- Friday, 27 November 2009
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I never forget a face, but in your case I'll be glad to make an exception - Groucho Marx
Matrox launches graphics cards shocker
MATROX SLIPPED OUT of its self-induced coma to announce the launch of five new graphics cards under the “M-Series” line. To many of you out there, this is quite a shock, as Matrox has all but retired from the consumer graphics market, having invested most of its energies in lucrative “professional” applications.
The M-Series targets the multi-display market and consists of two low-profile PCIe cards and three standard format ATX PCIe cards. Playing on its multi-display experience with breakout boxes, Matrox has created a line of PCIe graphics cards just for DualHead and QuadHead, analog and digital outputs.
Each card has its particular multi-display strengths, so you can get anything from a single DVI-I output that sports a breakout cable to 2 independent displays, or the “Plus” version that outputs 2 digital displays or up to 4 analog displays (via an add-on cable). The most interesting of the four solutions might be the low profile M-Series 9140, which has a proprietary break-out cable that splits KX20-to-4xDVI-I, capable of powering up to 4 digital/analogue 1920x1200 screens, or 2x2560x1600. The cards are also 100% passive, no moving/spinning bits, no noise, just one heatsink covering the video chip and 512MB of DDR2 RAM.
After the launch there was a lot of REM movement, largely due to the fact that the screens are setup side-by-side and you can’t avoid the “sitting at the front row in the theatre and trying to watch a movie” effect, followed by a lot of neck stiffness.
This looks like one of those winners for day traders, medical apps or people working with really powerful DTP/design apps – as the cards also provide support for portrait mode. But the pricing might make you think twice – considering most graphics cards already output to two displays.
M9120 PCIe x16 $259 USD
M9125 PCIe x16 $399 USD
M9120 Plus LP PCIe x16 $329 USD
M9120 Plus LP PCIe x1 $329 USD
M9140 LP PCIe x16 $599 USD – the native QuadHead beastie
Quad analogue upgrade cable $99 USD – this one gets you more head on the “Plus”
versions.
Funny tho’, because the prices were in the press release on launch date, but Matrox has gone and edited out all the prices in the meantime. Thankfully, there’s always Google cache to rely on…
The specs are another mystery ‘cos we called Matrox and found out PR is buried behind an automated phone system. After navigating menu after menu of options, we found out we need to know precisely the name of the person you want to talk to otherwise they won’t put you through. Oh, and no chance throwing a random French name at them (“Hey, could you put me through to Jacques?”), you need a surname to go with it…
Anyway, don’t go around expecting to play SupCom:FA on your Crossfired HD 4850s at 2x2560x1600, ya hear? This is for that select crowd that pays through the nostrils to do 2D, and likes it. µ
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Inquirer is getting waay too carried away trying to create a sensational subject title! 

In an article sometime back, Inquirer went as far as saying, "Nokia has delivered the 'knock out' blow to Android".. the truth was far from it.. 

C'mon ppl.. come up with some sensible titles and dont get our hopes high and our hearts pounding for no reason!
about those prices.

Could really do with 4 outputs.
What do I need a Matrox card for?
Everything is already offered by Ati and Nvidia 
for a better price including much better performance. So where is the point?
Ah for the kinda kick a Matrox Millennium and a Voodoo would give you back when... What went wrong?
You think those prices are high?

We are a Solutions Partner with Siemens Energy and Automation, which focuses mainly on industrial control.

One of their products we work with frequently is the PCS 7 distributed control system, which can run anything from a small pilot plant to a multiple unit plant, like a refinery or bulk chemical plant, or a large power station. It's modular, so you can add control processors and operator workstations out the wazoo to get the performance you need. Most of the time the client asks for fully redundant hardware, including networks, so there are NO single points of failure.

On the operator workstations, they offer single-head up to quad-head displays. Quad-displays are generally mounted two levels, two displays per level, so it's like a large square display. Really neat when you use 24" displays. But not suitable for gaming.

Siemens charges us for the 2D graphic adapters:
2 display: $1,785
4 display: $2,860

Well, we found out a couple of years ago that their graphic adapters are rebadged Matrox G45X2DUAL-BF and G45X4QUAD-BF, which we order from any one of many generic computer part suppliers at ~$500 for the dual, to about $700 for the quad. We pass the savings on to our customers and everyone, except Siemens is happy, but they are too, because the cost of one of their PCS 7 systems generally runs about $250k to $500k and up.

Hopefully, the new cards can be used with the Siemens software, so we can continue saving our customers mucho moola.
Ugh still no decent 3D gaming cards, thought they where getting back in the saddle when I read the headline..

I used to have Matrox cards back in the day.. IF they went and became competitive I would have a hard time choosing between Nvidia and Matrox =)
The last time I bought some card from Matrox it had an incredibly inferior amount of RAM for the time (64MB compared to 128 to 256 at the time), and was not even capable of running high resolutions at usable frequencies (85hz for a CRT) at anything higher than 16bit color! The cheaper gaming card I bought to replace that POS had far better capabilities in all respects, and I could just buy a second one if I was hell-bent on having a "quad head" system.

Honestly, I don't understand what purpose Matrox has in the market anymore, when even the cheapest gaming cards have better capabilities in every way than a lot of their shoddy-ass models.
I'd love to see quad LCD output, as in 4 times 1024x768 equals 4096x3072. If Matrox could provide a unique innovation like that, and somehow got a high end GPU in the package, it would be interesting. If they can't design their own GPU, they should use one from the top two or merge with a chip company that can.
and was online from beginning:
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=SEATTLE_PDT.story&STORY=/www/story/06-25-2008/0004838926&EDATE=WED+Jun+25+2008,+01:00+PM
http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/press/releases/2008/corpo/mseries/
You lot should get out more often. 

Go & see a live show that involves multi screens or projectors, you can bet Matrox triple head or quad head products are feeding them..
Industrial multi display users depend on reliable cards that can withstand tourture day in day out without dying. 
Matrox is #1 in the millitary and Medical industries, youre not paying for the performance with this stuff Its Reliability youre paying for, my old parhelia is still kicking after 6 years of running in my dev box. 1UP! ^_^