Kyro is gone. Matrox next?

[JEDI]

What can Matrox do that Ati/Nvidia can't?

Sure matrox has great 2d cards for business. But how much 2D tech do u need? and can the human eye tell the difference?

I'm sure any ATI/nvidia card can display web pages and Word as well as Matrox.

Any reason to buy Matrox over ati/nvidia?

 

[GTaudiophile]

How about more consolidation? nVidia buys STMicro/Kyro and ATi buys Canadian Matrox. Would still be even, right? ATi would have Matrox and ArtX and nVidia would have STMicro and 3Dfx.

 

[JEDI]

we're still down to 2 competitors. more competition means consumers win. (who wants another microsoft?)

And maybe it's going to be down to just Nvidia soon. personally, i think ati is in trouble. when the radeon 8500 came out, it didn't leapfrog the geforce3. it only tied it. but the 8500 didnt come out till ~6 months after the geforce3. and the best they could with all that time is tie it??

if the next generation of ATI cards that comes out in 6 months doesn't leapfrog the geforce4, i would say goodbye to Ati.

 

[AA0]

ATI has a massive OEM market, and they have been around for a long time making cards.

If matrox doesn't bring anything out soon, they might die out.
As for how hard 2D is, ask nvidia. They can't get their 2D up even close to ATI (not 2D quality, just other stuff). Their Ti cards have lower RAMDACs, no DVD, dual monitor support which isn't complete compared to their MX cards, not to mention all the other features ATI puts in their cards. It is exceedingly difficult to get good 2D options and 3d speed in one card, ATI is the only one doing it. nvidia is working there, matrox couldn't do it. Neither could the kyro cards.

 

[Cosmic_Horror]

Matrox has always had and hopefully continue to have great 2d. Both in image quality and years ago in performance. Matrox does a lot of business in the corperate market (oem).

Oem deals is where the money is ATI has focused oin this sector for years and has done great out of it. Matrox has stayed in busines from it and nvidia over the last couple of years has also been looking to stake its claim in it.

 

[Jhhnn]

Once you've used a Matrox card it's tough to go back to anything other than a high end ATI card for 2D apps. So there will always be room for Matrox, well, provided that there are always people who have to work with docs & spreadsheets all day long. Just so long as nobody else does it better/cheaper.

 

[vedin]

Boy I wish people would get the facts straight before they post nonsense. The Kyro is not dead. No matter who buys ST's graphics department Imagitech/PowerVR will still be in total control of the design of the technology used in the chips. This exact thing happened a couple years back when NEC dropped Imagitech, so Imagitech just went with ST to make thier chips. From this the Kyro 1 was born, and the Kyro came later. I would imagine that in the worst case scenario of no one wanting to buy ST's graphics department, Imagitech will just have to design the chips themselves, and have TSMC make em. This is kind of a bad scenario though as Imagitech isn't in the habit of designing the chips themselves, nor do they likely have the revenue required to do so. A more likely scenario would be another chip manufactorer, not Nvidia as they prolly don't care about the Kyro's, such as Via, SiS, and or others buying the department, and PowerVR proceed with business as usual and have the new peep's make the chips. My only concern is possible delays of the next Kyro board which IMO SHOULD be released in the next couple of months in order to be competitive.

 

[JEDI]

2D on nvidia doesnt come close to ati?? what programs r u using that the human eye can tell the difference?

i've used radeon, geforce2, and G400+. for word, excel + web browsing, i don't notice a difference.

oh, you mean dvd playback, dual monitors? ok, i'll grant you dual monitors will probably be the only reason to get a matrox. (i have a G400+ dual monitor. NICE, but not necessary to a majority of people.)

 

[BFG10K]

The Kyro is not dead. No matter who buys ST's graphics department Imagitech/PowerVR will still be in total control of the design of the technology used in the chips.

Agreed.

Any reason to buy Matrox over ati/nvidia?

Not really. ATi's 2D image quality is practically on par with Matrox's.

 

[AluminumStudios]

I'm pretty miffed at Matrox for being so lame. I use do 2d motion video editing. I use a Marvel G400 (but not it's capture, I use a Pinnacle card for that.) Matrox has THE best looking on screen video, I don't want to use anything else. however, they have been so lame with keeping up with technology (and drivers - limited XP support for my card).

There is one other thing - Matrox's DVD MAX feature that works with it's Dual-head technology is 2nd to none. I don't konw if ANY other card has a feature that works this well. I'd love to see ATI buy Matrox, start using DVD Max on their cards - I'd switch because I like ATIs on-screen video as well.

With DVD max, basically any video I play is mirrored full screen out to my TV. DVD Max will output pretty much any video (I'm guessing any video that uses a direct draw overlay surface.) Media Player, Quicktime, Real Video, the Playa, etc. all work with it. I simply play a video in a Window and viola, full screen gorgeous output to TV.

