What are your first impressions of the Parhelia ?

[thop]

i wish newegg would ship to europe especially since the EURO is pretty high right now.

[DGhost]

Originally posted by [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

a $400 card not soundly beating a $300 card is forgivable to me because of all the stuff it can do... and the Matrox name...

but, for it to be beaten by a $200 (or in some cases cases, sub-$100).

Granted, the FSAA performance difference is impressive, but i am concerned about what happens with the next generations of games. you know, the ones that acctually will make the GPU work? its good to know that on my 8500 i can disable FAA and double framerates.

i've been around long enough to know that framerate isn't everything... but... its showing pretty abysmal framerates on the things that it supposedly is optimized for...

Edit: just noticed how extremely negative my comments were... to put a different spin on it, i will probably still buy a Parhelia card, just because i do love Matrox and i do love their cards. i just know i am gonna put money into other things first, and wait a bit to see how the landscape changes.

[Agent31]

You can't complain about prices unless you're in Australia, thankyou.

When you're paying US$550 for the OEM card, THEN you may complain.

[tmservo]

The OEM seems likely to street @ $339.

[Marshmallowman]

In Australia the lowest I have seen is $980 Au
which is about $450 US for an Bulk card...

I think the parhelia will probably be beating nv4200 and ati8500 with the settings I want in 6 months...

this is not a rewarmed card with rewarmed drivers..it is completely new...you will see BIG increases in the future with driver optimisations and it won't stall in crunch situations like nv or ati(to a lesser extent).

These are new drivers written for stabilty and compatibility, its just TOO new to be otherwise, I would be very suprised if there are any significant optimsations in place.

The same parhelia card to day will get faster, geforce 4's and ati 8500 are already fullly optimised.

If you buy a parhelia now you have something to look forward to, Geforce 4 and ati 8500 will give you performance today...but as time goes on they will not get any faster.

I have an ATI 8500 in one of my machines, when I bought it, it was slower than a geforce 3 Ti200, now its comparable to a geforce 4 4200...thats for a evolutionary series based on the original radeon...I think matroxs totaly new card will be looking very good next year.

[Johnny Ray]

I was seriously considering one, but based on what I've read, I'll keep my Ti4600 in my game rig, and my G400Max in my work rig.

John

[xortam]

I agree that we should expect significant speed increases as these drivers mature considering their current state. The question will be how will it compare to what the competition has to offer at that time. I'll be waiting.

[crow8k3a]

driver increase

i have just talked to haig over at matrox,

he said the mature drivers should increase speeds approximately 10%

[xortam]

10 %

Sigh ... another disappointment.

[Kruzin]

Interesting, since Haig is vacation...

[crow8k3a]

geez, people are so untrusting these days. go check out the official matrox forums under hardware.

there is your proof

[tmservo]

The link to Haig's response is here:

http://forum.matrox.com/mgaforum/Forum8/HTML/001297.html

[crow8k3a]

see?

i am movementinstilllife on the matrox forums

[stmok]

MATROX NEVER STATED : THIS IS A GF4 Killer or a BRUTE FORCE
FPS dominating card. If you believed that, you are gravely mistaken and will be extremely disappointed. (As many of you are!)

And if you're expecting to run DOOM III on a Parhelia with high frame rates, DON'T! You'll be disappointed here as well!
If you want all out performance, upcoming cards with ATI's R300 or Nvidia's NV30 and NV35 are the choice.

I personally think the Parhelia is great for my needs.

I study Aero Engineering and run alot of apps such as CAD, Finite Element Analysis, Matlab, etc. Sharp, high quality images are a benefit here for me.

Most of the time I'm in the Windows desktop, surfing the web, watching a movie or edit some video clips.

Occasionally, I play Jedi Knight II. I'm happy with 50fps and high quality settings at 1024x768x32bit. Highest frames per second as possible are not a requirement for me.

Obviously, your uses are different and gaming is your priority, hence your disappointment in this card.

Performance-wise...Put it in Jedi terms...

Parhelia = Jedi Apprentice
Radeon 8500 = Jedi Knight/Master
GF4 Ti 4600 = Jedi Knight/Master

The Apprentice has "not yet in full control of his Force powers , his/her light saber techniques are not fully mastered" (THE DRIVERS!), and is in effect as not as effective as the Knights or Masters. (Low benchmark numbers)

So when you dumped them all in a Jedi vs Sith "bar fight", don't expect the Jedi Apprentice to beat a a Sith of a higher level in an all out match.

[Kruzin]

If you want your posts to be believed the first time around, try posting a link next time.

I think Haig is being safely conservative with his statements.