Shiny Spots And Some Email Responses

[OasisPlaces]

Originally posted by DGhost
What i fear is that all of us bitching and whining over here and calling for the head of the pres and for Haig to take his place could possibly be misconstrued as Haig's little project to hate management, etc, and could wind up with upper management really pissed off at him...

This is a fairly volatile situation, and lets leave Haig out of this as much as possible... he is just another human being who currently has a job, and i would preferably like it to stay that way, plstks... he does a damn good job and really does know the pulse of the customers, and without him running technical support dealing with Matrox would be worse than dealing with ATI...

I completely agree.. I was just so caught off guard to
see that line in the post. Haig's been one of the most helpful people from Matrox. He's the head of support, and keeps doing
the job of a regular support person, along with the managerial duties.. and he even posts out of
work hours. So he's even helping just out of pure kindness

[rubank]

This was posted by Julgransfot in the beginning of March 2002 (when the P rumours were hot).

You could almost think he knew what he was talking about

I know many of you have high hopes for an almost-here new M card, especially after VigilAnts article.
But you should ask yourself, who will help Matrox manufacture, market, distribute and sell these supposed-to-be wonders? You do realize that Matrox doesn´t have the financial muscles or the production capabilities to pull this off on their own, don´t you? Remember how they had obvious problems to deliver the G400/MAX cards and they´re certainly not in better shape now.

To have a reasonable return on the huge investment in R&D that the alleged products must have taken (not to mention the effort and cost of developing true professional drivers for the high-end workstation market some of these cards are said to focus on) M needs to sell a lot of cards, at high price. This will take some considerable marketing. It´s new grounds for Matrox, it´s not exactly famous for it´s pro OGL cards like 3D Labs, FireGL et al.

And M is also said to re-enter the high-end gaming/prosumer market. Well, then it must be made clear that this is no easy task. Above all, it will take humongous marketing costs and efforts – keep in mind that Matrox is practically absent here today. It´ll have to start from scratch to build itself the necessary position. The current fan-base is way too small.
Not even 3D Labs pulled it off in this market segment, despite well-earned reputation for high quality hardware and drivers, and some good technology. And 3D Labs is a public company, with the benefits of funding that this gives. And only other public companies, nVidia and ATI have had the strength to make it to the top. You also know at what cost (the SEC hounding nVidia). nVidia seized an opportunity when no one else seemed to it take really seriously, when 3D was only taking off, and Ati wouldn´t have made it this far starting from a less dominant position.

Matrox had it´s moment of opportunity a while after the G400 series launch, it had momentum in the marketplace. Something it today sorely lacks. I´m afraid M is firmly in the trap, and no one is setting it lose. No way Matrox will pull it off on their own.

Sure. Matrox has it´s place, it´s market. The business/financial/scientific markets with their special needs and preferences, the low-end OEM market (the standard office boxes), but according to the rumours Matrox is now after something else, something much, much more demanding than just catering to your loyals.

I can´t emphasize it enough: successful launch at multiple market segments consumes enormous resources in production, marketing, sales and distribution. .

[mutz]

...there is also something called industrial espionage, aka market research, and at any given moment there may be four or five "researchers" lurking and smirking around MURC, picking up any tidbits they can missuse. This may also be a good reason M keeps silent, which is wise...

[FormerEx-SalesSoup]

what many of you are forgetting is that Matrox was in serious trouble several years ago, when the delay of the G200 caused massive losses in potential sales. at that time, there was a huge round of layoffs, and by the time G200 came, it could not compete with competitive offerings. meanwhile, morale was dismal, there weren't enough bodies to weather the storm and not much of a glimmer of hope for a "saviour" to be released.

Matrox survived then and it will survive now, regardless of whether NVidia and ATI are offering products that are considerably faster (in 3D). a change in focus and a slow progression into the right strategy is currently being implemented, and I am 100% confident that this rut will end up being just another bump in the road that Matrox will once again surpass.

