Matrox G1000 Info???

[Mary_Poppins]

I was browsing the Matrox site the other day, and I noticed that they had updated their page to announce a new product called G1000! I took some screenshots, and I am glad I did, its now removed from their site. Looks like someone screwed up.

If this is real, ATI and nVidia have a big fight on their hands!

http://www.geocities.com/supes123456789

[Geeforcer]

Now this is interesting. You wouldn't by any chance have that G1000 PDF, would you (assuming its all legit)?

[mat]

hmm.. the geocities page has "exceeded its allocated data transfer"...

does anyone has a mirror?

[dee]

I think someone's got their dates mixed up - shouldn't this have been posted monday?

[DC]

Mirror:

G1000 Whats New (http://www.imlande.de/mirror/g1000whatsnew.jpg)
G1000 Product Info (http://www.imlande.de/mirror/g1000productinfo.jpg)

DC

[Ailuros]

That's the most exiting news I've read in months (assuming it's true). If I take the assumption further and it'll have troublefree drivers I'm already sold, especially for 229$ for the entry level model.

[Mephisto]

This "supes" URL reminds me to the faked spectre board picture ... (http://www.nightstormer.com/voodoo/Rampage.jpg)

I don't believe it. This seems is too good to be true. 128bit rendering and 105 M transistors, that all for around 200 USD sounds more like a wet dream of a matrox fanatic.

[nAo]

Sure...fine...whatever :wink:

[Ailuros]

That was my initial thought reading the specs too. Yet it claims up to 375mhz clockspeed which doesn't necessarily mean that all models will be clocked that high. A 275-300mhz variation of it at 229$ doesn't sound "that" impossible to me. Concerning the amount of texture layers, colour depth and FSAA values (assuming that it is adaptive MSAA) it's perfectly feasable on a Tiler. I further assume a 0.13um manufacturing process and the multi monitor support available in high end models only.

Those are capabilities TBR architectures should be delivering already to the PC space. If it's a photo-editing job then it's a really bad joke...

[mat]

strange... there is no icon in the Adress bar.
could be a fake (opening a fake Page and then typing the Matrox URL (ie Removes the icon when you change the URL without hitting enter)

[demalion]

Umm...."Mary Poppins"? "A spoon full of sugar..." started going through my head.

Now, is this obvious 1 post alter ego created to leak some true info, or pull a just before April prank? I see no obvious grammar, layout, or spelling errors, but that could just mean an exceptional effort by a prankster. I especially like that none of the info is quite unbelievable in anyway, atleast as far as my limited knowledge goes. Well, except for the $229 price being listed on that page...that seems a bit too much of an obvious pander to a prankster's target audience.


Too bad there wasn't a link to a cached Google page so I could believe unconditionally...Oh well, I am waiting for the Matrox card or the RV250 anyways, to be a hold over in this machine until the Hammer comes out and I build a new system with whatever is available at about the end of the year, so this doesn't cause me any angst, just brings a small smile to my face.

[EvilEngine]

Heh why do I smell a April F00lz joke coming soon? :roll:

[Nappe1]

I am 99% sure that's fake. :)

too much things that are a way too wrong when compared to things that I have been hearing about their next gen since last August.

They have kinda suprise in their pocket but it is much better balanced than what this is.

[Dave B(TotalVR)]

Jesus, that things a beast, 8 pipes, TBR and all the frills. 3GP/s too, its about time IMGTEC came out with something liek that....

[Nebuchadnezzar]

Mary could just save the page instead of taking screenshots.
then I could beleve it. :-?

[Nil Einne]

I'd agree. It seems a bit strange. You would expect someone would be more likely to save the pages and all images etc as well as the pdf rather then taking screenshots of all things. Especially dubios screenshots at that. Other then the interesting missing icon on the address bar, have you noticed how this person appears to have opened all the pages in a new window? I.E. there is no back button.

Of course, the ridicolous statistics (e.g. 128bit colour when we haven't even got 64 bit colour yet? Do you know how much power and RAM 128bit colour would require? Not to mention how little sense this would make) 128 bit colour is 3.4028236692093846346337460743177e+38 colours btw. Oh yes, and this little statistic included the alpha component of course.

