A gentle Rant about Matrox...with a purpose. Maybe Haig is flexing some muscle??

[Bixler]

I'm sure that most of you would agree that the natives are getting restless...Personally, my needs are getting met, I'm not going W2K in the near future, and I've found out how to make my rig run so much better due to the help of this community.

But I do know how to read, and it is clear that the issue of an increasing lack of legacy support for older hardware and the extremely large customer base that higher-ups within Matrox have coldly decided to leave behind have done some serious damage to this venerable manufacturer's reputation. Also, the lack of information and slowness of new product roll-out are hurting Matrox competitively.

All apparently without any real consequences.

I've watched this situation continue to deteriorate and it apparently has no end.

Here's what is clear to me.

1. The magnificent turnaround that Haig has implemented at Matrox Tech Support is a thing of beauty.

2. This same turnaround has, in a very insidious way, created some problems for us as end users. --Haig and his team have remained so open to communication and responsive that they have, in a way, allowed truly responsible parties at Matrox to get away with some really cynical moves. Nobody else responds, so we all figure that Tech Support is the place to go to get things done.

NOT SO!

If you care to check over where the 'action' with troubled customers is, go here:
http://forum.matrox.com/cgi-bin/mgaf...r=13&SUBMIT=Go

What you will notice, if you look carefully, is that this forum is no longer moderated by Matrox Tech Support. I asked myself "why"? My answer is that Tech Support is sick of fielding the abuse from the installed base of customers out there who are demanding legacy support.
What does this mean? Maybe they have effectively forced SOMEONE ELSE to handle these issues, and here's where our opportunity lies.
For the brief amount of time that this forum will stay available, every user who would like to speak to someone 'upstairs' has the opportunity. Just post in to the forum linked above and speak your mind.
Marketing can no longer hide behind Tech Support when it comes to what's happening out in the real world to this company's excellent but deteriorating reputation.

Get your torches out, hone your logic, and for God's sake post in with what you want!


[This message has been edited by Bixler (edited 21 October 2000).]

[Brian R.]

I find it logical that Marketing would host a forum on requested features. TS cannot influence marketing. I think Marketing is one of the highest parts of the organization. The section where the people making the decisions turn for guidance about future projects. I doubt Haig placed the responsibility for this forum in Marketing's hands. More likely, it was taken from him kicking and screaming by the VP of Marketing.

I'm just guessing - but a possibility

[GinoCyber]

Something must have happened because why in the world would marketing want to handle a forum full of complaints and what the hell is Tech Marketing?

Bix - I'll bet you a beer that these marketing peeps are going to delete every complaint on that forum.

Ciao

[This message has been edited by GinoCyber (edited 21 October 2000).]

[Bixler]

Gino:

You may be right...but they won't delete them before they read them.

Good things are going to result.

[GinoCyber]

They are either the most boneheaded people on earth or they are simply not reading their forum.

Ciao

[Gurm]

This is the way I see it:

Matrox:

Killer technology. Ok driver writers (albeit slow). Completely loony marketing department.

ATI:

Good technology. Lousy driver writers. Pretty good marketing department.

3dfx:

Average technology. Average driver writers. GREAT marketing department.

nVidia:

Average technology. Hit-or-miss driver writers. Small marketing department (they only sell chips, after all).

I've NEVER understood Matrox's marketing strategies.

- Gurm

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Listen up, you primitive screwheads! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! Etc. etc.

[Bursar]

I think the rot for 3DFX set in when they decided to stop selling their chipsets and start manufacturing the cards themselves.

Apart from the Glide stuff, there isn't really anything else that stands out about them.

ATi have had some truly awful products in the past, but they are picking up, and I think that soon they are going to be seriously challenging Nvidia for the 3D crown.

Nvidia have great technology, I don't see how you can call it 'Average'. The fact that they only sell chips means that the cars manufacturers can do some more inventive stuff. Guillemot have produced the GTS II Pro. Basically a GeForce 2 GTS card, but with a much higher memory speed. I doubt Nvidia would have done that on their own.

Lastly Matrox. Again, their technology is good, but it is getting dated fast. They brought some innovative features to graphics cards with things like EMBM and DualHead. Other manufacturers are now catching up with this (let's not get into the employee stealing thing though). It's time Matrox released something new, and until they do, their technology in the G4x0 cards is going to get more and more stale. It's almost 2 years since I bought my G400 MAX, and what has happened in the meantime? A slight tweak to the manufacturing process, and the G450 comes out. Where is the true successor?

All the other companies mentioned have released several new products. And they have been new products. Not slight changes to an existing product.

Maybe it is because of their "Completely loony marketing department" that noone knows what is going on with G800. But if the situation doesn't change, there are going to be plenty of people jump ship to either Nvidia or ATi.

I don't think 3DFX really have much left in them to be honest, and the rumours are that Nvidia is going to buy them in order to sort out this patent problem they've got.

[Bixler]

Hey Gino: Even though I never agreed to your sucker bet, looks like I owe you that beer!

Woops! The forum is GONE!

[SteveC]

HAHAHAHA, I'm SURE there used to be a third forum here:

<PRE> Installation and Configuration
Covers all aspects of system configuration and driver installation of Matrox Graphics hardware. 2919 15542 October 26, 2000
05:51 PM Haig, Alex
General Troubleshooting
Covers all aspects of system troubleshooting Matrox Graphics hardware after our drivers have been successfully installed. 2590 14995 October 26, 2000
05:59 PM Haig, Alex </PRE>

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Cheers,
Steve

"Life is what we make of it, yet most of us just fake"