Interview with Sebastian from Matrox

[red2]

Mid-sized? Matrox is TWICE the size of Nvidia! Matrox probably has enough of a cash reserve to buy out Nvidia and maybe even 3dfx. Matrox makes a fortune selling to businesses, remember about 90% of their sales
are from OEM's, not gamers.

[Strider]

Like others, I have no desire to see a Matrox 6 month product cycle. However, they are now beyond a 12 month cycle. For OEM and bussiness apps there is nothing wrong with this. But if you are expecting more from Matrox than a work card with games on the side, this delay becomes significant.

If Matrox wants to release "gaming cards" 1.5 years appart, those cards need to be more than simply competitive (speed wise) with the competition at the time of release. They need to kick some serious butt to ensure performance in games will remain high enough until the next generation card comes along.

[DuRaNgO]

Why would I take the time to pick just the right vid card only to throw it out (along with the $200-300 I spent on it) because they have something new that doesn't even have any supported titles on the market until they release two more versions of the card?
jim

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[HollyBerri]

I like the fact that a Matrox card lasts through at least 2 upgrade cycles (3 if you don't mind some periods of intense pain and ridicule).

But I have to admit, I am starting to feel the urge to upgrade... and there's nothing worth looking at (to me), but for the nVidia roster, which 1) has lost its 'new card' shine by now and 2) has nothing to offer me but greater speed, which doesn't make me all trembly, frankly.

I really wish that Matrox would leak just a little something, and getting their R&D cycle down to... oh, maybe 9 months or so wouldn't hurt either (though I'd take 12 if they stuck to it)....

Was it just me, or did McDougall say even less than nothing in that interview? What was the <u>point</u> of it? Why did he even agree to do it? Mr. Barna must have stomped around for days, trying to find something worth printing in that drivel....

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Holly

[Himself]

Basically Matrox doesn't want to say anything, yet they don't want to be forgotten about either, hence the sweet nothings from the "PR specialist". Geez, I think Matrox is about as exciting to monitor as Al Gore in a poker game.

[drzaius]

Himself
although this is a little late in the thread but i;ll say it anyway.

but you see what i'm getting at: i'm sure Matrox) would like to have a new product every 6 months, but the performance gains would be minimal (like Nvidia) and they would have spent a bundle on getting that card out the door even if it wasn't much better then it's predicesor.

but i do admit that Matrox would build a much bigger fan and retail base if the released cards closer together, maybe an 8 month product cycle but then again if the owners are happy with their OEM market then that their choice.

does everyone here relize that if Matrox was a corperation and sold stocks, we could all buy them and then we'd be able to sit in on all there meetings and find out what's happening
but they don't so..

[Pace]

Hey red2, have you got any figures for OEM and retail market shares? I've been looking for a while but haven't seen them. Although ATi and Matrox probably own the OEM market NVIDIA (and 3dfx too I suppose) are selling to the high profit margin market and even less sales here means quite a bit of profit - add to that a small share of OEM and I'd think that NVIDIA are making more than half of what Matrox make - even is they are in fact smaller.

Paul.

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[paulcs]

I'm with Holly. I'm getting itchy for new product from Matrox. It's been over a year since the last chip, and they haven't announced the G800 yet.

Figure some time between the product announcement and announced ship date, the inevitable delay between the announced ship date and the actual ship date (Matrox's announced ship dates have traditionally been "optimistic"), the time between the first shipments and when we actually begin seeing them on the shelves ...

It could be a while before my itch is stratched.

Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net

[Pace]

I know the feeling Paul! I got all excited about replacing my G200 with that new G400 - and I decided to go for the MAX too - so went and ordered my 19" monitor (Iiyama VMPro450) and the MAX - waiting, waiting...anyway, I eventually had to cancel the MAX order and get the monitor on it's own. I've now ended up with a TNT2 but can't wait to get back to Matrox - and get my 15" monitor back in use!

Paul.

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[red2]

Pace: I do not have the figures right now and Matrox isn't public so they do not have to and generally do not give away profit amounts. I get it from estimates from other sources (which I haven't looked at in awhile). Anyhow, the retail market is really very small. Think of all the people that buy computers from the junk computer manufacturing consortium [Gateway, Dell, Packard Bell (now deceased), etc.] as opposed to retail shops. I know people at UPS and they say that most of the computers that come down through the system are from Gateway and Dell and not as many for the shops. So even if there is a higher profit margin on the retail, the volume of OEM more than makes up for it. Example:

1,000,000 units OEM x $10 profit= $10 mil
400,000 units retail x $20 profit = $8 mil

And this is being generous with the amount of retail sales.

[Pace]

Ok thanks Red - I know that Matrox wont have to give out profit details but I was hoping for an independent survey or something that gives oem market share.

Paul.

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[Arsa]

1) NVidia began to make their own cards recently. Quadro 2 based though.
2) Matrox tries to get to Taiwan manufacturers to make them use G400 etc.
Which is not bad IMHO (that is from consumer point of view). You want good quality - you buy Matrox G400, you want even better price - you buy somebody's G400. That can change of cource ;-)
3) Now, I bought G400 for office because it's good for office. Any other cards that are actualy good for it??? (I mean in that price range. And I mean that it's hard to convince somebody that I urgently need 150 fps in Quake ;-). Keep in mind that most office people use i810 for now.)