Matrox Announces World's First Single-Slot PCIe x16 Octal Graphics Card

Source: http://www.matrox.com/

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Matrox M9188 supports up to eight DisplayPort or DVI Single-Link outputs and can be combined with a second M9188 to drive up to 16 displays, all from a single workstation.

Montreal, Canada, November 10, 2009/PRNewswire/ — Matrox Graphics, the leading manufacturer of specialized graphics solutions, today announced the launch of the Matrox M9188 PCIe x16 Octal graphics card, capable of supporting eight DisplayPort or DVI Single-Link outputs from a single workstation. The Matrox M9188 PCIe x16 offers 2GB of memory, resolutions up to 2560x1600 per output, and advanced desktop management features—such as independent or stretched desktop modes — to drive energy, transportation, process control, financial trading, and other mission-critical environments with exceptional performance.

"The M9188 is designed specifically for professional monitoring environments that require visualization of large amounts of data at once to enhance mission-critical decision making," says Ron Berty, Business Development Manager, Matrox Graphics. "The expansive multi-monitor configuration allows system operators to accurately manage energy grids or train dispatch applications, while ensuring maximum performance across all displays."

The Matrox M9188 offers robust support for Microsoft® Windows® XP, as well as for Linux, which is critical for energy and transportation applications that commonly use display configurations of more than eight monitors.

Matrox also announced a second addition to the M-Series product line with the Matrox M9128 LP PCIe x16, DualHead DisplayPort graphics card. This dual-monitor add-in board is the economical choice to drive business, industrial, and government applications across two displays at resolutions up to 2560x1600.
Matrox M9128 and M9188 Key Features

* Native PCIe x16 performance
* Single-slot graphics cards
* 1 GB (M9128) and 2 GB (M9188) of memory
* Drive two (M9128) or eight (M9188) DisplayPort monitors at 2560x1600 per display or DVI Single-Link monitors at 1920x1200 per display
* Can be combined with other M-Series products (multi-card support)1
* Support for stretched or independent desktop modes across all monitors2
* Easy deployment and wide enterprise flexibility with unified driver package
* Support for Windows 7 (32/64bit), Windows Vista® (32/64bit), Windows XP (32/64bit), Windows Server 2003/2008 (32/64 bit) and Linux

Matrox M9128 and M9188 Availability and Pricing

The Matrox M9128 and M9188 graphics cards will be available in Q4/2009

* Matrox M9128 LP PCIe x 16
Part number: M9128-E1024LAF
$259.00 USD
* Matrox M9188 PCIe x16
Part number: M9188-E2048F
$1995.00 USD

For more information, visit Matrox M-Series graphics cards product pages or contact Matrox Graphics directly.

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Someone couldn't sleep well since the Eyefinity release... :lol:

They need to go dinosaurs path .... when Intel/AMD releases gpu on core no one will need Matrox 2D cards anymore.

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Originally Posted by Pinacolada

They need to go dinosaurs path .... when Intel/AMD releases gpu on core no one will need Matrox 2D cards anymore.

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Not really. The best thing that could happen were if Intel bought them. I know their cards are not that great but compared to the Intel crap they have stellar performance. :) I'm pretty sure that they own some good patents and technology too...

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Originally Posted by Katanai

but compared to the Intel crap they have stellar performance. :).

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um...no, they don't.

unless they've improved performance by 10x in the last year, intel's IGP beats the :banana::banana::banana::banana:load out of them.

Matrox also has some stellar multi-monitor hardware. This is for the people that want to drive a dozen monitors from a single box. You know in the movies those gigantic LCD panels that display all sorts of important graphs and crap? That is what these cards do.

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Originally Posted by Generic user #2

um...no, they don't.

unless they've improved performance by 10x in the last year, intel's IGP beats the :banana::banana::banana::banana:load out of them.

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If you say so, I figured anything was faster than those POS IGP's...

Does it have DX11, DirectCompute, and OpenCL support? It would be nice to have Matrox back in the runnings.

it would be more precise to call it "Video card" instead of "Graphics card",, just to avoid 3D graphics usability ideas...

