Anand off to San Fran, seeing something special !?

[FishTankX]

<< i think e-phex stole my hypothesis....you can see here, my thread, that i came up with the same conclusion 40 minutes before he did.......not that i'm mad or anything....but he got lots of props for coming up with the same thing i did....maybe i could get some props too >>



Owned by almost 48 hours!!!!

Sorry man...

Oh by the way, it's a spelling error.

 

[KrispyKremer]

The G400 MAX came out a few months before the TNT2 Ultra and 6 months or so before the first GeForce, if memory serves correctly.
This was late 1999/early 2000. I remember arguing with a coworker about how great the image was on my new G400 MAX and he was spouting how the GeForce would dominate it, including the PQ. pffft

It was touted (rightfully, I'd argue) as being the top card on the market... for about 3 months Great card, just didn't have the 3d speeds. I was glad I replaced my TNT and Voodoo2 combo with it - the difference in image quality was highly noticeable.

With E3 coming up, who knows what it could be. I hope it IS a new Matrox card, but what they've been saying, if anything, their next card won't be targeted at gamers anyway. Unfortunately, I fear that with *whatever* the product is, being pumped up as it has been, will end up being a disappointment to many.

If it means cheaper prices for the consumer, it can't be all bad.

 

[Leon]

<< they almost own the corporate market >>



ATI and Nvidia own corporate market. Matrox cards only present in relatively small niche dual/quad monitor market, mostly low end workstations. Hence their 4% of overall market share.

 

[BD231]

<< yes they did, Matrox G400 Max, best card of its time. Then before the 3d fiasco started they had the Matrox Millenium, best card of its time.

I have them both

I stand corrected then. Just for refrence, how long ago was that? I've been in on the whole computer thing for close to 6 years and ever since I started Matrox was never a contender in any other area than 2D. >>

hehe, too long ago, thats why I'm sitting here with my G400 hoping this new "product" will be the next Matrox card



Unfortunately, I fear that with *whatever* the product is, being pumped up as it has been, will end up being a disappointment to many.

I feel the same way! With my luck it'll be something an ordinary day to day computer user/gamer would have NO USE for

 

[Martin]

dammit I need to stop reading this thread.


All the speculation and anticipation will kill me.

 

[acejj26]

fishtank,

no doubt, you thought matrox right off the bat....i was just saying that i put "Bright Days Ahead" with "Parhelia" and tried to see if there was a correlation between the two

 

[Gstanfor]

The way I read the whole rumour situation at the moment is that Matrox will release/announce a new videocard, probably with 64 bit color depth (hence the clawhammer tie in).

Greg

 

[Nemesis77]

<< Just so you aren't surprised, it was said that the Matrox's new card will be MORE expensive than Ti4600. So if you love $500 video cards, you have something to look forward to... >>



Yes and no. Hi-end Parhelia supposedly costs about 1000 dollars. It's aimed at 3D-professionals and competes with Quadro and the like. The "low-end" parhelia supposedly costs something like 300 dollars.

 

[xype]

if cou combine Matrox and AMD you also can get:

AMD makes it's own high end 3D graphics card -or-
AMD buys Matrox and releases the new card after that

I think the AMD-branded 3D card is more likely

 

[Nemesis77]

<< if cou combine Matrox and AMD you also can get:

AMD makes it's own high end 3D graphics card -or-
AMD buys Matrox and releases the new card after that

I think the AMD-branded 3D card is more likely >>



AMD-branded 3D-cards???? Not very likely (to say the least!)...

 

[xype]

<< AMD-branded 3D-cards???? Now very likely (to say the least!)... >>



Did you mean "not" or "now"?

Isn't specualtion a fun thing? Besides since everyone that signed the NDA is hyping it like hell, thinking outside of the box surely wouldn't hurt.
I still wonder whether it might not be something Apple after all..

 

[Nemesis77]

<<

<< AMD-branded 3D-cards???? Now very likely (to say the least!)... >>



Did you mean "not" or "now"?

Isn't specualtion a fun thing? Besides since everyone that signed the NDA is hyping it like hell, thinking outside of the box surely wouldn't hurt.
I still wonder whether it might not be something Apple after all.. >>



D'oH! typos like that are annoying! I meant "not". I fixed it now, thanks for noticing

 

[Gstanfor]

I look at it this way.
64 bit color (whether bit depth or internal accuracy) is something Carmack wants for Doom3 and I reckon it will also feature in NV30.
64 bit color capability plays nicely off Hammer's 64 bit processing power (marketing).
By the time hammer is available (and this new special thing), Doom3 will be very close to release, as will DirectX9
The extra time it would take to implement 64 bit color (as well as possibly being DX9 compliant) could explain why it has taken Matrox so long to reenter the market.
A 64 bit capability would be marketable at both the highend gamer market (not huge) and the professional market (much larger).

Greg

 

[Siddhartha]

When will the big news be announced?