 

[Damascus]

I hope Matrox dies. They deserve it. The only good thing to come out of Matrox in the
past 3 years is DVDmax. (I own a Matrox card btw, and they piss me off almost as
much as Creative)

 

[HGC]

I look at small text and graphs all day at 1600x1200 on 21" monitors. The G400 is so sharp that I am just afraid to switch, even to a Radeon 8500. I think this is Matrox's niche and it is a big one.

 

[AA0]

Matrox's market is almost gone, no matter how good they're 2d is, they aren't keeping up with the times. The 8500s 400Mhz RAMDAC and great 2d has put matrox to bed.... they just can't compete.
If there isn't a new product soon, they will not be around long.

 

[dew042]

<< The Kyro is not dead. No matter who buys ST's graphics department Imagitech/PowerVR will still be in total control of the design of the technology used in the chips.

Agreed.

Any reason to buy Matrox over ati/nvidia?

Not really. ATi's 2D image quality is practically on par with Matrox's. >>



ati drivers = suck.

dew.

 

[bluemax]

dew042 = no idea what he's talking about.

The driver issues have been greatly exaggerated and nVidia has its own share of problems. :disgust:

 

[AA0]

hes just an nvidiot, he has no clue about ATI drivers, but he will proclaim that they suck.

 

[dew042]

<< hes just an nvidiot, he has no clue about ATI drivers, but he will proclaim that they suck. >>



let's see:

5 different ati cards in the past year.
1 matrox card
2 3dfx cards

no nvidia cards. the visual quality is horrible. i never said nvidia didn't have probelms, but i have no idea since i don't use them

the only ati card i could get to function was a radeon 64mb VIVO. nice card.

i have never gotten the other four AIW cards to function correctly (one aiw radeon pci, two agp aiw radeon, and the latest failure was a brand new aiw radeon 7500). each time i have tried atleast four different driver revisions in w2k. way back when i had an aiw radeon function well in win98, but nothing has worked since i switched to w2k. i would be one of the happiest ppl in the world if i could get one to work. i think the aiw radeon feature set is the best out there, hands down.

i think i have bent over backwards trying to give ati w2k drivers a chance. you stand corrected.

dew.

 

[dew042]

<< dew042 = no idea what he's talking about.

The driver issues have been greatly exaggerated and nVidia has its own share of problems. :disgust: >>



bluemax = no idea what he's talking about.

Presumption is such a nasty habit.

I think i have given a damn good chance to ati to give me functional drivers. They failed with their AIW radeon drivers. Completely and consistantly. If I pay for a product I expect it to work, completely. Wouldn't you?

dew.

 

[JellyBaby]

Matrox died years ago IMO. No new 3D cards meant no Matrox for me.

BTW isn't this "poor nvidia 2D quality" thing becoming an urban legend now? Didn't Anand say, beginning with the GF3 they had 2D quality equal to that of the Matrox? And didn't nvidia up the reference standards for RFI filtering again with the GF4?

 

[Sunner]

JellyBaby, some cards have very good 2D quality, but there are still loads that dont.

Not that I know, but Im hoping they'll have raised the bar for the manufacturers with the GF4.

They should at least, they're losing business over the 2D issue.

 

[bluemax]

dew042: Holy smokes! You went through *four* AIW cards and couldn't get ANY of them to work right??
You either have some sort of really bad motherboard or you had something in your registry that left gunk behind!
Or a loose nut behind the keyboard! (just kidding!)

I'd say there's more to blame than bad drivers if you had THAT many problems...

 

[joohang]

How does ATI compared to Matrox in 2D (i.e. sharp text) at 1600x1200 and higher?

 

[Adul]

Matrox being a private company it is hard to say whether they will die out or not. But matrox does do more then just graphics. Do any of you realize that or is your head stuck some where the sun don't shine?

 

[vash]

Matrox is a good graphics card company that has great, stable cards with killer drivers and support (lets not look at the Marvel madness). I would LOVE to see them get into the gaming scene. With the track record of Matrox cards, they could easily have the best of both worlds: super sharp 2D, and nVidia insane 3D. Only time will tell if they get into that business, however. Since Matrox does make their cards, they would easily either rake in the money by producing the fastest (or close enough) 3D cards, or they would lose their shirts of no one adopted it.

Lets face facts, they did 2D right a long time ago, they couldn't possibly mess that up when going forwards towards 3D.

vash

 

[Biggs]

As much as I like Matrox, I have to say their headcasting gimmick for the G550 is more of a novelty other than function. The question is do they have the funds to go toe-to-toe with ATi and NVidia in the 3D realm?