Parahelia not DX9 compliant?

[kelleym]

I'm really excited about this board, but my friends over at a flight simulator forum are trying to throw cold water on me by saying (and I quote):

" I am not about to through $400-$500 at a Video card thats not even fully supporting DX9.0 as the Matrox is not fully DX9 and the Nv and ATI card are, only to have These cards come out just a month or two later! LOL!!!"

Okay -- I am so ignorant I have to admit I don't even *know* what DX9 is or why I should care about it, but I don't have a reasonable retort here. Anyone want to step up the plate?

[Kruzin]

Parhelia has some dx9 support, but is not a full dx9 card.
The difference?
Nothing. Not today, not for the next year or 2.
dx9 is not even out yet. And when it does come out, it will be quite a long time before we see any full-blown dx9 games.
dx8.x has been out for quite a while now, and there are very, very few titles that even use all of dx8's functions.
Your friends have been sucked in by marketing hype.

[Kruzin]

oh...and even when dx9 does come out, and in the distant future when there are dx9 games, that does not mean by any stretch of the imagination that Parhelia won't run those games. There may be a couple of features in a couple of years that Parhelia won't be able to do, but no game publisher is going to release a game that will only run on card XXX. That would just be suicide.

[kelleym]

Thanks for the clarification -- I reposted this (hopefully with your permission) on the flight sim boards for the benefit of those there.

As for me, I just can't wait until Matrox ships my board (hmmm -- maybe the end of July? Do I dare hope?)

[DGhost]

now then... another question... how many people have purchased GeForce4 Ti4600's within the last two weeks...

those cards cost $400+ and are not fully DX9 compliant. oh well.

[Fubar|wtf|]

OH, btw.. you can tell your friend that ATI will probably _not_ be a full dx9 card either
Their spec presentation for R300 said "Comprehencive DX9 support" or something close to that. Looks like ATI is in the same boat as Matrox with .15 chips. There is a limit to how much you can add and still get good yields and acceptable prices in production.

[Indiana]

And as already said several times: it does not really matter. At the time when games are really using DX9 (approximating from the past in ~2years), todays gfx-cards will be outdated anyways, so you can get a partially DX10 supporting card by that time....

[kelleym]

Yeah, I'm with all of you guys, but the ignorance runs rampant on the other forums.

The basic sentiment (at least expressed by one vocal contributor) is to "wait and see" because Matrox has not proven to be worthwhile technology. I quote:

"As far as DX9 goes in your post below, your point is quit accurate as far as "needing" DX9, the point I was making is Just as valid if you look back at the GF3 being a DX8 card as compared to other cards that didn?t fully support it, the GF3 was much more advanced and its performance even in non DX8 games showed. Much the same is being said of the Matrox card vs. the competitions (Nv/ATI) fully DX9 capable cards, all of that however remains to be seen but based on past hardware performance comparisons is certainly worth noting as it was."

Even more amusing is his attitude that, aside from shipping soon, the only advantage the Maxtrox board will have is support for three monitors.

I had to laugh outloud -- based only on "that" advantage I not only ordered the board but another monitor! Some folks just don't get it...

[xortam]

The main appeal to me about the P is that it has a number of features that appeal to various applications. I don't game much but I'll appreciate its Surround Gaming and increased performance and smoothness with all 3D features active. I'll appreciate the increase 2D quality including its extra clear font handling. The multi-monitor support will increase my "productivity" by utilizing even more desktop than my current DualHead configuration. I'm hoping for great things when it comes to DVD playback yet all I've heard about is the 10-bit feature and iDCT. The P will be a nice balanced card similar to how the Max has served me for the last three years yet with even more substantial unique 3D features over its current competitors.

[DGhost]

yeah, the major drawsof the Parhelia for me are the 1) quality of the card, you just cannot get better than Matrox anymore. 2) feature set... everything and the kitchen sink, and its not just 3d features either. its image quality features, dual head features, things like surround gaming, 10bit color, the iDCT, improved TV output support, support for dual hardware overlays, dual DVI support (although that is not a big deal right now... maybe for future stuff), the ability to sustain high levels of performance doing complex tasks, the FAA, the Glyph Antialiasing, the fact they claim it will fully support GDI+ 2.0, etc.

its not just another 3d graphics card. its one that will definately last another couple years.