 

[MadRat]

Alright, lets add multiple ideas together and come up with a grand scheme:

Anand went to San Francisco for the MACworld convention to learn more about MAC's 64-bit OS 11 support for AMD x86-64 processors, running on a new NVidia nForce chipset, using a (512k L2 cache, x86-64 compatible) Barton CPU, using Matrox Parhelia video (based on 64-bit color and eDRAM technology), Creative Labs sound (based on 64-bit sound) and playing Duke Nukem Forever...

 

[BornStar]

The last paragraph from Anand's Sub-$200 Video Card Roundup



<< This is the perfect example of where competition truly brings us better choices in a market, it'll be interesting to see what happens if a capable third manufacturer returns to the scene. With DirectX 9 on the horizon the major hardware firms are diligently at work on their next-generation GPUs, from R300 to NV30 to something else being shown now behind closed doors - as usual, the graphics market always keeps us busy. Stay tuned. >>



I think this points to Matrox as well.

 

[odog]

acejj26: i most certainly did not "steal" your hypothesis.... i was actually surprised that nobody else thought of it...

 

[ElFenix]

i love speculation threads

 

[acejj26]

e-phex.....never meant that you tried pawning my hypothesis as your own....just wanted some of the props you got.....geniuses think alike, right?

 

[RSMemphis]

<< 64 bit color (whether bit depth or internal accuracy) is something Carmack wants for Doom3 and I reckon it will also feature in NV30. >>



Huh? 64 bit color? Why?

Humans can distinguish about 24 bit (= 16,777,216 colors) I understand 32 bit is used to have an extra 8 bit for other stuff (fog etc) but 64 really looks like overkill.
I am waiting for the day when someone pulls me in front of game running in 64 bit color resolution with dreamy eyes and I'll think, um, so..?

 

[Daemon_UK]

<<

<< 64 bit color (whether bit depth or internal accuracy) is something Carmack wants for Doom3 and I reckon it will also feature in NV30. >>



Huh? 64 bit color? Why?

Humans can distinguish about 24 bit (= 16,777,216 colors) I understand 32 bit is used to have an extra 8 bit for other stuff (fog etc) but 64 really looks like overkill.
I am waiting for the day when someone pulls me in front of game running in 64 bit color resolution with dreamy eyes and I'll think, um, so..? >>

Have a quick look here for a bit of an explanation.

Developers approach Nvidia with requests for ?higher mathematical precision in graphics pipelines? or higher colour than 32-bit. Developers haven?t been slow in informing us about this request. They cry for it and it could make their life easier. The mighty Carmack, father of Quake, said it few times and our little bird said the same thing.

Heres what I got from poster Nazgul, over at the forums of Rage3d.


I'm not sure that 64-bit color rendering would really be all that useful, but I think internal rendering calculations would benefit greatly from increased precision like that. 16-bit rendering became a real problem when the number of blended layers got significant. All those blending calculations done with 16-bit precision made for some pretty ugly graphics(fire up Quake3 in 16-bit and watch the back end of a rocket trail for a good example). Now we're starting to see the number of passes and layers go even further, and Carmack is talking about really pushing the limits of what 32-bit rendering will be able to do well, from the sound if it. I think he mentioned something like 20 passes in some parts of the new Doom(20 passes for what, I can't imagine). 64-bit internal precision would help keep everything accurate so that even if it's then reduced to 32-bit for the framebuffer, it should be a better looking 32-bit.


Just do a search at come techie forums of 64-bit color, it has nothing to do with the number of colors a human eye can see

 

[salman327]

Yeah look at the last paragraph in the Under $200 video card article. He mentions R300, NV30, and *Something being shown behind closed-doors right now*. It's gonna be Matrox, I'm almost definitely sure.

 

[xype]

<< but 64 really looks like overkill. >>



Actually not - if you are doing many rendering "passes" such as different light sources applied you "loose" on quality. This means that after 4 lights are "applied" to a texture
it slowly starts to look like having 256 colors only (you can add/subtract only as much to a 8bit red value, before it gets too dark or too bright). 64bit color rendering is used with
3D animation packages and is neccessary to achieve good results (ie, "smooth" color gradients withouth visible "edges") and Carmack wants that in games as well.

 

[odog]

acejj26: yes we do think alike.... mad props for ya brother

 

[darqice]

<< << This is the perfect example of where competition truly brings us better choices in a market, it'll be interesting to see what happens if a capable third manufacturer returns to the scene. With DirectX 9 on the horizon the major hardware firms are diligently at work on their next-generation GPUs, from R300 to NV30 to something else being shown now behind closed doors - as usual, the graphics market always keeps us busy. Stay tuned. >> >>



who else would that "capable third manufacturer" be but Matrox; and who who else showing that "something else being shown now behind closed doors?" Stay tuned says the boss, and then, as e-phex or was it ace made the connection, Anand mentioned the bright future which = parhelia, (matrox's codename)

Is there anyone who is not convinced that this "something special" is a killer new vid card from Matrox?