And I want some nice restaurants to eat at.. LOL)

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Kind Regards,

KvH

[jhalada]

I wouldn't be suprised if soon the only place to get the retail boards was from the Online Store, they are already doing it with certain items. Just think of the amount of profit they are making from selling them direct rather than through resellers, what sort of incentive do you think that gives them?

99 of 100 people will never find their way to Matrox online store. On the 33 cards a day they will sell through online store they will not make any money, because if that's all they sell, they have to amortize all the development costs over few cards they sell.

Matrox neds to sell millions of cards to stay in business. They need resellers. Matrox is pissing them off right now. They think they can afford to do it right now, because they have a hot product (about 170 of them in stock). But one day Matrox will have to go begging these same resellers they pissed off to stock their products again.

Joe

[Ron]

Again, remember that Matrox doesn't fab their own chips so they are at the mercy of NEC, their current fab supplier. Take that into consideration while all the bitching and moaning is going on. I'm still waiting too, just not as vocally as some. I'll save the bitching for when and where it will do some good.

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Ron. BH6 etc.

[Zypher]

Temple? Lol. I lived in Killeen. ARMPIT. Texas can keep itself. Better yet, give it back to the mexicans. They practically have some parts of it already. Road signs with espanol on TOP then english. **** THAT.

Last year, over 40 days IN A FREAKING ROW that broke 100 degrees.

Yeah, land is cheap and taxes are nill. IF matrox wants a plant there, more power to them. I'd pass working there though.

[KvHagedorn]

Killeen IS the armpit of Texas. But that's because the army base is there. Temple is mainly doctors and other medical people. And btw, I don't like to retreat in the face of an invading army any more than Crockett, Houston, and company, even if they call it "immigration" now

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Kind Regards,

KvH

[jhalada]

Ron,

Again, remember that Matrox doesn't fab their own chips so they are at the mercy of NEC, their current fab supplier.

You mean that back in May NEC was delivering all the G400 MAX class chips Matrox needed and on June 1 they stopped?

The real story is probably that back in May G400 was nowhere near ready, the yield of chips capable of G400 MAX clock speeds was only slightly more than zero, but Matrox needed publicity, since G200 was getting a little stale, so they announced G400 and MAX.

I think more honesty would have served Matrox a lot better than all the hype and subsequent non-delivery that makes the company look like they deliberately lied to their customers.

If they were honest, I myself would have probably bought inexpensive G200 back in June, or used Mill II from my old computer and I would have been be content. But announcement of the non-existent G400 changed my mind. I didn't want to buy older generation when new one was "shipping".

After 4 months of promises, I think some bitching and moaning is in place.

I'll save the bitching for when and where it will do some good.

I'll save some myself for the lack of W2k drivers, when my G400 MAX arrives.

Joe

[Rags]

Joe,

Why don't you save the bitching about Win2K drivers until W2K is finally released.

Rags



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P3 450@560, BH6, 128MB PC100, Delta CD ROM, Mill.G200/G400, 8.4G WD, 8.4G seagate, SB16 (temp.), Yamaha Burner, Zip, Sportster 56K int., Storm Scanner.

[Filmgeek]

That business with NECX sounds like exactly what I went through when I bought my Marvel G200 a year ago from Computability. Matrox is definitely improving in some areas, but their relationships with resellers is going down the toilet. You can poo poo that all you want and say OEM deals are the only thing that matters, but they're certainly not going to be the OEM darling once the GeForce 256 hits the scene. NVidia already won over ATI in an OEM deal for Dell with their new chip.
Personally, I really hate the idea of no one selling Matrox cards except Matrox. If I wanted those kind of choices I'd buy a friggin' Mac.

Filmgeek

[Tom]

I pre-ordered my G400MAX from the Matrox Online Store June 28.....I received it on
September 1.....that's 65 days...a little
longer than the "6 weeks" I read on the site.
My eagerness turned to disappointment when
I finaly got the G400MAX, as it was already a generation behind....
Oh, well...I'll still have the best until
Nvidia, S3, 3dfx, or maybe Bitboys can prove
otherwise!

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MatroxG400MAX, AsusP2B-L(rev.1010), Celeron266(SL2QG@400MHz), 128MB PC100 SDRAM, QuantumFireball(ST)6.4, ADI MicroScanG66(19"), MonsterSoundMX200, PioneerDVD103-S(6x,32x), MotorolaCyberSURFR(cable), Windows98(4.10.1998+SP1)

[CoolBreeze]

uhh how is it a generation behind? Last i checked...its the best card out now...(my opinion). I wouldnt get to hyped up about this GeForce 256...i bet it'll flop. As for Glaze 3D and the Napalm...they wont even make it to shelves till Q1-2 of 2K. The GeForce with the normal sdram (cheaper version) will be released sooner...but from the specs ive read...its nothing more than a TNT2...The other one with the DDR ram(i think thats what the ram is called)...has been delayed (due to heat problems) and will cost an arm and a leg...That would be the model that might shine for Nvidia...i wouldnt even look at them until a month or 2 after their release. I also have heard that they are POOR overclockers...10mhz at the most. Again...i wouldnt get hyped up about this card...and if you are a Nvidia fan and are looking to get it...i would highly recommend NOT preordering this board(or any board for that matter) that hasnt been benchmarked yet. Then again specs change all the time...and who knows..i could be wrong and it could turn out to be a great card...ill just wait and watch.

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P3 500(not overclocked)
128 MB PC100 SDRAM
SE440BX-2 Motherboard by Intel
Seagate 8.4 gig HDD
Diamond MX300 Sound Card
AOpen 40x CD ROM
Ethernet 32 bit PCI Card
Motorola Cable Modem
Matrox G400 32 OEM Single Head @150
17" CRT Monitor
Altec Lansing 2 Speakers and Sub

----CoolBreeze aka KAST----