As much as most of you want Matrox to become the David that defeats the two Goliaths, that's not going to happen. this still doesn't mean that Matrox cannot be successful and profitable, it just means that we need to get back to basics.

[CaineTanathos]

Originally posted by DGhost
What i fear is that all of us bitching and whining over here and calling for the head of the pres and for Haig to take his place could possibly be misconstrued as Haig's little project to hate management, etc, and could wind up with upper management really pissed off at him...

This is a fairly volatile situation, and lets leave Haig out of this as much as possible... he is just another human being who currently has a job, and i would preferably like it to stay that way, plstks... he does a damn good job and really does know the pulse of the customers, and without him running technical support dealing with Matrox would be worse than dealing with ATI...

Yep I agree too
---
OasisPlaces:"I would really like that person to clarify this a bit, and also where are the 9x drivers for parhelia?? "

Can I ask what the hell thats doing here?? Next year even Microsoft won't support windows 98 anymore. and when you want drivers for windows 98 (vxd) you need to redesign/program them.

[GNEP]

Originally posted by ex-SalesSoup
this still doesn't mean that Matrox cannot be successful and profitable, it just means that we need to get back to basics.

You mean like sorting out *ahem* 2d and 3d quality issues? (You know what I mean)

(And don't worry soupy - the mud's not for you personally!)

Gnep

[DGhost]

ahh, getting back to basics... now which basics... the ones where they have innovations, like video ram, or the first multi display video card back in 1979? or the basics that defined Matrox has having superior quality and feature sets while maintaining superior performance with their products. there are way too many basics that have pretty much been ignored in the last 2 years, ever since the G450... and the Parhelia certainly does not change this trend at all... it has some fairly innovative features on it, yes, but nothing that is a killer app or something that is going to be responsible for clear market dominance or anything...

don't take it personally, andi do agree with you that Matrox will survive no matter what, in one way or another... that doesn't change the fact that MGA is sick and definately on the wrong track...

as you have stated it has survived before, but only with the release of a product that was superior over the offerings from the other companies in pretty much every way - it was faster, it looked better, it had better drivers, and it worked in pretty much every computer that you could put it into. If Matrox had released the equivilent of a G450 after the G200, and then the equivilent of the G550, there is no way they could ever be taken seriously in the market again. they would be viewed like Trident, S3 or SiS's integrated graphics groups are viewed right now.

plus... as you stated its happened before, and from the way things are going i would have to say that it was fairly lucky that the G400 came around when it did... if the Parhelia is equivilent to the G200 (which everything so far makes the situations similar), is the same thing gonna happen yet again... is Matrox gonna keep getting lucky at the right times, just enough to stay in the market, and then screw things up for a while after.... and get lucky again...

[Mafz]

DGhost, You think that releasing the G400 at the time it was released was lucky? Do you seriously think that designing a graphics chip with millions of transistors in it and a lot of innovative features like dual-head and bump mapping, which are today's standards, as anything to do with luck? Well, I don't.

I agree with Soupy that actual situation of Matrox is "kinda" similar to G200 times. Parhelia is the first revision of their new generation of graphics chip, just like G200 was, and I'm sure that Matrox talented engineers will come up with something great in the future. But don't ask them to be like ATI and NVidia because Matrox is a very different company.

With that said, I agree that they have to keep working hard and release some new product soon(tm) because today's competition is much harder that what it was 3 years ago.

[DGhost]

well... yes, but not in the way you think i do. i was referring to when it was released in terms of the market...

yes i understand the compexities involved in designing such a product...

my comment was intended to convey my belief that if they released the G400 any later (or possibly even earlier, as it could have been overshadowed by the 3Dfx cards or the Nvidia marketing machine) and it could have flopped in terms of market success... if it hadn't have succeed at that point in time the problems for matrox would have probably been compounded...

[Slougi]

Wasn't G200 based on the G100?

[knirfie]

ehhm, no, i believe the G100 produductiva-whateveritwascalled, was just a step inbetween, to fill the time gap between millenium 2 and G200 (and it sucked as hell in 3d).

