So where is Matrox shooting for with their next-gen card?

[The Rock]

So, we all know Matrox will release their next-gen card this year (we hope anyway ). What I want to know is what they're shooting for: are they aiming to crush Nvidia's and 3dfx's next-gen offerings, or are they aiming for a more mid-range target? (PLEASE say they're going for Nvidia's throat). Any speculation beta boys?

The Rock
P.S. I just re-read my subject line only to realize it makes no grammatical sense. DOH!! 5:30AM here.

[This message has been edited by The Rock (edited 07 February 2000).]

[Joel]

I think they will shoot for the same spot they always have.

To produce the best quality overall graphics card on the market. You've got to remember that based on Matrox's main PC marketbase that fps for them is not the end all be all of a video card.

Joel

[moreau]

Agreed. "Crushing" NVidia and 3dfx would be subjective. I game 50%, work 50% on my home computer, but I still place desktop performance and features ahead of fps. (Just MHO). If I Could afford a second game only machine at home, i might consider a game oriented card (which I feel is where nvidia and 3dfx put their emphasis). After all, all the features that those two companies push are game related. (as are their software bundles).

Honest, Joel, I don't hate AMD!

[Chucky Cheese]

hey everybody!

you know this video card thing is really subjective(IMHO), for example, my friend who owns a voodoo3 3000 recently came over to check out my rig and he was thouroughly impressed with the video quality of my g400 max. i fired up q3 arena with all the visuals on high and sit back and let him play it for about a half hour and i heard things like "wow..I've never seen that before" and "look how detailed those shots look".. he spent more time oohing and ahhing at the visual quality of the game than killing his opponets. i always run my games at 1024 by 768 with full visuals. i acknowledged that while the g400 doesn't the highest frame rate out there it does have the best image quality..IMHO, his remark was that he couldn't tell the difference, frame rate wise.

anyways, here is my rig;

Motherboard: AMI MegaRUM II, dual 600Mhz Pentium III processors (installed), each with a 32/512 Cache configuration. 512 Mb of PC100, 8ns memory. Symbios Logic 53C896 U2W SCSI controllers. Intel 443GX Xeon chipset.

SCSI I/O:

Channel 1(LVD/U2): 4 Seagate LVD Cheetah 18LP, ST39103LW Ultra2 Wide SCSI-3 hard Drives, each with 1024k cache.

Channel 2(SE): JAZ 2GB internal, Plex-Writer 8/20, Pioneer DVD-303s ultra-scsi DVD reader and 2 UltraPlex-Wide 17/40 speed CD-ROM drives.

USB: USB Zip Drive, Epson Stylus Scan 2500

Networking: The network adapter is a 3Com 3C509B-TX PCI 10/100 Mbps controller, and a US Robotics Courier V.Everything 33.6/28.8/x2/V.90 internal ISA modem.

Video: Matrox G400 Max with Dual Head. The primary display is a Panasonic PanaSync E21, .25-dot pitch, 20" viewable; the secondary display is a Viewsonic flat panel display model VP150.

Multi-media: Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live PCI Bus Mastering sound card. Speaker system is the Cambridge Works FPS2000 Digital speaker system.

IRQ Usage Summary:

00 - System timer
01 - Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural Keyboard
02 - Programmable interrupt controller
04 - Communications Port (COM1)
05 - Creative SB16 Emulation
06 - Standard Floppy Disk Controller
08 - System CMOS/real time clock
09 - IRQ Holder for PCI Steering
09 - 3Com Fast EtherLink XL 10/lOOMb TX Ethernet NIC (3C905B-TX)
10 - IRQ Holder for PCI Steering
10 - Symbios 22910, 21002 PCI SCSI Adapter; 53C896 Device
11 - IRQ Holder for PCI Steering
11 - Matrox Millennium G400 DualHead - English
11 - Creative SB Live!
12 - Microsoft PS/2 Mouse (IntelliPoint)
13 - Numeric data processor
14 - Intel(r) 82371AB/EB/MB PCI to USB Universal Host Controller
14 - IRQ Holder for PCI Steering
15 - Symbios 22910, 21002 PCI SCSI Adapter; 53C896 Device
15 - IRQ Holder for PCI Steering

[whiplash]

Hey Chucky Cheese,

What operating system are you using as I thought only N.T could see and use both CPU's in a dual CPU system.

W..

[moreau]

I would like, at this time, to say, whomever Matrox wishes to crush, let's hope they do it with DualHead enabled, as well as RR-G support.

Thank you

[Chucky Cheese]

whiplash

right now its' win98 but in about 10 days or so it is going to be win2k. i had build 2128 on, and it recognized every thing except the video card, and good ol matrox took care of that with their beta drivers. i couldn't get any updates for win2k, so i dumped it. i did that CPP thing and didn't get rc3. i plan on totally moving over to it as soon as game support gets better.

i read a rant somewhere about people wanting to run games in win2k..."it wasn't made to run games, its a buisiness OS..blah blah", my qusetion is this..do them buisiness apps need directX ??? i know AutoCAD R14 doesn't. if i can run acad and play games on it...i'm in.

my work environment is really multi-homed. primarilly i use QNX for real time image analysis. we have Linux, NT 4 and Open VMS for directory lookup..all chattering over 10-base-15 backbones and 6 T1 lines through 8 HUGE silicon graphic accellerators managed by AIX...that business..

...and then i turn out to be a windows geek!

chucky

[MartinS]

Quake III plays fine in NT anyway as it uses OpenGL.

[The Rock]

Lots of games work perfectly in Win2k. Unreal Tournament, Tiberian Sun, HOMM3, etc. The only 2 games I couldn't get to work were Quake 3 Arena and Battlezone.

The Rock

[Dyre]

As long as Matrox continues the visual quality, has dual (OR QUAD!) head, and decent FPS (close to nVidia/3dfx offerings), im sold on thier next card...

------------------
PIII 450 @ 504
generic BX motherboard
G400 MAX : )
Maxtor 13 gig UDMA 33
Maxtor 13 gig UDMA 66
Creative 36x CD-ROM
HP 2x2x6x CD-RW
64 megs PC100 RAM
128 megs PC133 ECC RAM
NetGear 10/100
Soundblaster 32 AWE
Diamond SupraExpress 56k
Logitech Wireless Desktop (best $50 ive ever spent)
1 92mm Sunon Fan
4 80mm Sunon Fan's

[Borg]

yap !..me to & I still love my G400 babe !..right now I dont realy see any reason for another or next gen card..so long FPS is decent & games runs smoot @ 1024x768x32 & I dont care about Q3 & OGL I like UT much more & it runs PERFECT on my SYS & D3D...

------------------
PIII450@504(fsb@112),P2b,128mb,Matrox Mill-G400 32SH,Diamond MONSTER Sound II ,IntelliMouse Explorer (yahoooo! no fu..hm hm. ball any more ...)

[paulcs]

If the two chip rumors are true, Matrox is not only going for the best visual quality. The have that already with one chip. I think Matrox must be very happy about having, in many situations, the fastest chip of its generation.

We're seeing impressive driver improvements as well. I don't know about any of this "nVidia-killer" business (remember, the G200 was suppose to be the proverbial "Voodoo-killer." Who was responsible for damning the board with that little description?), but I would expect a couple of really fast boards this year. And I'm sure they will have the best image quality in the business as well.

Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net