The State of Matrox....

[Electric Amish]

This is from VigilAnt at MatroxUsers....


The last editorial has benefitted me with many responses and I appreciate every one. I have just got this in my inbox, and I would like to share it with you. Before you read, be aware that I have confirmed what was written before and had planned on writing about this as well. Since I got the email, I thought this would be the prime time to attack it.

*snip*

while I don't really care much anymore for matrox..
the company, *snip*

the people there are great though.. the best bunch of guys I ever worked with..

*Snip*

in the last set of lay-offs most of the support was decimated.. there is no longer a hardware
compatibility test group.. software testing (driver, apps, etc) is reduced to about 10 people
as usual the end user support trees were chopped.. marketing, sales, and eng. were left
untouched.. luckily tsup managed not to get cut this time..
Unfortunately Haig, and the customers are the ones who are going to suffer again since
his support tree is almost gone..

why is matrox failing..

Financially most people haven't got raises there in about 3 years, paid overtime stopped 2 years
ago, no more bonuses..and they cut all benefits by about 30% morale in the place is at the bottom. if you're still working
there it's because you just waiting for the severance package..and that's the attitude most people have there
Yet the owners donate 20million to a local university in this time of financial decline..

why is parhelia doing so poorly.. I think back to a converstation I had with one of the chief HW engs.
his quote "Most company's have a dartboard that represent that market.. we throw the dart then draw the circles"
marketing could never make up their mind what market the product would sell to.. each week they changed their
minds. so the testing/fixing priorities would keep shifting.. hence you have a product that's mediocre in all categories

Marketing doesn't talk to the outside world.. they believe that they have an inate knowledge of the products people
want.. hence we have 20 people programming "e-dualhead" and such cutting edge technology like
max headroom.. rather than working on OGL code..

Re-investment in RD is almost NIL.. if you look at anand's review of inside NVidia.. they day it was released on the
web.. matrox's asic, and HW eng teams unanimously agreed... company is finshed.. they need to invest
close to 500million to have the same setup.. if they did invest in that equipment then. parhelia would have been
released on time.. which was about 2 years ago.. it's not liek we didn't try.. we asked for and FIB machine
repeatedly starting about 4 years ago...

many good projects were dropped.. ex: video in a chipset.. they would have released it before intel.. but
it was pulled.. at 90% completion!!!! it was already taped out!! and they stopped the chip run..because
at the end they didn't think it was viable.. they even dropped the second stage low power north bridge with
video for laptops..

production goof ups.. Overproduction when it's not needed..forgetting to order parts.. hence too many 4x parhelias, and they won't sell the 8X
until the 4X is gone.. while the 8X is only 20% faster but it fixes pretty much all the problems people
are seeing in the 4X..

expierience.. there are only about 50 people in matrox that have been there more than 5 years, with the last
layoff that number has dropped, most of the guys who design the chip, and are writing the drivers have less than 3 year
expierience in doing this.. hence you always have less performance per clock than the competition.
and they don't have a single analog asic eng.. so when it comes to timings inside the asic, they always miss.
that's been the clocking issues since the G450.. and they're not willing to pay the required salary to hire this
type of engineer..

This pretty much sums up what needs fixing there (all of the mangagement).. anyone you ask will agree..

Sad times for those involved in my eyes. The root of some of their problems are left untouched while the parts that make the company grow and thrive are chopped. When/will they ever get it? One thing that was left out in that email was that many department managers have left without even having a job first.

If Matrox Graphics is to turn things around, they need to first realize that what they have been calling business as usual for the last years is not the right path. I agree completely with the sender's comment about the target and the dart. It fits so well with what I have learned about them.

 

[ripthesystem]

ouch

 

[Wolfsraider]

most companies have forgotten the art of craftmanship nevermind dependability.in tough times its the "well built" products and good management practices that keep a company thriving or even just afloat.

sad thing is a lot of companies sacrifice these qualities as a way life.

thank goodness that not all products are fashioned in this way,but enough are that these boards are filled with questions about each piece "bought" in hopes of getting stability and fuctionability.no wonder there is so much fanboyism relating to good parts.

i wish matrox the best in their future in the "market".

mike

 

[Remedy]

and they don't have a single analog asic eng.. so when it comes to timings inside the asic, they always miss.
that's been the clocking issues since the G450.. and they're not willing to pay the required salary to hire this
type of engineer..

That just makes my blood boil. :| There is no excuse for this type behavior. Even at Entry level, there is someone willing to work for less. If the timings weren't correct, atleast give someone the opperturnity to helpout. My company has same exact mentality. :| I often wonder if VIA treat their ASIC engieers the sameway, as the P4X333 and 400 continue memory timing isssue as well.

 

[Alternex]

mhm.. and I was just thinking about upgrading my G400 MAX to the Matrox G550 Dual DVI....
I never had an nVidia card before - maybe it's time to make the switch

 

[Czar]

:|

I'm always amazed how common sense can just not exist for some people like the stupid management at matrox

 

[Hardware]

I told it many times

come late
com less
come expensive

R.I.P. MATROX

maybe you believe me now (people still think its me that 3dfx went out of business)

 

[Stark]

When/will they ever get it?

It sounds like it's too late. Stick a fork in them, they're ripe for a buyout.

It seems to me (joe average hw buyer) that the company peaked with the G200. They've been getting killed ever since.

 

[Tab]

This is disappointing, the owners must have money, so I doubt the company will go down. There G450 and earlier cards werent that bad in the 3dfx days. I have a G450, too bad it doesnt work on any games though, its a pretty stable card.

 

[MrGrim]

Yes but ... Surround Gaming man!!!!

