Matrox's Future Card and pricing

[GT98]

I'm curious to ask this...From what I've been hearing and piecing together..the New Top of the Line Video Card that Matrox is coming out with is going to cost a pretty Penny...some where around the $1200 USD range for the Top end and is supposed to be 3x times faster then whats out on the market today (which it should be for the Price )...which leads me to this...how many people here would pony up the cash for that card?

I'm personally looking for a Card in the $300-400 range that is fast as/faster then GF3/4 and has at least 64MB of RAM on it...though I'm open to maybe going to 32MB if it doesnt show all that much improvement in benchmarks etc to make it in that price range just to enjoy having a Matrox Card at home again that I can game on (did I tell you how much I like this PCI G450 I got at work? ) and have Matrox's excellent support.

Scott

[Sasq]

I'd prefer the $300 - $400 range, but I will pay a little more for a 64mb version - but not to much - are you listening marketing

Dan

[cjolley]

The top two lines of your poll are missing.
chuck

[Unam]

For a card faster than a GF3/4 with Matrox quality and support, I'd pay $500 to $900 CDN, no problem.

[Novdid]

I agree with you cjolley.

I don't know if I want to pay that much for my next card.

[Tempest]

I selected 400-500$... But we must remember that MatroxUsers are only a very small part of the people interested in buying a new graphics card. Your average hardware upgrading gamer can not understand why he should pay more for a Matrox card when he can have an ATI card for less money.

[Sasq]

Your average hardware upgrading gamer can not understand why he should pay more for a Matrox card when he can have an ATI card for less money.

Really depends if he's paying half the price and only getting 1/4 the speed doesn't it

Dan

[Ant]

There are bigger and better markets than gamers for Matrox with a high end card that will tolerate high prices. Maybe Matrox will still accomodate the gamer in the next card but then move on to a higher plain.

[Guru]

3x faster then the G550!?! Iwould pay ~150€ max!

[Tempest]

Guru, I think he was speaking of the market in general

Originally posted by Ant
There are bigger and better markets than gamers for Matrox with a high end card that will tolerate high prices. Maybe Matrox will still accomodate the gamer in the next card but then move on to a higher plain.

I really wouldn't want to see them move into professional OpenGL and leave all other markets. Then again, I wouldn't want them to become like nVidia and ditch out a new card every 6 months. I want a card like my G400MAX was (and still is). A top of the line product that has features for almost everything I want to do with my PC. A card that is scalable, holds its value and has excellent stability and feature-rich drivers. Too bad no company can survive by making that kind of graphics adapters anymore.

I do understand why a graphics card maker would want to concentrate in professional high-end graphics. There, you get respect as a high-tech name, you get more money per card, you sell less cards -> less different setups, apps and users -> less problems. You don't have to make ten different models of each card, and you have customers that don't expect you to introduce a new card every six months. And your customers care more about quality than price.

BUT if you want to dominate the desktop, you have to have at least four different chips/cards: An integrated one, a cheap OEM card, a Geforce MX-style card for those that are not satisfied with the OEM one, and an expensive card for hardcore gamers and other hardware fanatics. Then there are of course people that get difficult and want things like Video In, DualHead etc. Add together all those different models, their support and drivers and the fact that all owners regardless of experience want to install and configure the hardware themselves on a multitude of new platforms and operating systems, and you've got hell. Oh, and you should release a new version of all those models every six months

[KeiFront]

I like being difficult . Gimme Video in/out, DH, ... gimme all the gimmicks .

[Ali]

I think Tempest has the right of it.

Matrox should go for the low-end (G550) bussiness end, and the high-end pro/cad end. The gamer market is a little to segmented to be that profitable.

I would love another Matrox card, and will probably buy one when it comes out. I hate changing vid cards all the time, and want something thats going to last at LEAST a year, and prefer 2 years.

Isnt it strange that we all complain that Matrox dont release cards fast enough, and I think most of us realy dont want to buy cards every 6 months?

I just miss reading all the comments/reviews of new Matrox cards.

Ali

[Novdid]

Remember that the G550 is an evolution of a gaming board (well it derives from a swiss army knife board, designed to do everything). Nvidia still sells TNT2 M64 boards, and ATI still Rage128 as low cost business models, excactly the same thing is what Matrox does. They use old architecture as low cost business models, cards that once were high end gaming boards. The difference is that the other companies continue to develop new hardware were Matrox develops fantastic software like good drivers and offcourse a very matured Dualhead software suite.

But they (Matrox) need a new chip now which they can use in their solutions for the next few years, if they plan to continue their approach by making the momma of all cards and then suck that chip for all it's worth.

Bottom line is that you do make a lot of money by making a good, fast, versatile and innovative gaming board (G400) which also eventually can be used in a business environment, in the long run.

[Jammrock]

uh...anyone know what the USD to Euro conversion rate is?

I think $200-300 persoanlly...because I'm sure there will be a gamers version.

Jammrock

[TdB]

I would love another Matrox card, and will probably buy one when it comes out. I hate changing vid cards all the time, and want something thats going to last at LEAST a year, and prefer 2 years.

Isnt it strange that we all complain that Matrox dont release cards fast enough, and I think most of us realy dont want to buy cards every 6 months?

Im a hardcore gamer and i had a g400max in my gaming rig for 1.5 years (and happy with it the whole time).
Nvidia doesn´t decide when you should change graphic-cards, the gamedevelopers do(well, actually you decide for yourself, but you know what I mean ), and they don´t expect you to change cards every 6 months.
I think most people are confusing a hardcore gamer with a hardcore benchmarker.