Parhelia: Performance/Features Vs. Price

[GT98]

I know theirs alot of complaing about the Parhelia's Pricing right now. I'm curious to see what you think the Pricing should be considering the Features/Performance levels we have now. I personally think considering the Performance I'm getting now and with the Features of the card...it should retail about $300-350 USD.

[Jazzz]

i think its worth is $250 tbh the only thing that stands out about the P compared to other cards is sharp 2d (no one seems to have commented on the r9700s 2d quality :/) and triple head monitor support, i believe the ATI card has most of the other feature the P has, except 16x FAA buts ATIs 6xFSAA is suppose to look better according to hothardware i think and is most likely still faster than the P.

i think this might offend some people here, im not trying to make enemies but this is honestly my opinion. i think matrox have blatently ripped of some of the matrox fan(boys) as they know they would shell out alot even though it is seriously lacking it performance. But then again they are a company and they r doing what is right for buisness i.e. rip the people off who can afford it when sales dip lower the price. Honestly if the P is worth $350 that means the r300 is worth $500.

In nearly every benchmark the P falls, in games they do and they do professional apps, i seriously do wonder why they brung it out as it seem they have crippled it due to the low clock speed . But their ultra sharp 2d is a very nice feature. I used to be a matrox fan but this card is seriously not good and has come out 6 or 7 months later than it should have.

That being said im happy matrox are re-entering the 3d market and seeing that this is their first card in a while so let em off

[rylan]

We need a MAX version *grins*
The dual highspeed DVI outputs are extremely nice.. can't beat running 2 flat panels in digital mode at 1600x1200.
But I'd say 250-300

[Novdid]

If they get certified OpenGL drivers out the door then the board is easy worth $400...but that's not the case is it???

[BuddMan]

Well, the price should really drop because of the 9700...

[GT98]

Originally posted by BuddMan
Well, the price should really drop because of the 9700...

Well "problem is" that it won't. The G400MAX never dropped in price when the Geforce came out about 6 months after it, if I remeber correctly. People have to remember that M isn't Totally dependant on just Video cards to make money like ATI or Nvidia. If that was the case it would have been out of busness 2 years ago after the G550 Distaster.

[103er-Fan]

Well, I would say 300-350$ would be ok, especially now when we see that the Radeon 9700 is just a few weeks away from the store shelves.
For me it seems that the Radeon 9700 is basicly what the Parhelia should have been: It offers best performance with all eye candy turned on, when I look at the Beyond3d review, I can see that many games are still playable in 1280x960x32, 4xFSAA and 16xAF. I am not sure if the P. can provide playable situations in this scenario, especially because it has only 2xAF at the moment.

But now back to the question:
The P. is a great card, for games and maybe the best card for any 2d applications/home cinema. But it is not worth the 400$ anymore, if I would be today in the situation to buy a new graphics card, I would buy the P. again, but only for 360€ max. which is about 100€ less than the cheapest available retail P. in germany.
I bought that card because I wanted a card which runs every game in 1024x768x32, full F(S)AA and good AF settings.
16xFAA is a very nice feature, however it doesn't work as good as I expected. On the MS Train Sim the most important parts don't get any AA at all. Then Aniso still isn't fixed, we are still limited at 2xAF.... but actually I am a bit disappointed about the AF performance. Yesterday I started my favourite game (AHL) for the first time since I got my P. and I was shocked about it's performance: The card Parhelia handles this Half-Life mod very poor, the setting I wanted to play it with is unplayable.

[Unam]

I remember the first poll, I would have been happy to pay $500 CDN for something that would have out paced the 4600 and had all the professional features. (Not to mention the image quality)

With the P out there is no way I would give Matrox more than $300. It retails here in Canada for over $600!

I have used matrox cards for a long time and paid a premium for them, but this is ridiculous.

[lecter]

I think 300$ would be a more of a fair price based on the quality and features....the price premium that some retailers ask for it is ridiculous, it seems that if you're lucky you can get it for under 400$, if you're not, you have to pay as much as 600$ for it...