Can it scale 320x538 to 1080p.:D

It's not a gamer card. These cards are tier one in the medical and research field largely because they are so stable. Would you want a doctor operating on your heart and have his monitor go haywire?

Matrox has been in this business a long time. Remember the g200 and g250 cards? They had add on vram slots and back then were some of the faster 3d cards available.

Yep, for professional use..

http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/7520/84400.jpg http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/84400.jpg/1/w300.pngI have this and a Matrox capture card aswell

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Originally Posted by Hell Hound

http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/7520/84400.jpg http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/84400.jpg/1/w300.pngI have this and a Matrox capture card aswell

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I have something like that as a spare PCI card I picked up on Ebay a long time ago for just 99p.

All I know is it was an 8 meg matrox PCI card.

obviously a few people in here dont have a clue what matrox cards are used for - hint; its not gaming

hmmm i wonder if eyefinity will stomp on matrox' professional segment share though....
ati had multi display professional cards for a while, and now that eyefinity is out, they will probably even have a dual rv840 card with 12 display outs on a single card... they had a dual gpu 8 display gpu card before iirc...

8 screens for $2000 or 6 for $400,

so $250 per screen or ~$67, I know which one I'd go for.

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Originally Posted by Origin_Unknown

obviously a few people in here dont have a clue what matrox cards are used for - hint; its not gaming

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Huh ,ever heard of M.A.M.E :D,+ These support OGL 2.0 so like navigation system's and such should be accelerated with these also.

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Originally Posted by Helloworld_98

8 screens for $2000 or 6 for $400,

so $250 per screen or ~$67, I know which one I'd go for.

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I'm glad I'm not the only one that thought that was strange.

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Originally Posted by Mechromancer

I'm glad I'm not the only one that thought that was strange.

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me too

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Originally Posted by Helloworld_98

8 screens for $2000 or 6 for $400,

so $250 per screen or ~$67, I know which one I'd go for.

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Pretty much bulletproof drivers from matrox is the real kicker here. You just don't get the same quality and support from anyone else in this market. For example, the new Air Traffic Control center in the UK uses nothing but Matrox display adaptors due to their reliability & support.

As a gamer, you really should be hung, drawn & quartered for buying this, but as a business you take less risk by doing so.

A huge part of Matrox is that their drivers and software are built from the ground up with the idea of multiple displays in mind. My old job had banks of 16 x 24" Dell LCD monitors driven by Matrox cards and the network deployment of driver updates and the ease of use is top notch for applications that they are used for. Think of it like a 4Ghz i7 (8 threads, desktop style) versus a small rackmount server, yeah the i7 will outperform for lots of things but the server is designed for what it is used for, period.

Matrox is much like Via in that they found a niche, and it is working for them.

Like it was said, ATi and nVidia simply don't offer the stability, support and overall ruggedness that Matrox can offer. If your managing something like a nuclear power plant (or Air Traffic Control as was mentioned), you need a display system that will not fail under any circumstances. You can't have an ATi/nVidia situation where a new driver introduces a bunch of weird bugs, and you have to revert to the previous versions.

When you buy a Matrox card, you are not necessarily paying the price for just the hardware - you're paying for the hardware as well as the excellent software and support that goes with it.

Its the difference between buying a cheap walmart watch, and something like a rolex. Sure they both tell you time, but which one is going to do it better and for longer. If that watch stops ticking for any reason, you bet Rolex is going to fix the watch ASAP at virtually no cost to you. If that walmart watch stops working, do you think Walmart is going to care in the least?

this explains why AMD has been downplaying the effect of 8 monitors.

Well if needing multi display is mission critical, sure go matrox

Otherwise, why bother? Go the cheaper one. Even stockmarkets... how often have you had a crash on your vid card in 2d mode? Personally, until a seriously badly coded program I use was put on a win7 machine, I never had one.

So pretty much unless its medical equipment you could ditch matrox...

But then again back when eyefinity was announced I asked these questions and got ignored :shrug:

How many times on here have people posted about updating drivers from either nVidia or ATi and having blank screens on boot up, or other weird issues not in 3D, and they had to revert to older drivers.