 

[zippy]

I just installed a Geforce4 Ti4600 in my rig today.

Not looking pretty. I wonder if those are just the problems in the consumer graphics division or company wide? They have many other divisions within matrox that are still top of the line from what I can tell.

 

[Dulanic]

bean counters and marketing people are EVIL! Im sorry but they mess SO much up, I dont know WHY managment lets them make so many decisions. For example Im a field tech on mills and lathes.. so I go to ALOT of big companies to work on their machines. Last week I was in Chrysler, first they have someone watch and follow me around... so right their they are basically wasting money paying that guy to watch me... all he did was sit there for 2 days. Next I need some oil for a machine... it takes them FOUR hours to get it... all of while their paying me $80 an hour in labor costs to sit and wait for the oil. All because the bean counters want to know why their spending $30 on oil.... and while their deciding to spend that $30 their paying $320 to me for labor. And its not like they had to go get it somewhere... they had it there, they just couldnt use it without the bean counters approval. Then they needed tooling for the new machine... about $500 worth of it.. of corse the bean counter said it would take a few weeks to get the order out and approved... all while a $70k machine is sitting there producing NOTHING because they need to wait weeks to approve buying $500 in tools. And then of corse the bean counter will decide to do some research and find cheaper tools... of corse their crapier so theyll break 10x as much and theyll end up paying a ton more replacing the tools all the time. Big Companies and their bean counters end up costing companies twice as much... its pitiful.

 

[sechs]

Originally posted by: Stark[br]
It sounds like it's too late. Stick a fork in them, they're ripe for a buyout.

If only they could be. Matrox is private.

 

[bluemax]

Some years ago while I was a bellman in a hotel, some marketing folks were talking about a new computer-related product. (I don't see this product on shelves so either it's special-order or a failed project.)
I asked the nice lady what the computer part did. She had little idea - and NO idea how it worked. She'd never even seen one.

Me: "How can you market something you have never seen or used?"
Her: (with venom) "THAT's why you're in customer service!"

Yep. These marketing guys know juuuust what the consumers want. Uh-huh. Yup. Right.

 

[BD231]

Stupidity in management, killing company's off like wildfire it seems. It's not like matrox was contributing much to the computer industry anyway, once they die out money will be spent on ATI and NVidia products leaving them with more means to innovate and give us something worth the price tag. The quiet guy always gets left behind and matrox, just like 3Dfx, was quiet far to long. It really just sounds like the people who owned the company didn't want to spend money on what they should be spending it on.

 

[grant2]

where's NSF4, he'd be all over this like syrup on pancakes.!!

Personally, i've been cutting down Matrox's marketing & customer support for years. Too bad I can't take credit that Electric Amish has caught on!!

 

[codehack2]

Originally posted by: sechs

Originally posted by: Stark[br]
It sounds like it's too late. Stick a fork in them, they're ripe for a buyout.

If only they could be. Matrox is private.

And even then, what do they have that the other big boys would want?? Maybe the video production division, but I doubt it... too much of a niche, low volume market.

 

[ElFenix]

looks like matrox is as screwed up as 3dfx was

 

[jasonsRX7]

I wonder if these issues are related to the company as a whole or mainly just the graphics card division (Parhelia, etc.). Matrox does a lot in the mid and high end video editing field, and maybe that division of their company is doing much better. I use a RT2500 at work, and would love to get a RT.X10 for home, but not if the company isn't doing very well as a whole.

 

[rahvin]

Originally posted by: ElFenix
looks like matrox is as screwed up as 3dfx was

Almost but not quite. It all boils down to management. You have to have focused management that is setting the goals for the companies production. Marketing and sales should make NO product decisions, those choices should be reserved for management then they should give engineering the resources to accomplish those goals and marketing the task of actually selling those goals. Management should decide which market to pursue, management should decide how to tune to that market and management should drive the focus to the product they select.

Everything traces back to management, you can have the best engineers in the world and if management is a bunch of fvckwhits than you won't produce products. It is the same disease 3dfx suffered from and it will be Matrox's demise.

 

[NFS4]

Originally posted by: grant2
where's NSF4, he'd be all over this like syrup on pancakes.!!

Personally, i've been cutting down Matrox's marketing & customer support for years. Too bad I can't take credit that Electric Amish has caught on!!

I was at a birthday party for my friend at TGI Fridays...he just turned 21

Anyway, sucks for Matrox...Parhelia was DOA anyway

 

[Nemesis77]

Originally posted by: NFS4
Anyway, sucks for Matrox...Parhelia was DOA anyway

Depends on the target-market. For gamers it was DOA (altrough the performance is good. Just not earth-shattering like it should be). For people who want top-notch image-quality and multhead, it's the best choice there is.

 

[Hardware]

whenever I said matrox is dead over the last several month all fanboys are jumnping in with "good for business etc"
I hope these fanboys are still here

 

[Hardware]

oh and if you dont know teh harware chip phallus (what a crap name) is broken
there is hardware banding in 3d and basically there should be a recaall of all cards but anyway matrox is out of money

g200 was ok
g400 was ok

g450 was less then g400
g550 was less then g400
phallus was crap (too less to much $$)
now matrox will pay the price when you want ro rip of custumers with sub quality for the price

 

[Nemesis77]

Originally posted by: Hardware
now matrox will pay the price when you want ro rip of custumers with sub quality for the price

What is this "quality" you talk of? Image-quality of Parhelia is excellent. Multihead-capabilities are best in the market, drivers are good... Just about the only thing where Parhelia is not great, is the speed. For us maybe, the speed is all-important when talking about vid-cards. But there are other things to look for as well.