'Fusion' cards

[Storm]

There has to be more to it though. TnL and skinning is something the Normal G800 might have.. what about the Fusion Plus F800?? There must me more to it.

[AlgoRhythm]

Sheesh, you guys went nuts over the weekend...

I remember someone saying a while back that Matrox wouldn't do T&L until DirectX had better support for it.
Well, DX8 has a lot better support for it, plus the following (in other words, I'm going to take a shot that Matrox would be stupid not to support the new features).

1. On chip T&L processing...
2. Programmable Pixel shader...
3. Programmable Vertex shader...
4. Vertex skinning...

Or maybe fusion is just in the new AGPPro form factor...

AlgoRhythm

[DuRaNgO]

"High-Bandwidth Differential Interconnect"

[DOG]

How about this:
Matrox Fusion G800i .. 2 interconnected G800 chips with embedded FCRAM (for starters)

[Pace]

Just thought I'd add our Italian friend's comment to the fray:

Originally posted by Drizzt

Ok, all this speaking of the new card, and the BB telling we're going the wrong way.
Now, this is all I can see:
We are expecting a super powerful card with very powerful fill rate and a T&L engine that blows away any other vidcard.
We all know that for having this, we need a new powerful memory subsystem.

Well, what we all are waiting is a Geforce Card with Matrox stamped on.

Now, we all know that Matrox does whatever it wants: "The market is going that direction? Naaahhh, we want to go in the other."
So, let's start thinking really a different way.

First, the name really means nothing for me. I own a "Millennium" G400. First, G400 says nothing about the card. Second, which features are indicated from "Millennium"? That the card will be 1000 bit? That will be the fastest card 'till 3000 d.c.?
No, it's simply a name. Like "Fusion". Sounds good, uh? Well, almost for me "Radeon" means nothing. And I prefere a card named "Fusion" that "Radeon" or "GeForce" (the most ridiculous name I have heard for so long). No one have ever used an Hercules card as a lever to raise amountain, huh?

This is for me the only reason we are going the wrong way; we've started from a name that means almost nothing and built a new incredible card...

On the other way, we are however allowed to dream.
Well then, let's play the game. What would be a different way to think???

And finally:
The BB can say anything, even the truth, 'cause we all knows that they are under NDA and we'll never believe a single word from them...
This makes the whole thing really funny!!

I just thought I'd put it in this slightly 'hotter' thread than his 'cold' one. And let's just say that by hot I mean popular .

Paul.

[Guardian]

To all you guys who mention NDA's and normaly beta test drivers for Matrox - YOU know who you are!!!

Do they mind you helping along with guessing games on this forum... e.g. "your definatly cold, think totally differant" etc.. Not that im complaining, I want to know as much as the next MURCER.

Also I wonder if you guys just know the specs etc or have seen the fusion in action...

If you know whats going on Ant, it must be awkward as you still have to post guessing news items on the site....

Anyway hope you guys could shed some light on my pondering, and keep up the good work.

[Himself]

Maggi,

Cool, the Eye3d glasses are kinda pricey to me, compared to the next to free Asus glasses and Revelator's out there. Last I check they were around $200 US (converted form hong kong dollars for the wired version), compare that to around $24 for the Asus glasses and around $40 for the Elsa glasses.

What you are paying for is the software and the vga passthrough, you wouldn't need either if the video card supported a 3D vesa plug. I think the video card drivers should be the one supporting automatic 3D instead of relying on third party hacks that interpret Z values. It's also a lot easier to do page flipping with the video card controlling the shutters itself.

My $02


[This message has been edited by Himself (edited 07 August 2000).]

[Himself]

Oh, I don't suppose fusion could be referring to some el crappo motherboard integration solution ala the via/savage 4 northbridge.

[Ali]

Ok, we have:
1) G800 AGP
2) G800 Fusion AGP
3) G800 Fusion Plus AGP

Could we guess that they are along the same lines as Intel CPUs?

Ie. The G800APG has no intergrated RAM (cache), the Fusion has a little (like 1 or 2 MB) and the Fusion Plus has lots, like about 9MBs.

That would follow the celeron, the celeronA and the Xeon CPUs. We all know the speed differences of these CPUs, and the price difference.

Matrox would be hard pressed to sell G800s with lots of intergrated cache to the masses. Think of the price! So they would make different versions. That would also explain the G450 Fusion etc.

Ali

[Storm]

(Himself) It better not.. I think people have learned that having your videocard permanently integrated into the motherboard does NOT fly for a whole number of reasons.

I think Drizzt was on the right track when he said that the name Fusion has nothing to do with fusing things together. If it were, then what on earth would Orion mean? Sure Fusion means putting things together sometimes (eg. Maya Fusion - video compositing software.. fusing clips together) but that's not the case with Matrox.

We really need someone to confirm or deny our thoughts though. We're just speculating otherwise.

=Storm=

[This message has been edited by Storm (edited 07 August 2000).]

[Jorden]

The only unconventional thing I can add is that Matrox is making it's own integrated PC now. So it's a Fusion 450 and a Fusion Plus 800, with integrated CPU(s), sound, G450 or G800 video, harddrive, memory and monitor, all in one package, like the X-Box and the iMac ...

Jord.

[This message has been edited by Jorden (edited 07 August 2000).]

[HollyBerri]

Now, if rearranging "Matrox" is a clue, then the fact that one construction is recognizeable--MAXTOR-- seems like it ought to be significant.

Though the only idea that comes to me I rather hope is not the case, as the products currently doing this have not caught on as they deserve....

Could it be a PC VCR with dedicated HDD, like the Replay and the Phillips box (whatever it's called)?

I have seen and used the Replay, and it's fabulous... but it's not selling in the U.S. at least, so why would Matrox make one? Unless it was for your PC instead of your TV....? <u>That</u> would be a little different, and might sell....

Other things I wonder: I think that the 'keyword' that was used successfully is...integrated.

But what if the integration, the fusion was not part of the product, per se, but part of it's creation or manufacture? What I mean is, maybe the fusion is between BitBoysOy and Matrox, or Wicked3D (Metabyte, wasn't it?) and Matrox, or Rendition and Matrox-- or some small team that left any of these organizations-- and this was the first product of the 'fused' organization?

'We're all thinking about what a graphics card company should produce...'

Well I for one hope that we are still talking about something resembling a video dispay adapter for the PC, but what might we be talking about if it wasn't? What might <u>not</u> be such a thing but still be something that we, current users, would be "blown away by"??

Any hope of warmth anywhere in there? Maybe??

------------------------
Holly

[Maggi]

nope dZeus ...

FSAA is usually done like this:

Render the according picture in oversize, blur it, scale it down to actual screen resolution.

For example 2xFSAA in 800x600 is rendering it in 1600x1200, blurs it slightly and then scales it down to 800x600 before putting it onto your screen.

Cheers,
Maggi

PS: Did you see Ant's news about the G450i & G800i ?
I guess that 'i' stands for injection ... LOL

[skeoch]

or maggi there is the voodoo technique of jittered samples, which takes multiple images tilted slightly in randomised directions then makes a composite image, and displays it.

By all accounts a better method, but still IMHO not ready yet.

[Maggi]

Thanx for input, Skeoch !

I guess that version is utilizing 3dfx' T-Buffer ?

Cheers,
Maggi