[Nebuchadnezzar]

And beside she (or he) just registered today. :evil:

[Nebuchadnezzar]

I can't see the mouse in any Screenshot and there is something strange with them, they are 1280*994 !!! :o

[Ante P]

rofl, for f's sake
maybe the announcment of the G1000 would have been a credible prank
but the specs are just too funny, no way, no how

can't belive people fall for this kind of stuff :D

[EgonOlsen]

I can't see the mouse in any Screenshot and there is something strange with them, they are 1280*994 !!! :o
And these little arrows in front of each feature are misplaced.

[mat]

the size should be ok... the rest is the Windows Taskbar (or whatever its called in english) (its not on the screenshot when you press Alt + PrintScreen)

[LeStoffer]

rofl, for f's sake
maybe the announcment of the G1000 would have been a credible prank
but the specs are just too funny, no way, no how

can't belive people fall for this kind of stuff :D

Yeah, there's a bit to much wish list on this one. Maybe that's why I initially had this "I want one too!"

But "Matrox Deferred Rendering Engine" and 2 MB of on chip cache?

support for both 64, 96 and 128-bit color depths?

105 million transitors and a price start at $229?

375 MHz with 8 DX9 pixel pipes?

And the Truview-trademark for jitterede AA?

Oh, and I remember something about Matrox not going to call the chip a G1000-or-something...

Looks nice though :-?

[Mark N]

It just looks too much like their current products pages - why would they have those more info links on the right? Why wouldn't it be in their "what's new" section instead? The Windows NT support would be a surprise - the G550 doesn't even indicate support for that OS. And stuff like 128-bit color and quad monitor support just make no sense to me, and DX9 support now? The language used at the bottom just doesn't read like professional promotion-speak to me, either.

Definitely a 4/1 deal...

[Mark N]

It just looks too much like their current products pages - why would they have those more info links on the right? Why wouldn't it be in their "what's new" section instead? The Windows NT support would be a surprise - the G550 doesn't even indicate support for that OS. And stuff like 128-bit color and quad monitor support just make no sense to me, and DX9 support now? The language used at the bottom just doesn't read like professional promotion-speak to me, either.

Definitely a 4/1 deal...

[pascal]

It looks fake, but:

- 2MBytes cache means 40 millions transistors with high density (small size) die usage, it means "only" 65millions transistors for the rest (logic), which is not much for a .13 micron process. Who has a .13 micron process available by june??? TSMC?

- The fact it support 128bits doesnt mean a high performance with 128bits.

- Maybe it is a page under study by marketing people. Then many mistakes are possible.

- Four monitors could be good for some small niche market and braging reasons.

- With all this big 2MB cache, some small and cheap 64MB DDR (250MHz ???) could be possible with low cost.

- G1000 name looks good for a radically new chip from Matrox.

[Hyp-X]

Ahhhhh
Another fake.

/me checks www.soontm.com ...

[Hyp-X]

Yep, it's already up there.

[nggalai]

From a linguistic point of view, Matrox either changed their PR register considerably, a new presales kid had to write the texts, or it's fake.

In the light of the specs, I opt for the third possibility.

ta,
.rb
________
GSX600F (http://www.cyclechaos.com/wiki/Suzuki_GSX600F)

[Rasmoo]

Would be the WHQL & Platform support bit.

"Extensive", of course, is such a nice marketing word.


Adding everything together would indicate that the entry level cards would not include 4 monitor support. (eh, pascal)

One has to wonder why Mary Poppins didn't hit the "Pre-order today" button. ;)

[Gunhead]

Yep I agree it's prolly a fake, but anyway. :P

About the 128-bit bit. Is there any practical use for a 128-bit accumulation buffer if you are using 64-bit color -- or is all-64-bit accurate enough to keep the end result, um, well, accurate enough?

(I think SGI brags a 96-bit hardware accu buffer, for 48-bit color I presume, so I thought maybe 128-bit is useful in some non-realtime professional work.)

