New PCIe card from Matrox!

[Mikko]

Matrox announces industry's first x16 PCI Express, quad-display graphics card

http://www.matrox.com/mga/media_center/press_rel/2005/matrox_qid_lp_pcie.cfm

http://www.matrox.com/mga/pid/products/qid_lp_pcie.cfm

[UtwigMU]

What's interesting about this appears to be native PCIe support from core, in other words no bridge chip.

This means they have added PCIe support to Parhelia core.

No word though about DirectX version or other features.

[Marshmallowman]

Long product life cycles is a feature?...well I guess it is but still

Linux drivers will be available as "upgrades"...that sounds ominous.

128m 128bit, it s not going to be performance king, orig parhelia is still matroxs "performance" card

But still, low profile single card PCI-e quad display card is going to sell well to their niche.

It also has 4 overlays...but probably no 3d

[UtwigMU]

Would anyone know if this would be same core as Parhelia APVe or is this PCIe version of P-series core.

Seeing how they announced (they announced APVe in December) PCIe versions of their cards (they'll probably just roll niche products of Parhelia or QID PCIe core by adding PCB features), they are now able to work on future cores.

I don't expect anything spectacular, but card supporting lattest DX/OGL standards with midrange 3D speed at time of release (for instance now the midrange is 6600/X700 class) with featureset of Parhelia would be sweet.

[DGhost]

lol, for some reason I just do not see that happening...

[Kurt]

There's the secret of their success:

Long product life cycles
The Matrox QID product line has a much longer product life cycle than other mass market graphics cards, which ensures that QID customers are not burdened with frequent and expensive re-qualifications
Long transition periods between each QID generation
No surprise end of life (EOL) announcements

[Kruzin]

No surprise end of life (EOL) announcements

Yea..they would never do that...(coughrainbowrunnercoughg200/400marvelcough)

[[Ch]amsalot]

Originally posted by Kurt
There's the secret of their success:

Long product life cycles

If Matrox was truly interested in longevity, they'd only be putting out cards with dual-link DVIs.

What we need from Matrox right now is a single card with two (2), dual-link DVI outs that can power two 30" Apple Cinema displays.

-[Ch]ams

[PAugustin]

And enough 3D power to run games at full res on them

[spadnos]

Originally posted by [Ch]amsalot
If Matrox was truly interested in longevity, they'd only be putting out cards with dual-link DVIs.

What we need from Matrox right now is a single card with two (2), dual-link DVI outs that can power two 30" Apple Cinema displays.

-[Ch]ams

Their idea of longevity isn't that it will be good for games for the next few years, it's more for specific-purpose system designers.

As an example, I'm likely to start working on a digital camera array next week. I'll need specific features for the camera, and the video card. If the Parhelia (whatever version) is sufficient for my needs now, then it will still be sufficient next year as well. If I write special software which uses some hardwar feature (like triple-head with video out), I don't want to have to rewrite it to accomodate a new video card because the original one isn't available any more. If I would choose ATI, then the card would have a 6 month to 1 year life cycle, in which case I'll have to change my design (even if it's just documenting the correct driver revision, or re-certifying my application with newer drivers)

- Steve

[[Ch]amsalot]

Originally posted by spadnos
Their idea of longevity isn't that it will be good for games for the next few years, it's more for specific-purpose system designers.

Did you mean to quote me or PAugustin?

I concur that Matrox isn't interested in attracting the gaming community, which they've long-since abandoned. However, Matrox has a large following in the business and CAD community, which following is making the switch to high-res LCDs such as the 30" Apple cinema displays. Matrox needs cards with dual-link DVI support.

Matrox also is not "in the dark" about the need for dual-link either. They recognize the fact that there's a demand and is coming out with a 64-bit PCI/PCI-X (NOT PCI-e) version of the Parhelia with dual-link DVI:

http://www.matrox.com/mga/workstation/3dws/products/parhelia/dl256pci.cfm

However, with a price of $699 (USD) and being "vaporware" for the time being, owners of LCDs requiring dual-link will look elsewhere. And at that price point anyway, it should include two dual-link DVIs. And with people moving to PCI-e, well, it's kind of a ridiculous product, and only uneducated consumers will buy it.

Matrox is once again missing the ball and it will continue to lose marketshare and customer base until it wakes up and starts making products that are ready for the future; and not simply patch existing products on a Johnny-come-lately basis with updates that nobody really wants or needs.

-[Ch]amsalot

[[Ch]amsalot]

I also want to add my apologies to Fluff. I just read Fluff's post over here:

http://forums.murc.ws/showthread.php?postid=519470#post519470

in which Fluff basically said the same thing about dual-link and the Apple 30" Cinema display. Fluff, I hope you believe me when I tell you that I made my posts in this thread without even seeing your message. But I think it's interesting that we have the exact same ideas when it comes to the direction Matrox should be headed with respect to dual-link.

-[Ch]ams