Tweet
Love the features, but Parhelia doesn't fit for me
I have not been around here for awhile, but I've been with Matrox hardware since the first Mystique.
When Parhelia was announced, I posted skeptical items here to warn people that we've been through this before and the hype never lives up to itself in terms of actual games you will enjoy that look as sexy as the tech demos.
Anyway, here I am months later checking on the prices for Parhelia. It is still priced at 3 times what I paid for a G400 or anything previous. That doesn't fit for my budget.
And how about driver support - hmmm! Nothing for Windows 98/ME! That sucks. I keep Win 98 around so that I have rudder pedals in flight sims. The game port support was dropped in Windows 2000 and up. I have a multi-boot machine with Win 2000 but I want Win 98 for gaming support.
Anyone visiting web logs of a website will know that about 50% of userland is made up of Windows 98 users. They may not all be 3D gamers, but there will likely be someone at the house who is and they probably have some pressure on what video card to buy (like the Dell dude).
I had to upgrade from my G400 when my boss was blowing me away all the time in Quake III due to my 800x600 resolution. I found a cheap nVidia based product that would put me on equal resolution and framerate.
Even if Matrox puts out a new card that is cheaper (the ATI and nVidia business model) it will have to produce decent framerates for the buck or they will lose out to the other guy.
This is sad. It looks like yet another great video card company with innovative technology and great attention paid to the details is going to bite the dust. It reminds me of the death of Rendition or video tape Beta format - the quality one dies and the crappy solution lives on.
I have not been around here for awhile, but I've been with Matrox hardware since the first Mystique.
When Parhelia was announced, I posted skeptical items here to warn people that we've been through this before and the hype never lives up to itself in terms of actual games you will enjoy that look as sexy as the tech demos.
Anyway, here I am months later checking on the prices for Parhelia. It is still priced at 3 times what I paid for a G400 or anything previous. That doesn't fit for my budget.
And how about driver support - hmmm! Nothing for Windows 98/ME! That sucks. I keep Win 98 around so that I have rudder pedals in flight sims. The game port support was dropped in Windows 2000 and up. I have a multi-boot machine with Win 2000 but I want Win 98 for gaming support.
Anyone visiting web logs of a website will know that about 50% of userland is made up of Windows 98 users. They may not all be 3D gamers, but there will likely be someone at the house who is and they probably have some pressure on what video card to buy (like the Dell dude).
I had to upgrade from my G400 when my boss was blowing me away all the time in Quake III due to my 800x600 resolution. I found a cheap nVidia based product that would put me on equal resolution and framerate.
Even if Matrox puts out a new card that is cheaper (the ATI and nVidia business model) it will have to produce decent framerates for the buck or they will lose out to the other guy.
This is sad. It looks like yet another great video card company with innovative technology and great attention paid to the details is going to bite the dust. It reminds me of the death of Rendition or video tape Beta format - the quality one dies and the crappy solution lives on.
Comment