News Matrox launch World-first PCIe x1 video card

[Tim S]

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2005/07...x_g550pcie_x1/

[Fod]

sweet! nice cheap multi-display solution for people with PCIE boards. the sex!

[Tim S]

I'm just thinking how good this would be in addition to a GeForce 7800 GTX inside a Shuttle - four displays and still superb gaming performance.

[Firehed]

WAY too expensive. You can get a passively cooled 6600 for under $130 with dual DVI. Even if you don't need the GPU power, it's cheaper and chances are has better support seeing as Matrox is hardly a big player right now.

However I could definately see use for these as adding another pair of digital flat panels, as it only needs an x1 slot. Finally something to make use of them (I'm STILL waiting for a Theatre550 tuner on an PCIEx1 interface...)

If they could cut that price in half they'd have a real winner. Even $70 for dvi/vga or even vga/vga (or maybe vga/vga/vga!) and $100 for dvi/dvi would actually give them a chance. But at that price I don't see it being very successful, unless someone really needs the extra displays.

[mclean007]

Originally Posted by Firehed

WAY too expensive. You can get a passively cooled 6600 for under $130 with dual DVI. Even if you don't need the GPU power, it's cheaper and chances are has better support seeing as Matrox is hardly a big player right now.

However I could definately see use for these as adding another pair of digital flat panels, as it only needs an x1 slot. Finally something to make use of them (I'm STILL waiting for a Theatre550 tuner on an PCIEx1 interface...)

If they could cut that price in half they'd have a real winner. Even $70 for dvi/vga or even vga/vga (or maybe vga/vga/vga!) and $100 for dvi/dvi would actually give them a chance. But at that price I don't see it being very successful, unless someone really needs the extra displays.

Yeah but you've got to look at the big picture - the sort of people who will buy into these are banks where traders need anything from 4-8 screens of data open at a time. There is definite scope for a system with a handful of these to drive a display solution like that. Also, look at the heatsink - it's tiny, ergo the power draw must be very low, which is a key consideration when you're talking hundreds of systems each running several cards.

I know quite a few finance guys currently use two systems, each with multiple screens, with a kvm type config - if you could get rid of an entire system from the loop, it would save a lot of time and electricity.

Definite potential, but only in a certain niche situation.

[Florian]

Nice alternative to regular PCI cards for multiple monitors, but too expensive for that application imo.

[Firehed]

By "bank" I'll assume you mean something more like NYSE, because my local bank sure as hell doesn't use 4-8 screens (indeed, just one cheap-looking 15" flat panel)

I agree though, definately a niche market. Could start to cause the death of PCI, or at least 1 16x, 4 1x, 1-2 PCI assuming none of the 20 lanes would end up dedicated to something like gigabit lan or firewire. Throw four of these in a system, consider the fact that you can get a DVI-I to DVI-D and VGA splitter and you've got sixteen displays (hmm... 16 20" flat panels... 6400x4800!)

[mclean007]

I mean investment bank

[Atomic]

It'd be great for a lot of the work we do at uni, very little is 3D and multimonitor takeup is growing.

[Firehed]

Originally Posted by mclean007

I mean investment bank

Ok, makes much more sense then. Something a bit more large scale than where you go to make your paycheck deposit...

[mclean007]

Originally Posted by Firehed

Ok, makes much more sense then. Something a bit more large scale than where you go to make your paycheck deposit...

Completely different type of organisation tbh - I'm talking about big institutional investors like Goldman Sachs, Merril Lynch etc.

Some of the investment banks have retail banking premises as well (i.e. where you go to do your personal banking) - e.g. Royal Bank of Scotland etc. - but typically the two arms of the business are kept pretty separate.

[kosch]

I still have fond feelings for the old matrox range, I remember back to the days where I had to spend hours messing around with Vesa settings and Display doctor to get 7th guest to work properly, think that was an old Matrox Vesa Pro card with 4mb got it imported from the states.

Then later on when the battle was heating up between 3dfx and PowerVR I opted for the Matrox Mystique which looking back on it now was a bit of a mistake as I had no end of trouble getting it to work with games.

My final affair with matrox was the G400 dual head, although matrox promised lots of dual head games the only one I can think of that sprang up was Star Trek Armada which also allowed me to ouput the signle from the card to a tv and then vcr, now my greatest borg stomping battles are immortalised on vhs!

From a work perspective too dual/quad head is great and we've found the matrox cards to offer ultra sharp pictures and the multi head controls and utils to be very friendly.

*edit*
Haha I just found the customer testimonial I submitted to matrox when I was working at my old company. Oh dear that takes me back.
http://www.matrox.com/mga/dualhead/cat_gamers.cfm

Technicweb
DualHead is the best thing since a 17" monitor. Playing Star Trek Armada with DualHead rocks because outputed to a big TV makes it soooo cool, I feel like I just won the battle of Wolf359 myself.
- Douglas Spooner

[Tim S]

Kosch, I really enjoyed using a Matrox Millienium G400 too, hence why I like the sound of this video card.

[Da Dego]

I would use it in my office. I do investment management and often I would like to have the abilities for multiple stock info (in detail) as well as having my clients' portfolios open, plus an overview of what the current market is doing.

Would also be nice for during tax time...having my rulings open on one pane, an interpretations from a think-tank group I work with on another page, and the forms on another. All things that are very hard to do on even 2 monitors, much less one.

However, for the price, it's a bit of a stinger. If you (only!) need 4 screens, I'd rather buy a good SLI mobo and 2 6600's, just don't run them SLI. And frankly, I don't want to plaster 4 monitors in my office, either.

[Tim S]

what about application in to a shuttle though?

[Da Dego]

If I need 4 monitors, I inherently do not need a shuttle...that's like asking what about the application of a 12 disk raid array in a shuttle.

[Tim S]

I'd love four monitors... but that would mean no room for anything other than a shuttle.

[Bindibadgi]

As long as you can plug in 3 of them and run 6 monitors they will have a market niece and should sell.

[Kipman725]

what about the pc's that run the displays in moterway service stations, they output to upto 32 monitors.

[Anakha]

I used to have (Back on My PIII450) a G400 MAX, which was excellent for Gaming and DVD playback (At the time).

Just as a heads up, they still make (As far as I know) Their G200 Quad-Head cards which are PCI-only.

The other great idea that Matrox had (First) was their Triplehead card the Parhalia.

But Matrox's key market isn't the desktop. Their main packages are meant for Video Editing/Titling (The "Crawls" and graphics on 90% of all TV stations is done with a Matrox RT-2000 (Or their newer cards). With 32-bit (And 48-bit) Chromakeying in real-time, as well as Alpha-channel mixing.

So, now you know.