[3dfx]

Ok I think ppl have to give Matrox a break, it's trying it's best to re-familiarise itself with a market that it has been out of for several years Ok so it may not be as fast as the ATI and Nvidia incarnation and I'll admit that both the Geforce 4 and the Radeon 9700 have really impressed me but I still like the Parhelia. It's just something about it, it's almost like the conisuers 3dcard as you almost feel special ..lol "oh I have a Parhelia" Like a Razer Boomslang did for mouses. I mean lets be honest that you are unlikely to need anymore than the Parhelia for a while. I mean ppl are still using there G400's for christ sake ..lol I mean even Voodoo 5's can still pack a punch. I just think ppl get to consious of 3dmark scores and fps in Quake 3 etc. PLz tell me the difference between 150 fps and 175 fps(25 fps...lol but what I mean is that it seems like a massive leap but really it doesn't make any real difference. Infact I think you may also find that in some cases you'll get a better ping if you have a framerate around 55 which is by the way more than enough. Dammit 30 is more than enough I mean I've always gone with the not so obvious choices, like a voodoo 5(not the fastest, but the quality kicked any Radeon or Geforces ASS at the time) I can say this as I've owned pretty much every 3d card that has come in the last few years. Oh and let me tell you up until recently I've had more problems with games and software with ATI cards than any other. Ok so Nvidia drivers are the Gold standard, and games run fast but I think the quality is lacking. I mean I would rather play Unreal looking absolutely gorgeus at 35 fps than jaggy and crap at 150fps but thats just me and nothing beats Matrox's hand on techy.

[moreau]

Originally posted by knirfie
ehhm, no, i believe the G100 produductiva-whateveritwascalled, was just a step inbetween, to fill the time gap between millenium 2 and G200 (and it sucked as hell in 3d).

IIRC, the G100 and G200 were released simulatneously. They were based on the same core, except that the G100 had the 3D features of the core disabled.

I have often looked for G100 PCI cards in the past, when I've needed 2D only cards with exceptionally high image quality at high res. Unfortunately, there aren't many to be found, as few were pushed into the consumer market back in the day.

I still think that my G200 AGP was the best looking video card I've ever owned. ;-)

[knirfie]

here in the netherlands the G100 was available a few months earlier then the G200, thats why i had one for 2½ months. I'm sure of it, use of same core I know nothing about.

[FormerEx-SalesSoup]

Originally posted by 3dfx
Ok I think ppl have to give Matrox a break, it's trying it's best to re-familiarise itself with a market that it has been out of for several years Ok so it may not be as fast as the ATI and Nvidia incarnation and I'll admit that both the Geforce 4 and the Radeon 9700 have really impressed me but I still like the Parhelia. It's just something about it, it's almost like the conisuers 3dcard as you almost feel special ..lol "oh I have a Parhelia" Like a Razer Boomslang did for mouses. I mean lets be honest that you are unlikely to need anymore than the Parhelia for a while. I mean ppl are still using there G400's for christ sake ..lol I mean even Voodoo 5's can still pack a punch. I just think ppl get to consious of 3dmark scores and fps in Quake 3 etc. PLz tell me the difference between 150 fps and 175 fps(25 fps...lol but what I mean is that it seems like a massive leap but really it doesn't make any real difference. Infact I think you may also find that in some cases you'll get a better ping if you have a framerate around 55 which is by the way more than enough. Dammit 30 is more than enough I mean I've always gone with the not so obvious choices, like a voodoo 5(not the fastest, but the quality kicked any Radeon or Geforces ASS at the time) I can say this as I've owned pretty much every 3d card that has come in the last few years. Oh and let me tell you up until recently I've had more problems with games and software with ATI cards than any other. Ok so Nvidia drivers are the Gold standard, and games run fast but I think the quality is lacking. I mean I would rather play Unreal looking absolutely gorgeus at 35 fps than jaggy and crap at 150fps but thats just me and nothing beats Matrox's hand on techy.

two thumbs up