Matrox Chooses AMD GPU for Next Generation Multi-display Graphics Cards

[btarunr]

Matrox Graphics Inc. today announced that its next line of multi-display graphics cards will be based on AMD GPUs and their corresponding professional grade display drivers. Leveraging over 35 years of experience in board design and manufacturing, Matrox will expand and complement its line of PCI Express-compliant graphics cards for demanding commercial applications. The soon-to-be-launched product line will enable unique features that solve real-world problems in enterprise, industrial, pro A/V, digital signage, security, command and control, and other professional applications. Matrox customers will continue to benefit from the exceptional stability, usability and versatility enabled by Matrox PowerDesk desktop management software, which will be integrated to work seamlessly with AMD's professional display drivers.

"AMD is excited to work with Matrox to deliver compelling industry leading GPUs for their professional users," said Matt Skynner, corporate vice president and general manager, Graphics Business Unit, AMD. "AMD delivers solutions, backed by rock solid drivers, that allow users to realize the full potential of their workstations and produce outstanding results backed by high quality hardware and software application support."

"The AMD Graphics Core Next (GCN) GPU we selected for our new product line allows Matrox to continue designing and manufacturing professional, reliable video cards. Matrox add-in boards strike the perfect balance between video output density, performance and power consumption," said David Chiappini, vice president of research and development, Matrox Graphics. "Our enterprise and industrial customers will continue to benefit from Matrox multi-display board designs, easy-to-use PowerDesk software, direct customer support and long product life cycles."

Key features of the selected AMD GPU include 28 nm technology with 1.5 billion transistors; DirectX 11.2, OpenGL 4.4 and OpenCL 1.2 compatibility; shader model 5.0; PCI Express 3.0 and 128-bit memory interface.

Critical productivity-enhancing features available with Matrox PowerDesk software will continue to be supported on the next line of Matrox graphics cards designed with AMD GPUs. The robust, field-proven Matrox PowerDesk desktop management software for Windows lets users easily configure and manage multi-display setups. It offers professional users a comprehensive set of tools to deploy and control a variety of display configurations including stretched or independent desktops, clone mode, pivot, bezel management and edge overlap.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Disparia]

Cool. Can't wait to see the new cards pushing 12, 18, and 24 monitors.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Not entirely sure what this means, but I think it means that AMD will make the GPUs and Matrox will just stick their name on it.

I guess Matrox are just gonna sit back and license out their IP.


Seems kinda funny since AMD have their own line of workstation cards

 

[jagd]

I think matrox is stopping to develop its own chips and using AMD gpus ( I guess cost of developing chip caused this. ) but i dont think matrox will licence their IP nothing has been told about it i see no reason for it.

AMD workstation cards and matrox cards at different markets imo.

It is sad another vga chip developer stopped design and produce chips ( if i am right ) , for non -familiar matrox had best 2D pictures and still used by banks corporations today (for multi-monitor setups ) They could not keep up after directX 9.0 with ATI/AMD and nvidia .

Not entirely sure what this means, but I think it means that AMD will make the GPUs and Matrox will just stick their name on it.

I guess Matrox are just gonna sit back and license out their IP.


Seems kinda funny since AMD have their own line of workstation cards

 

[Frick]

So it'll be about drivers and software? I have no idea how this works honestly, are the numbers of outputs limited by hardware or software on consumer cards?

 

[FreedomEclipse]

I think matrox is stopping to develop its own chips and using AMD gpus ( I guess cost of developing chip caused this. ) but i dont think matrox will licence their IP nothing has been told about it i see no reason for it.

AMD workstation cards and matrox cards at different markets imo.

It is sad another vga chip developer stopped design and produce chips ( if i am right ) , for non -familiar matrox had best 2D pictures and still used by banks corporations today (for multi-monitor setups ) They could not keep up after directX 9.0 with ATI/AMD and nvidia .

the thing with Matrox is they havent made their own GPUs.... All the chips they seem to be using date back to the AGP days and use a bridge chip from Texas Instruments. There are some Millenium series cards which natively support PCI-E but its hard to find specs about the chips they use. Hell, most of the Parhelia series cards still run DDR2 and those are normally seen in extremely low end cards.

Even Matrox's data sheet on the millenium series GPUs dont say what speed of ram they use, they just simply say 1 or 2GB. I think Matrox have just been recycling the same tech for the last decade and the time has come where they really need to update their catalogue, Hence the partnership with AMD. AMD workstation & matrox cards arent at different markets. Workstation cards are more for non-commercial use. Matrox are the same & theyve been catering towards industry probably since as far back as the late 90's..... That doesnt mean that non-commercial cards arent available on the shelf - sure you can buy them but they will just cost a lot lot more then the standard consumer grade cards.


Same market - different uses. as far as horsepower goes, Matrox are well outdated, but their focus is mainly on having 3-8 monitor displays coming from the 1 graphics card rather then something to be used in a machine that does a lot of 3D rendering.

I remember back in the day when Matrox had a lot of AutoCAD support. Im not sure they still do given how times have changed.

 

[Athlonite]

So it'll be about drivers and software? I have no idea how this works honestly, are the numbers of outputs limited by hardware or software on consumer cards?

I would say a bit of both

with the specs talked about above I'd say they are looking at HD7XXX Gpu's or their pro equivelent and not even a high end HD7xxx at that with only a 128bit memory bus

 

[xBruce88x]

Well that should cut down on R&D costs at the least

 

[Prima.Vera]

I agree. Matrox has the best 2D image quality in Windows desktop. Nvidia is next, followed by ATI. Integrated graphics from Intel/AMD also looks quite good nowadays.
Not sure this is because of drivers or hardware.

 

[Brusfantomet]

I would say a bit of both

with the specs talked about above I'd say they are looking at HD7XXX Gpu's or their pro equivelent and not even a high end HD7xxx at that with only a 128bit memory bus

I would hazard a guess that this is a Cape Verde GPU, the same that is in the R7 250X, it fist he bill on transistors and memory interface at least, making it a HD 7770/7750.

 

[siki]

I agree. Matrox has the best 2D image quality in Windows desktop. Nvidia is next, followed by ATI. Integrated graphics from Intel/AMD also looks quite good nowadays.
Not sure this is because of drivers or hardware.

I don't think any of this is relevant if you are gonna digitally connect your monitor (DVI,HDMI...)
Right?
I asked that numerous times over the various forums and consensus was DVI = identical 2D quality for all.

 

[Prima.Vera]

I don't think any of this is relevant if you are gonna digitally connect your monitor (DVI,HDMI...)
Right?
I asked that numerous times over the various forums and consensus was DVI = identical 2D quality for all.

Not sure is only that, but since I've changed my video card from ATI to Nvidia, my Windows desktop looks much more clearer and crisper.
Could be the driver for all I know, but the fact remains...

 

[Octavean]

Not sure is only that, but since I've changed my video card from ATI to Nvidia, my Windows desktop looks much more clearer and crisper.
Could be the driver for all I know, but the fact remains...

I went from an AMD HD 6870 to an nVidia GTX 670 on one system and didn't see any difference in image quality. I also bought a GTX 760 not too long ago.

Is it possible that the image quality differential you think you see is a placebo effect?

 

[siki]

Not sure is only that, but since I've changed my video card from ATI to Nvidia, my Windows desktop looks much more clearer and crisper.
Could be the driver for all I know, but the fact remains...

Just to be sure, you are not using d-sub vga or dvi to vga converter for monitor connection?