VigilAnt Rant and Some Observations

[Chief_Inspector]

"I'd guess rather empty by the sounds of all the lay offs."

I heard there's more coming this month and then again in Feb.

CI

[SoBizarre]

Gee, it looks like I missed some episodes here. What's with that <<Maxtor Users Resource Center>> stuff in Ant's signature? Boy, is he deeply frustrated or what...

Cheers,
SB

[Maggi]

Originally posted by Chief_Inspector
"I'd guess rather empty by the sounds of all the lay offs."

I heard there's more coming this month and then again in Feb.

CI

even more layoffs ?

[Ant]

Finally, it's been there 4 months and nobody spotted my little joke

Your prize of a m3D card is winging its way to you

Originally posted by SoBizarre
Gee, it looks like I missed some episodes here. What's with that <<Maxtor Users Resource Center>> stuff in Ant's signature? Boy, is he deeply frustated or what...

Cheers,
SB

[GNEP]

That's 'cos you haven't been posting enough over the last few months Ant...

[thop]

i did, http://forums.murc.ws/showthread.php...113#post316113

ironically i was too subtle about so that nobody noticed that i noticed it where my m3d ?

[Pace]

Here, have mine. Oh wait, I don't have one. Lucky you!

[jmcgoblue]

Originally posted by thop
i already said it many times: release a 64MB P with SH at a competitive price (~170$?)! the vast majority of users don't even run DH, let alone TH.

Who would pay $170 for a 64MB P with SH, when a 128MB Ti4200 with DH can be bought for $140? I suspect that this configuration would sell even worse than the current P. If you look at the way Matrox markets the P, it's ALL about the triple head, without that there isn't much to offer. I know that the card adds other features such as 10 bit color, but that's not much of a selling point for the mainstream/OEM market.

If you want to talk about image quality, I can tell you that Nvidia has nearly caught up with Matrox in the GF 4 Ti series. I currently have a Ti4200 manufactured by Leadtek & the primary display quality is nearly identical to that of the G400 card I used to have. The secondary display is slightly less sharp, but I wouldn't say that it's noticeably fuzzy. Matrox cannot count on image quality as a point of differentiation any more, IMO.

I was really looking forward to the Parhelia, in fact I even purchased a 3rd display in anticipation, but given all of the issues around the card and the premium price, I've decided to hold off on the upgrade. I really hope that Matrox is able to survive and get their act together with the pitou, I like Matrox for their unique focus on quality and innovation, and don't want to see them dissappear. That would be bad for everyone.

[DGhost]

dropping dualhead is a bad idea on any level of cards. this is honestly the strongest thing that Matrox has going for them with the Parhelia, and the cost difference is negligable.

The Parhelia, while a very good card, is simply priced for the wrong market. Because of its pricing (and marketing) it will never succeed like we all want it to.

There is more to the computer industry than the enthusiast market....

[GNEP]

I maintain my view from previous threads - there is definitely a market for a cheaper triplehead implementation that needs zero 3D ability - the financial/trading floor market.

However I suspect that throwing together a system with cheap PCI cards might be more sensible... or use an MMS card (these sales would be cannibalised).

But still, it would be a place to get rid of some of the stockpile

[DGhost]

If they really wanted to take the market, they would have to adapt. They would need to offer a superior feature set, similar or better peformance, and still have it priced reasonably. in order to truely be competative the price would have to be lower than that of their competetors.

Look at AMD vs Intel. Look at 3Dfx vs. NVidia. Both are instances where the market leader has been successfully challenged by another company who was willing to throw every feature they could into their product, and price it lower than what the existing products are. and too boot it increased their performance by a large margine.

there are more examples than just those two...

I personally say its about time to start a pricewar... I would love it if high end 3d accelerators dropped in price.. $300 or $400 for these things is reduculous anymore. that is more than any other part in most systems now days, unless you are buying Intel.

buuttt... i doubt Matrox knows how to be competetive anymore... if they tried it they would have their ass handed back to them by both ATI and NVidia...

[ganyaik]

VigilAnt: Was the info posted on the main page the one that you were waiting to get approval for? No offense here, I'm just curious.
NV30 is about to be priced at ~400$ once it finally hits the shelves. Matrox please do something to be competitive! Don't you want my money(and a lots of others' too)? Give us a _good_ card, so that I can retire my G200... It's quite old and I don't wanna put anything else in my sys that I'm less satisfied with then I was with my G200 in '98...

[thop]

jmcgoblue, do you run 1600x1200? nvidia is catching up, but there is still a noticeable difference.

[jmcgoblue]

thop, actually I run at 1024x768 (only 17" monitors...)

I definitely agree that matrox still has the best output, particularly at high resolutions, but for the mainstream user, the gap is closing (assuming that most mainstream users don't do 1600x1200)

[Ryu Connor]

I definitely agree that matrox still has the best output, particularly at high resolutions

Except when it's banding.

I wouldn't recommend anyone buy a Parhelia. The FAA is broke, the anisotropic filtering is limited to 2-Tap, the analog quality falters when using 3D, it's drivers are quirky, and it's performance inconsistent and sometimes subpar.

An ATI 7500 gives it a run for the money as a better card in terms of FSAA, AF, analog signal quality, drivers, and performance. Not to mention the 7500 ships with the right damn clockspeed out of the box. The 7500 is what? Two years old?

I'm glad I didn't have to pay for this Parhelia out of pocket. Expect the OED to notate the word half-ass with the description of Matrox Parhelia in the next revision.