price is it really so bad?

[treilanin]

To compare the price to the GF4 Ti4600 is really not all that fair. Whenever NVidia releases a set of cards they usually charge you through the nose for the fastest card, then release a budget version that is only like 10-15% slower for like half the price. I think people who just had to have the Ti4600 should laughed at . As for the price it is definitely out of my range . At $615 canadian with all applicable taxes and stuff you are looking at it being $700+. That is something out of my price range unfortunately, so I had to settle with an MSI GF4 Ti4200 for $350 after taxes. Now don't get me wrong.... I still wish it was a parhelia in my computer... and I am still regretting it now

[Electric Amish]

It's not too much since I still haven't upgraded my G400 and I've been saving money for AT LEAST the last 6 months in anticipation.

amish

[Kastuvas]

Hehe true me as well been saving for a very long time

[Reckless]

Originally posted by Kastuvas
Parhelia 128MB DDR AGP Retail
Mfr code: PH-A128R
Quicklinx: 2250WS
Long Lead Time Expected £306.00
£359.54

This is a quote from dabs.com and it is well above $400

I cannot believe that Dabs have a higher price than the Matrox shop. That's shocking

[RoGuE]

Originally posted by Kastuvas
Parhelia 128MB DDR AGP Retail
Mfr code: PH-A128R
Quicklinx: 2250WS
Long Lead Time Expected £306.00
£359.54

[Zao]

If you live in Sweden I would recommend you to look at JMEdata.se 's preorder for the Parhelia.

They sell it for 4495 SEK (incl. 25% VAT). That is about $474 and quite reasonable if one considers that it would cost you about 5100 SEK (incl. VAT and S&H) if you preorder from shopmatrox.

They estimate that the will get the card in July 15th.

[Barnaby]

I don't think it's an obscene price.. some of the Ti4600's cost upwards of $450, but that didn't stop ppl from buying them..

and anyone who things the R300 OR NV30 is going to cost less than 400, they've got another thing comming..

Personally, I think I'm going to wait and see what the r300 adn nv30 have to bring to the table.. Plus, by then they'll have the 256mb version of the Parhelia out, with a supposed higher clock speed..

[Wombat]

$474 including the 25% tax? That's cheaper than Matrox for sure.

[Jazzz]

does the matroxshop price (£278) include in the Uk incl VAT?

[mdhome]

Originally posted by Barnaby
I don't think it's an obscene price.. some of the Ti4600's cost upwards of $450, but that didn't stop ppl from buying them..

and anyone who things the R300 OR NV30 is going to cost less than 400, they've got another thing comming..

Hi Barnaby, nice to see you here.
Many ti4600's in the UK are in fact priced higher than the parhelia and are in many ways far inferior to it. I have already pre-ordered my copy and will go ahead with its purchase providing there are no glaring deficiencies that come to light from the reviews. As for the price, this is the highest I will have ever paid for a card, though I did buy the original millenium about 7 years ago and that cost me more in real terms. Hopefully Matrox can do to the Parhelia what they did with the G400 and produce a cheaper g450 type variant next year.



Regards MD

[mdhome]

Originally posted by Jazzz
does the matroxshop price (£278) include in the Uk incl VAT?

Hello Jazzz, Unfortunately NO. That adds another £50.

Regards MD

[Reckless]

Anyone suggesting that GF4/4600's are dearer than the Parhelia (UK) should look at the places you buy stuff from! On looking at Dabs (by no means the cheapest) there is only one GF4/4600 card that's more expensive than the Parhelia (total inclusive price) - an ASUS unit that comes complete with 3D glasses.

This says it all (note search is order by price - no guesses for who's the last manufacturer on the list as for some bizzare reason Dabs are charging more than the Matrox shop!)

http://www.dabs.com/products/prod-search.asp?action=search&tid=700&ob=price&obd=asc&stab=ref&page=4

Also, the huge difference between nVidia's GF4 pricing and Matrox's Parhelia is that the nVidia will have probably dropped by at least 25-50% by the end of the year. There is no way that Matrox will follow this (as they will not be announcing a replacing/upgrading for a while yet unlike nVidia). Much like the G400Max I bought, I expect the Parhelia's price to remain static for quite a while.

The reason people went out and bought 4600's is simply one of "mine's the fastest" With the Parhelia the choice over other cards is more subtle than that. Buying something that is supposed to be more future-proof is more of a gamble.

Picking up on people saying "I spent $xxxx many years ago for an original xxxx and so the new one is good value"... This misses the point by a long way. The massive advances of technology, the cheapness of components (namely RAM) and the competitive nature of the market should be considered as factors.

Matrox 'could' drop the price and potentially sell a whole load more cards (standard pros and cons associated with that argument I know!) but it (to me) would make a little more sense than what we have now. If it was £50 cheaper (well, I personally had a self-imposed upper limit of £300 inc) then it would fall smack in the middle of other cards and therefore wouldn't look out of place at all. The fact that it's the wrong side of all (bar one) existing cards means it's already got work cut out to sell itself.

And please don't say "it's only another £x to get it..." If we all did that we'd all have dual XP2200+ and 1GB RAM, blah blah systems

By all accounts Matrox do indeed have an excellent product. If they'd have got the 64MB unit out at the door at the same time then maybe this'd change peoples view (I'd still go for the 128MB on the basis it should last a bit longer) as the entry level price would be more competitive.

[Ashley]

Originally posted by Ant
I don't think the price is too bad, I paid more for my original Millennium 7 years ago.

Hmmm... I paid well over $1000 for my first hard disk (10MB!), but there's no hard disk on the planet that would be worth $1000 to me today.

Originally posted by Barnaby
I don't think it's an obscene price.. some of the Ti4600's cost upwards of $450, but that didn't stop ppl from buying them..

Actually, that has caused a *lot* of NVidia partisans to *not* buy them. As far as I know, neither the Ti4400 nor the Ti4600 sell very well - not unpredictable since manufacturers couldn't move GF3 Ti500s or GF2 Ultras before that. Its the Ti4200 and the GF4MX especially, that sell very well.

It will be interesting to see when and what Matrox releases between the $400 P-card and the $80 G550...

[Parhelia Pro256]

I'm still trying to forget what I paid for my Voodoo2 and Mystique setup

[MadScot]

When the G400 MAX came out, it was at the top of the range of vid cards, and it seems to have done all right! I know this vid card will last me a few years, so I dont mind paying. I just need a job

MadScot