That kind of stuff is not acceptable in any kind of business. Whether it be mission critical or not. Time is money in the commercial world, and the more time your IT guys take to get your display setup up and running again - the more it costs you.

There is also the fact that the Matrox software in general is far more powerful in what you can do with those displays.

The only gaming oriented card from Matrox I can recall is the Parhelia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matrox_Parhelia

I remember wanting one for Flight Simulator, but it was sort of pointless when a GeForce 4 wiped the floor with it. :ROTF:

Yeah, Parhelia was a flop, it really did look great on paper, though.

Yep, the number of outputs and price are the deciding factors into why a company would go with Eyefinity over this. Reliability, reputation, support, software - none of that stuff matters at all :)

Hmm, I wonder do you think you could install this card as well has have CF/SLI with ATI/Nvidia and have it all work at the same time, so you could game on one set of screens and have the others as whatever else?

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Originally Posted by Origin_Unknown

obviously a few people in here dont have a clue what matrox cards are used for - hint; its not gaming

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Blasphemy. Nobody has a computer that isn't used solely for gaming.

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Originally Posted by IronWarrior

Hmm, I wonder do you think you could install this card as well has have CF/SLI with ATI/Nvidia and have it all work at the same time, so you could game on one set of screens and have the others as whatever else?

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Ask Lucid maybe :p:

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Originally Posted by [XC] Lead Head

How many times on here have people posted about updating drivers from either nVidia or ATi and having blank screens on boot up, or other weird issues not in 3D, and they had to revert to older drivers.

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Why would they be updating drivers if the system already worked. Ill give you a clue they wouldn't.

Sure an update from Nvidia/ATi could mess up, even though I can't say ive had one in the last four years. But the fact is they would have no reason to update after the initial installation.

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Originally Posted by Sly Fox

The only gaming oriented card from Matrox I can recall is the Parhelia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matrox_Parhelia

I remember wanting one for Flight Simulator, but it was sort of pointless when a GeForce 4 wiped the floor with it. :ROTF:

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Before that several were made that you could play games with, maybe not marketed as a die hard gaming board, but definitely for games as well :

Impression Plus
Millennium MGA-2064W-R2
Mystique
Millenium II
Matrox M3D
Mystique 220
MGA G100
(MGA G200)
MGA G400
(MGA G450)
(MGA G550)

Wouldn't a matrox card be the same prize as a 5970?
What can matrox do that eyefinity can't?

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Originally Posted by saaya

hmmm i wonder if eyefinity will stomp on matrox' professional segment share though....
ati had multi display professional cards for a while, and now that eyefinity is out, they will probably even have a dual rv840 card with 12 display outs on a single card... they had a dual gpu 8 display gpu card before iirc...

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Bear in mind that the Eyefinity drains way more power and might not be as stable as the Matrox in terms of professional, industrial use:yepp:

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Originally Posted by Jokester_wild

Why would they be updating drivers if the system already worked. Ill give you a clue they wouldn't.

Sure an update from Nvidia/ATi could mess up, even though I can't say ive had one in the last four years. But the fact is they would have no reason to update after the initial installation.

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The same reason why anyone does an update. To increase performance, add new features or perhaps even increase stability. IT departments at large facilities like to push updates to the computers as little as possible, and therefore wrap as many things they can into one update - including driver updates, to insure maximum system reliability and stability.

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Originally Posted by KoHaN69

What can matrox do that eyefinity can't?

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Question addressed in about 12 posts in this short thread :p:

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Originally Posted by [XC] Lead Head

How many times on here have people posted about updating drivers from either nVidia or ATi and having blank screens on boot up, or other weird issues not in 3D, and they had to revert to older drivers.

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honestly, I haven't had that in years :p:

I can understand where these cards would be better suited.

In 2d mode, my 5770s powerplay options are borked. The whole screen occasionally artifacts and locks up until the driver recovers.

The cause of this? The default 1.00v setting is pants and doesnt provide stability for 2d mode, to fix it I need to keep Afterburner open with the voltage locked at its default 1.125v and then it is fine.

I never have any problems at all in 3d mode with them, but in 2d they keep on crashing at stock settings.

100% dependable I always keep a pci matrox spare in my top draw ;)