Or, alternatively, is there some use for a 128-bit "color" format, for just 128-bit data really, written to or read from data "texture" maps and used in some funky pixel shader operations? Maybe for 128-bit vector data? And should we call them bitmaps, bytemaps, or VLIWmaps?

[pascal]

IIRC sometime ago Carmack asked the chip manufacturers to add 64bits color (probably internally). He probably wanted this for Doom3.

Also he said he is looking forward for more than 100 passes in future engine (after Doom3).

Maybe this 128bits could be done combining more than one pipeline or with two 64bits passes.

IIRC the Unreal 2 flamethrower use up to 50 passes. Dont ask me how/why.

Rasmoo:
Adding everything together would indicate that the entry level cards would not include 4 monitor support. (eh, pascal)
Off course nobody will do a 4 monitor support with entry levels card :wink:

Some nvnews news: http://www.nvnews.net/#1017524598
Matrox: In April? - 3/30/02 3:43 pm - By: Typedef Enum - Source:
I was scoping out some websites this morning, and there is now an official "Matrox April fools promo" floating around the web.
After checking it out, I decided to pay another visit to the MURC, and came across a couple of interesting links/quotes.

According to one guy (who claims to be a magazine journalist), he was contacted by Matrox about a Product Launch. He didn't specify a date, other than April. Furthermore, this individual claims to possibly have hardware by June.

In a separate thread, the MURC administrator claims that "They are arranging for press gatherings in mid April for a new product unveiling. They only do it like this for their next major product step."

So, it seems that all roads are pointing towards Matrox doing a product launch in about 2 weeks time, and getting hardware out to reviewers in the Summer. I would guess that would mean that it would likely become available for purchase in late Summer/early Fall.

[Dave]

BAHAHAHAHAHAHA. I don't even have to look at it to know it is fake. I used to work with the guy that has that site when we were at 3dfx.

[Gunhead]

Thanks, Pascal. I seem to recall Carmack was asking for 64-bit already back when he was counseling 3dfx... I guess you could jerry-rig a 128-bit pass by using parallel/consecutive 64-bit passes, an interesting idea in itself, but what I was really asking is, what do you need a 128-bit pass for? What do you do with 128-bit color?

Well, maybe with 50 or 100 passes even 64-bit can get limited, I don't really know (at all, I'm making this up as I go along). Could be that in such a situation one color component (say with a mainly yellowish flamethrower flame) needs blending finesse beyond the 16-bit floating point, and it doesn't help to have the other 48 of the 64 bits available, but instead you have to expand all components to 32-bit, so you get a memory-friendly 128-bit color format... (In a situation like this, of course you wouldn't need 128-bit for the entire framebuffer, rather just for rendering the color-problematic part. But you couldn't expand just one color component to 32-bit precision, you'd need the full 128-bit monty. I imagine.)

Dave, okay, I believe it's a fake, I'm just off-topicing because I miraculously found myself a 1992 vintage IBM keyboard in mint condition and am enjoying the unbeatable typing feel :lol:

[Mephisto]

Would be a nice headline, "former 3dfx employee fakes matrox product specs", hehe ...

[Humus]

I can't see the mouse in any Screenshot and there is something strange with them, they are 1280*994 !!! :o

Why would the mouse pointer appear on a screenshot?

[Humus]

IIRC the Unreal 2 flamethrower use up to 50 passes. Dont ask me how/why.[/quote]

50 billboarded quads perhaps, wouldn't call that 50 passes though, it's not the same geometry, even though the same pixel may get updated 50 times.

[pascal]

Gunhead:
Dave, okay, I believe it's a fake, I'm just off-topicing because I miraculously found myself a 1992 vintage IBM keyboard in mint condition and am enjoying the unbeatable typing feel

One of my favorites keyboards too :)
This is a shame what we have to use with PCs


Humus:
50 billboarded quads perhaps, wouldn't call that 50 passes though, it's not the same geometry, even though the same pixel may get updated 50 times. IIRC this was a Chris Hargrove post at the U2 forum, and I cant find it anymore. Sorry I really dont know, but I trust you :)