Radeon 9700 Benchmarks...

[The PIT]

You can play the waiting game for ever these days. The product cycle is only six months or less if you count the max or ti versions of cards. If you got the dosh and want to upgrade, do it.

[Jazzz]

Originally posted by isochar
This is what the Parhelia should've done.

yep thats what i would of liked but maybe if the parhelia had 325MHz core speed it might of came up with similar numbers

also i doubt the nv30 will beat this card by the same margains the Ti4600 was beaten but i guess you never know

[The PIT]

Well heres another one too look at.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.html?i=1683

[piaxVirus]

I really would like to see some info on the output quality and DH features of the 9700. I am still on the fence and I am leaning towards the Parhelia. Without independent DH upto at least 1920x1440. The 9700 won't be an option. I really like that 16X Q AF, though.

Looks like I may be ordering a P today.

[isochar]

Originally posted by Jazzz


yep thats what i would of liked but maybe if the parhelia had 325MHz core speed it might of came up with similar numbers

If the alpha Parhelia's were clocked at 300mhz, I don't see why Matrox didn't release a gamer's edition of the card with an oversized heatsink and bumped voltage. At least that way the Parhelia would've been able to compete against the 9700 in those super high resolutions.

[Wombat]

Because they wanted an AGP-spec compliant card, for one.

[103er-Fan]

Originally posted by isochar
If the alpha Parhelia's were clocked at 300mhz, I don't see why Matrox didn't release a gamer's edition of the card with an oversized heatsink and bumped voltage. At least that way the Parhelia would've been able to compete against the 9700 in those super high resolutions.

Most gamers, especially those "hardcore" gamers who can afford a 400$ card, are modifying their cards anyways to get even more speed or lower temperatures. Also according to most people here it seems to be very easy to replace the HS with a better one, also RAM HS would be easy to attach. I think as soon as we get an overclocking tool those who modified their cards with larger heatsinks, or maybe even watercoolers, will show us how the card performs at speeds beyond 240MHz. Maybe when we could get some voltage tricks we could get even higher clocks. I think with watercooling and a voltage mod it should be possible to reach 300MHz.

[The PIT]

Originally posted by piaxVirus
I really would like to see some info on the output quality and DH features of the 9700. I am still on the fence and I am leaning towards the Parhelia. Without independent DH upto at least 1920x1440. The 9700 won't be an option. I really like that 16X Q AF, though.

Looks like I may be ordering a P today.

Same old story I'm afraid fps still seems to count. The pics on annands review were to small and it's hard to tell the differance between gfarce and the radeon. 2d quality didn't get mentioned or if was I missed it.

[R.Carter]

I think that fans and heatsinks are easy enough to change.

How many gamers are capable of messing with surface mount components that need to be changed to be able to raise the voltage.

Has Matrox or anyone else even released information about the hardware modifications needed to raise the voltage?

Of course, Matrox has warned that raising the core voltage will (of course) tend to reduce the life of the card so I doubt they will tell us how to raise the voltage.

[The PIT]

I don't many gamers would be capable of doing it. I can't see Matrox releasing the info to be honest.

[isochar]

Originally posted by 103er-Fan


Most gamers, especially those "hardcore" gamers who can afford a 400$ card, are modifying their cards anyways to get even more speed or lower temperatures. Also according to most people here it seems to be very easy to replace the HS with a better one, also RAM HS would be easy to attach. I think as soon as we get an overclocking tool those who modified their cards with larger heatsinks, or maybe even watercoolers, will show us how the card performs at speeds beyond 240MHz. Maybe when we could get some voltage tricks we could get even higher clocks. I think with watercooling and a voltage mod it should be possible to reach 300MHz.

All this at the expensive of voiding the warranty. I'm not sure about you, but I'm not made of money and cannot make a $400 gamble. If Matrox told me that they'll honor the warranty no matter what modifications I make, then I'd be interested to see how far it gets pushed.

[103er-Fan]

Originally posted by isochar
All this at the expensive of voiding the warranty. I'm not sure about you, but I'm not made of money and cannot make a $400 gamble. If Matrox told me that they'll honor the warranty no matter what modifications I make, then I'd be interested to see how far it gets pushed.

I think the same way, I wouldn't even replace the HS of my Parhelia, because I am too worried that I lose the warrenty.
But when I look around some forums where people are completely modding Ti4600 or many months ago Radeon 8500 cards (which were at least around 300$ when they were released) you can see that many people are taking the risk to destroy a >300$ graphics card with their modifications.

[The PIT]

I would just go out and by a radeon 9700 which is near enougth the same price and then wouldn't have too bother about modifying the board.

[GT98]

Originally posted by The PIT
I would just go out and by a radeon 9700 which is near enougth the same price and then wouldn't have too bother about modifying the board.

But you still have to deal with their drivers...and they are number 3 on your list

[The PIT]

Originally posted by GT98


But you still have to deal with their drivers...and they are number 3 on your list

You've got to have some fun. The last set of cats were shit so I'm still using the 2.1 set. Pity the game gamma adjustement doesn't work.