Introducing Matrox M-Series

[NocturnDragon]

Introducing Matrox M-Series - graphics cards for stretched desktop applications powered by industry's first true QuadHead GPU
New M-Series has more memory and cross-platform flexibility to drive multiple-monitor business applications with exceptional performance.

A series of five new graphics cards that build upon our core multi-monitor graphics technology strengths. Based on a new ASIC that offers native single-chip quad head support with PCI Express (PCIe) x16 performance, these cards are designed specifically to:

• Provide a multiple-monitor user experience in Microsoft® Windows® Vista Aero
• Offer improved performance and features for Windows XP users

http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/press/releases/2008/corpo/mseries/

[Gurm]

I've become more and more convinced that Matrox' new business plan is "let's design products that are really neat, and then price them at a point such that NOBODY WILL BUY THEM". *sigh*

[lowlifecat]

ah, is it 2006 already?

jking aside; i believe deserve a big round of: FINALLY!

[Kruzin]

I have no knowledge/proof of current chips/software, since the beta program ended long ago, and everyone I knew at M is long gone...but when this chip was in it's initial works years ago, it was a given at that time that most of the DX10/11 functions would be handled with software, and the ASIC was going to be pretty much crippled.

I suspect this is still the case, as they are marketing for a specific few niches of business markets, where speed is not a primary concern. They decided long ago that the gamer/home user market was beyond their grasp, and that they would focus on multi-monitor (financial, trade, restaurant, etc) and medical applications. In these markets, cost is not as much a concern, and they can charge what they want for their functionality.

I seriously doubt we will see any MURCers outside of any of these specific groups actually purchase any of these cards...

[Nowhere]

So...you knew about new chips, but haven't told anything to AmigaBlitter?!

[Fluff]

no displayport???

[rylan]

Anything with Displayport gets a big *yawn* from me.

[Umfriend]

Benchmarks, benchmarks!

[Mikko]

Benchmarks, benchmarks!

Yeah, run 3DMark in quad-display mode, please!

[rylan]

Lol!

[bleistift]

I wonder if a Matrox card like a m9120/9125 could replace my GeForce 7600 GS?

In my old PC I had a G550 for years and was very happy with it. 2 years ago I bought a new one with a GF 7600 GS. The main reason was that I wanted a silent card which was able to display the Windows Vista Aero desktop, and the Parhelias and P650/750s did not meet these requirements at that time.

Additionally, my GF7600 is not 100% stable. Sometimes at PC bootup, the TFT is out of sync. At every 30-40th PC start, the Windows boot screen is distorted by 1000s of wrong flickering pixels and the system crashes when it tries to load the graphics driver. Some old games need certain features activated or deactivated in the graphics driver setup to run properly. Some old games have also problems with the displaying of fonts...

Then, the new m 9XXXs would have at least 512 MB RAM and two DVI ports, the current 7600 has only 256 MB, and one DVI and one VGA port...

Most of the time I need a GFX card for Office, Internet, but occasionally I also use ArcGIS, AutoCAD, Corel Draw or Photoshop... A good (DOS)text mode (better than the 7600's) would also important, because I'm a FreePascal fan... Sometimes I play old games like Sim City 4, Trains & Trucks Tycoon, Bomberman, Crimson Skies (mostly DX7). These titles should run stable at acceptable framerates without display errors or having to tweak driver settings ...

It would be fine if I could get a kind of an updated, stable G550 with outstanding 2D capabilities, DX9-support and no annoying bugs as my GeForce...

But some 3d Mark results would be also interesting, of course...
I think the m9125 x16 would be more interesting for me because of the higher resolutions. Are there other differences to the 9120?
Do the m-cards support DX9 or even DX 10?
What is this connector on the left upper side of the PCB for, SLI? *LOL*

[Mehen]

Well I think the Parhelia is just dx 8.1. It does say it has Vista/Aero support though if that counts for anything.