So who is getting Parhelia??

[GT98]

I have one preordered....thinking long and hard if I want to keep that order or not...

[Drizzt]

I will surely buy one, but still have to decide in wich way.
I'm a registered developer, a hardware reseller and work in a hardware shop.

Must see what the prices are for each option ^^;;;

[mikeul]

I won't get a parhelia.
Some of you guys will brand me a ATI-diot or whatever for my negative posts, but I want to remind everyone that hate often comes from a love story gone bad...
Parhelia is far too expensive than what it's worth, and John Carmack's opinions show that there is not much to hope in the parhelia and that its features are not useful.

[piaxVirus]

I will be getting one when it becomes available from my distributor. Which will probably be in august.

JC's comments only pertain to his engine. Which won't be out for more then year and they only apply to half of the FPS genre (UT and other engine make up the rest). I found everyones reactions funny. Since any new cards that wants to be DX9 compatible will be implementing DM and 40bit color. So these features will be found on the R300 and NV30. Now I am not sure that they won't implement 48bit color in order to achieve a usable stencil buffer. The 40bit color of the parhelia (and also the P10) is more directed towards professional photo editing, cad, HDTV, and games that don't require the stecile buffer. DM is more useful for large outdoor areas of racing and flying games.

The alpha boards were clocked much higher then the retail boards. And the chip is capable of running at a higher mhz speed. This is the first time I have heard of a GPU being released underclocked. Most of the time they are set too high and have problems with overheating.

I was around when the G400 first came out. I remember hearing the complaints of it running slower then the TNT and other cards at lower resolutions. Yet the G400 out performed the competition at the higher resolutions with 32bit color enabled. That situation is very similar to what is happing today with the parhelia. The driver speed for the G400 have improved greatly since then. I expect the driver proformance for the parhelia to improve by 15% over the next 6 months.

With faster drivers, a slight overclocking, and a faster system (Hammer 3600+ with DDR400 or DDR-II). The parhelia should have more then enough power for any future games.

The ETA of Q3 2003 for doom3 is way in the distant future.

[HaloFX]

I am buying one ASAP!
I needed this card a year ago!

I don't understand why so many people insist on thinking this is a gaming card? Is it because most people just don't know how to use a computer for anything else?

This is a workstation card, like the Wildcat and FireGL. They cost 2 to 3 times what Parhelia costs, and their gaming scores are even worse! No one seems to bitch about them.

Every where I look it is "Matrox/Parhelia Sucks!". It just goes to show these people have never done real work on a computer!

[Technoid]

As soon as it is awailable in Sweden I'l get one!

[mstoppa]

I will get one as soon as I can get Matrox to ship it to Bermuda :-)
Finally a card that I can use for work.

[TdB]

I think I will get one, when I can order it in danish online shops. this card is going to be SOOO much better than my kyro2.

[Joel]

I don't understand why so many people insist on thinking this is a gaming card? Is it because most people just don't know how to use a computer for anything else?

No I think it's because they think that by buying a PC instead of a dedicated console unit, which is really what they need if all they care about is games and speed, it makes them look like less of a kid. And yeah most of them don't know how to use a computer.

Joel

[Kosh Naranek]

I really recent that !!

Just because you care about speed in games doesn't make you a child !

Just because parhelia didn't live up to everyones dreams, everybody who doesn't like it because of it's lack of raw speed is suddenly not worthy of owning a computer.

I.E .. being a top 10 world class gamer in UT is something a lot of ppl takes very seriously.

I play games on my PC ... and I'm very skilled in the games I play.

I use Lightwave on my PC .. I know how to use it !

I Program on my PC .. I know how to program.

I don't want to buy a Parhelia because of it's lack of raw speed.

I surf the web and participate in Hardware forums .. heck I even write small programs for some of their users.

I know how to build my own computer.

I know how to tweak Win XP in ways most ppl only heard off.

I know how to help ppl with their computer problems and usually I can make their computers run better than when they brought it to me.

I know ......

I know ...

and so on .. and so on...

And now I'm told by the oh so serious MURC that I shouldn't have a computer just because I don't want a parhelia.

[Wombat]

I.E .. being a top 10 world class gamer in UT is something a lot of ppl takes very seriously.

And? I went to college with a guy who was ranked #8 and higher - he didn't care what hardware he was using. Oh, and it's pitiful that you consider this something worth taking seriously.

[Kruzin]

Funny how surround gaming is being concidered to be "not for the masses", "too few people can afford it", etc. by some, and being dismissed as appealing to too few people.
Whereas being a top 10 player (which apllies to TEN people in the whole world) should now be concidered important.

[CHHAS]

Kruzin, how can you consider something that would require most people to go out and not only get an expensive graphics card, but two additional monitors, for the masses ?

[Kruzin]

I'm not saying it is.
I'm saying that making a stink out of it "not being for the masses", then rambling about the needs of a so-called "top 10 player", as if that point of view is of paramount importance to the world is just silly.

[xortam]

Don't a lot of the competitvie FPS players tweak their games for speed to the point that they look butt-ugly? IQ is paramount to me when I buy graphics HW.