What are your first impressions of the Parhelia ?

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A little poll to sample the first impressions after reviews have started hitting the web

[bibble]

We all knew what to expect, M has been saying it is not there to beat a 4600 card. It does enough, the card is sweet

[MrGaribaldi]

I was hoping for much more, but wasn't expecting anything else either...

Now what i want to know is how big variations are there in the P's FPS?
Is it just like the GF's with over 100 FPS dips, or does it make do with 10-15 FPS loss in certain scenes?

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Originally posted by MrGaribaldi
I was hoping for much more, but wasn't expecting anything else either...

Now what i want to know is how big variations are there in the P's FPS?
Is it just like the GF's with over 100 FPS dips, or does it make do with 10-15 FPS loss in certain scenes?

Look at one of the other threads, there's a picture in there of the fps over time, exactly the same pattern as every other card ...
So far for the stable fps ?

[Drizzt]

"Not too bad but I had hope for a bit more".

However I'm waiting for the 64 MB version. If it will cost €100 less, it will be what I was really expecting.

[GT98]

I went with number 2, but I am slightly disspointed with with numbers so far, but this only based off of 2 reviews I've seen so far. Plus Future driver revisions will weigh in on this. I'm starting to have second thoughts about getting it also, but in all likelyhood I'll still get it

[Snake007uk]

im disapointed at the moment i thought it would do alot better then it did, considering the Nvidia nv30 and the ati r300 will be out at the end of the year and matrox wont release a new card for ages, id thought they would have made a bit more 3d capable ?

[103er-Fan]

First I would like to say that I usualy set my first impression on how the card is running in my system. Since these P4 >2,5 GHz and these XP2100's are way faster than my "aging" Atlon 1 Ghz.
But about the performance which has been showed in the reviews I have to admit that I am slightly disapointed
But I hoped for a bit more, that is for both FAA performance as well as raw performance. What I am really disappointed from so far seems the Aniso quality, but 3dCenter already stated that this seems to be a bug, so I set high hopes on Matrox driver team. Another thing what I don't understand why Matrox use these strange .NET driver interface, it is around 20 MB large! Also why doesn't include Matrox a DVD player in the retail package? Almost every card, even some noname GF4 MX cards have DVD players included, especially because Matrox is claiming great DVD quality.

Enough talking, I voted the 2nd, still hoping for better drivers, the past always showed that driver-development can boost performance up to 30%!

[Dogbert]

I think that as an "out of the box" it's the best card to come out in the last few years (do you remember all the "issues" with ATI/nVIDIA cards ?)

At last a company with enough self dignity not to sell half baked goods

[maharajah]

If the card was $300, I would say the the Parhelia beats all my expectations. For $400, I'm still iffy. Don't know if to get a cheapie now and wait for the, hopefully higher clocked, .13 version, or buy now and OC myself.
Mmmm... OK where's that $100 off coupon for ShopMatrox

[Dogbert]

Watercooling anyone ?

[[Ch]amsalot]

A lot worse, but that's only because I expect a $400 part to outperform a $300 part on all levels.

Had Matrox priced the card at $300, my viewpoint would change considerably.

-[Ch]amsalot

[The PIT]

It does seem a bit pricey when you look at the performance.

[MrGaribaldi]

The Pit> Depends on where you live... Just checked a couple of webshops here in norway, and guess what...

The P is about par with the ti4600... (meaning they're both damn expensive, retaling around 499$ here)...)

And since the preorder price for the P is 299$ for norway I'm saving about 200$...

[Novdid]

If future drivers increase the performance of the card much in the same manner as the R8500 drivers has done over the past 6 months...hm...that would mean a 50% increase!!!

Well you can always hope, but I have found myself not giving a damn...want Triplehead and Gigacolor!!!