New Matrox Parhelia Preview

[DuRaNgO]

"Page 2:
>AGP host interface designed for up to AGP 8X bandwidths
>PCI 2.2, AGP 2.0 and AGP 3.0
It is only a AGP 2.0 (4XAGP) card, Haig has verified that. "

Actually, the chip can do 8x, but the first cards will (most likely) be 4x

[Voyager3D]

Originally posted by DuRaNgO
Actually, the chip can do 8x, but the first cards will (most likely) be 4x

Yes, just like the G400, it first came as a 2xAGP, and then later came as a 4xAGP card..
I read somewhere that they properly wouldn't release a 8xAGP card before Intel had made a such chipset avaible (with AGP 3.0 support).

[Voyager3D]

That reminds me...
Im sure the card even supports 16xAGP...

The question should be if it can make use of 8xAGP of if there will not be any difference in performance when going from 4xAGP to 8xAGP.

But of cource it is a bit of a marketing to say that you have 8xAGP support. And the same can be said about full DirectX 9 support. Its mostly a marketing thingy, at this point in time.

[ChronosZero]

DuRaNgO's theory makes the most sense. After all, 8x AGP chipsets are far from wide spread... but the AGP 3.0 specification has been finalized by Intel for quite a while now.

[DuRaNgO]

Nice (P)review by the way

[Greebe]

Think I heard on the grapevine that do to a provision in the AGP 3.0 spec for exclusion of backward compatability some designs allow the higher speed only (freedom of design (cost cutting if there's a technical problem)).

Enter two AGP 8x only mb top name brand **** & **** versions coming soon.

[Wombat]

Higher speed only, or higher-speed voltage only? There was a similar 2x/4x as well.

[ChronosZero]

I just had a look at the latest public <a href="http://developer.intel.com/technology/agp/agp_draft9.htm">AGP Specs</a>. Perhaps they've changed the part about the connector being the same... but there are two different versions of AGP3.0, and only one is backwards compatible.

And I quote (from pg.10 of the SpecUpdate06-21.pdf):

AGP3.0 is the next step in the evolution of AGP2.0. This evolutionary interface maintains the same connector and, except for a few additional signals to support the new signaling scheme, the same interface signals as AGP. However, since the electrical signaling and clock rates are significantly different between AGP and AGP3.0, compatiblity at the platform level is achieved using a "Universal" motherboard. A Universal motherboard is one that supports both AGP2.0 and AGP3.0 signaling.

The rest of the document refers to Universal AGP3.0 and AGP3.0 as seperate entities at seemingly frequent intervals. (I haven't read the whole thing yet.)

[ChronosZero]

And boy have we deviated from talking about my lovely preview.

But to answer Wombat's question, everything I've read in the spec (which admittedly isn't much) leads me to believe it's both higher speed and higher voltage.

(I said the following, but it was wrong. Don't believe my viscious lies. Keep reading the thread for details. --> The interesting thing that I didn't know was AGP was originally 3.3V, then 1.5V, and now back up to 3.0V.)

BTW, pg 34 in the spec says the following about AGP card options.
Card Type / Description
- AGP3.0 Card / Supports only AGP3.0 signaling. Available speeds 8x, 4x.
- Universal AGP3.0 Card / Supports AGP 1.5 V and AGP3.0 signaling. Available speeds 1x, 2x, 4x, in AGP2.0 mode and 8x, 4x in AGP3.0 mode.

[Rags]

8X uses .8V signalling no?

Rags

[ChronosZero]

Heh. You're absolutely right. What I actually read was a typo in the document, where they kinda transposed the name that said "AGP 3.0V" instead of "AGP V3.0".

[dshumake]

If you are using Opera as your web browser, you can magnify the page to make the font readable.

[The PIT]

The point is though you shouldn't have too. Right I'm off too read the review on my 22 inch monitor and not not my 17 inch work monitor where I had to give up.

[The PIT]

Can I make claim to the first mention of the G800 when I said thanks to Maggi for sorting the forum out after tylooser. The award was a G800.

I like the coming soon trade mark by the way.

[The PIT]

I would like to see you get hold an actual example and then do then review. I think it would be good reading.