visiontek Interview with Michael Murphy

Veridian3: For our readers can you give us a little blurb on who Visiontek are and what your role and responsibilities are for them.

Michael Murphy: VisionTek is a division of Hartford Computer Group, Inc., founded in 1978. The Visiontek and XTASY brands gained increasing popularity from the time of their launch in 2001. They were the top selling graphics product line in the U.S. retail market for most of 2001 and 2002. Hartford acquired the VisionTek and XTASY brands in December 2002 and is committed to bringing the most innovative and best performing products to PC enthusiasts. VisionTek is ATI's Premium Retail Partner for North America and will be among the first of ATI's add-in board partners to deliver the new products. The current Visiontek product offering includes 3D graphics accelerators, system memory, flash memory, and portable USB drives.
I am the Technical Support Manager here and in addition to running our tech support team, I have been fortunate enough to become involved in new product evaluation and testing.

Veridian3: How did you come to work for Visiontek?

Michael Murphy: I was originally brought as a tech support rep a little more than 2 years ago and I have been able to work my way up from there. VisionTek has been good to me, allowing me the opportunity to work and advance in a field that I truly enjoy.

Veridian3: What is the most enjoyable aspect of working for Visiontek?

Michael Murphy: Our customers are the greatest. There are some challenges with VisionTek customers that I never could have imagined prior to starting here but they are fantastic. They are so knowledgeable in so many areas. When I first started here, I was amazed by how much I learned from the people that I talked to every day. I do have to say though that it is so cool being able to test and play with all of the hardware that we have here. There's nothing like being able to work with the latest and greatest all the time!

Veridian3: How do you feel things have changed for Visiontek since making the move from Nvidia to ATI cards?

Michael Murphy: Wow, I can't even begin to count the number of things that are different for us now. I always preferred ATI so I was very happy when we first started talking about going forward with an ATI-based line of products. With all of the confusion and uncertainty before making the switch, I can remember times talking to some of my coworkers and saying how great this move would be for us. Since that time, we have been able to provide the top of the line hardware to our customers and it doesn't look like we would have been able to do that if we hadn't made the change to ATI. One of the best things is that in tech support, we have been able to start focusing more on product testing and development. It's great to be working in an environment where products live up to their reputation.

Veridian3: What would you say is the number one reason a consumer should choose a Visiontek product over a competitors product?

Michael Murphy: Technical Support! Toll-free and lifetime!

Veridian3: Is there any feature in a competitors product that you wish was included in yours?

Michael Murphy: Though I have always been very happy with our products, I would love to see VisionTek release a high-end card with passive cooling.

Veridian3: What are the support options available to Visiontek customers if something goes wrong with their product?

Michael Murphy: Once again, I think that this is where we provide the greatest value to our customers. We offer Technical Support via e-mail, toll-free telephone, and we also have a support forum available to our customers.

Veridian3: What is included in your retail bundle for the new Radeon XT products? Additionally, will you be following ATI's lead and bundling Half-Life 2?

Michael Murphy: We will definitely be bundling Half-Life 2. What a great value that is! We'll also include the usual cables and adapters, as we have in the past (DVI-VGA, s-video-composite, s-video cable)

Veridian3: Do you plan to expand the availability of the ( http://www.visiontek.com/go_drive.html ) Visiontek go drive?
And any plans to expand into other different technology segments?

Michael Murphy: I'm glad that you asked. Our Go drives have become very popular and we do have every intention of making these more readily available. We are going to continue to expand our different memory technology lines, as well. As far as expanding to different technology segments, stay tuned. It's a safe bet to say yes.

Veridian3: Are Visiontek All-In-Wonder cards on the horizon?

Michael Murphy: We are in the process of evaluating several potential multimedia solutions and hope to have something available in the near future.

Veridian3: Will the Visiontek XT cards be based on the ATI reference design or will they be a customised design? And what do you feel are the benefits of the design option you have chosen over the other option?

Michael Murphy: In the past, the majority of our customers were large OEM's who were looking for a graphics card solution based on the reference design. As we began to pursue the "retail spotlight," we had to rethink our product branding strategy a bit. Because our customer base now includes large retailers, resellers, etailers, as well as OEM's we plan on taking a balanced approach to our XT offering. Look for cards based off the ATI reference design but don't be surprised if you see something that's "not so reference."

Veridian3: Do Visiontek make their own boards or do you have them manufactured by a third party - Possibly ATI or Sapphire?

Michael Murphy: Through a joint venture, we have manufacturing capability here in the United States and through a strategic partner overseas.

Veridian3: Do you have anything you would like to say/a message to our readers?

Michael Murphy: First I would like to thank you for the opportunity to talk about VisionTek and thank the DriverHeaven members who visit the VisionTek forum. Also, I would like to invite any of the other folks who own VisionTek ATI-based video cards to check out our forum from time to time.