Doing a Parhelia or How to Break Promises

[Maggi]

Just in case anybody missed it, the Parhelia has been advertised since day one for its DirectX 9 Quad Vertex Shader Array.

Obviously this includes full support of Vertex Shaders V2.0, but until today they not only refused to put support for that into their drivers, but instead they made a very clever move last night, by taking out all mentioning fo DirectX 9 from their pages !

As a reference, I'd like to add a few links to Matrox own forum and two threads in our halls, here and here

I'd like everybody to comment on this smart marketing move and if anybody is really willing to spent another dime for this great company.

[[GDI]Raptor]

This is a very bad move from Matrox, just change the spesifications.... they should atleast send a mail out to the customers and tell why they are doing this!

[livEcruM]

Personally, after this latest move by them, I hope they burn in hell.

[a_h]

I don't think this was a smart move, but I have never understood the importance of being only half directx9-compliant.

Without pixel shader 2.0 no game will use the directx9-renderpath anyway - why should the developers care too much about a vender with 1% market share?

However the P just doesn't have enough juice to drive real Directx9 games in their full glory anyway (hey this card is more than 1 year old!!).

But maybe this is a smart move - are they preparing a dx9-compliant card?

So that the P isn't a rival in this respect?

Greets, Hannes

(yes I own a Parhelia)

[sparky001]

Gee isn't it so good that matrox is so small now that they can do this and get away with it.

Imagine if the 9700 came out and was advertised as DX9 (which it was) when DX9 was not even out. Then when DX9 came out they removed all branding of the card being DX9 in the first place. They would be crucified for that.

I am seriously considering not purchasing a P750. The other canadian is looking better by the day.

[Nicram]

Hehe L:ike i'm say somewhere already. The marketing team in matrox should be changed to someone else

[FormerEx-SalesSoup]

Originally posted by Nicram
Hehe L:ike i'm say somewhere already. The marketing team in matrox should be changed to someone else

[DGhost]

let me see... first there was the banding problem... then there was the clock speed issues... then there was DX9 drivers... in each and every one of these cases they have insisted that there is no problem and proceeded to cover it up. jeez. what else is there?

before i decided that i simply wouldn't be buying a high end Matrox part because of support issues. now i don't think i will ever buy a Matrox part again, nor will i recommend that people buy Matrox. hell, i'll recommend that they buy an ATI product instead. ATI is at least fessing up when they have an issue and taking care of the problem.

getting a laywer involved? i kind of doubt that would do too much.

wanting my money back? i was for the most part pleased with the Parhelia, and still don't really see a reason to demand my money back.

i do however wish i had never purchased it, as it turned out that i bought an expensive headache.

Ex-SalesSoup and Haig - I am sorry that you guys have to get the brunt of us whiney, bitchy customers. You are the only part of Matrox that many people will ever see, and you do your jobs very well. you guys still rule and i do believe that if you two had any say things would probably be different at the moment.

[Maggi]

Good words, DGhost !

Originally posted by Nicram
Hehe L:ike i'm say somewhere already. The marketing team in matrox should be changed to someone else

I doubt that this is a marketing decision, but rather done by product management ... so don't bash the wrong people, please !

[DentyCracker]

I voted I don't care. Why? Because I bought a Parhelia and am more or less satisfied with it. It plays the games I play well enough for me, yes it was a bit expensive but my eyes are thanking me for it. I never really buy into the marketing hype, I evaluate then buy the card I think will best cater to my needs now and for probably the next year or two.

[GNEP]

I'm pretty much in agreement with Denty here.

[lecter]

I voted #1 before seeing the last option in the poll... so yeah, basically, I don't care. I think the main reason for the bitching is that this is the only gaming card Matrox has and people are focusing all their whining on it...it's old, people, this card should not be compared with modern ones. The point is, I've done all my work&play very well on this card for the past 15 months and even though Matrox has been traditionally very pricey, I wouldn't change it for a GeForce4 if I could go back in time. It's a very bad value-for-money vidcard, but it's got enough value to satisfy me.

[Maggi]

nope, I complain, because they made promises and now they decided not to fullfill them.

Look at it this way:

You bought a Porsche Turbo, but found out the Turbo is deactivated.
You go to your dealer and ask him to enable it, but he just replies, there would be no need for it, since the car would be fast enough anyways, you wouldn't feel a difference, and there wouldn't be any streets available that would allow you to drive that fast as well.

See my point ?

[rylan]

Its not that we're bitching its the only gaming card... its because the specs magically changed from when the card was released and from when a lot of people made their decision to purchase it based on the featureset... not on some 10% speed margin which can give you a retail slower than a bulk card, and with missing features and noticable display artifacts.

[borat]

Originally posted by Nicram
Hehe L:ike i'm say somewhere already. The marketing team in matrox should be changed to someone else

its not a marketing issue, its whoever sanctions retail cards to be sold at less than bulk speeds, that comes from the top, who cares what the clock speeds are really as long as they are informed about them before they buy, that way you could make a proper decision on it. if it cant make 220/550 then it should be sold as bulk, if it cant make 200/500 then it should be sold as lite where you take your chances with anything as low as 180/450.