Announcement

**Chrono_Wanderer** · 26 October 2002, 22:10

AFAIK there's no mobo chipset with 2/3 AGP slots support

or else i would have been running my R8500&G550 together

3dlabs VP series: I think not only VPs, but also the entire line of wildcat cards, would have worse analog quality than a Matrox card. if i remember correctly their max refresh rate on most wildcats IIIs are like 60Hz... quite bad for the price. However, i think VPs have higher refresh rate than the Wildcat 3s. Parhelia should have a cleaner display tho. But who cares: 3dlab's OGL drivers are rock solid AFAIK. After all they are focused on making pro cards... and it seems like only VP can do OGL 2.0. In short, i think VP is a more suitable product.

Matrox Parhelia: There are quite a number of issues on the Parhelia GPU, i.e. the blending, incorrect FAA, and 2X only AF. Unless Matrox fixes these issues through new drivers/new gfx BIOS, i don't think Parhelia is such a good choice to be considered for DCC works, comparing to Wildcat/FireGL cards. Potentially Parhelia is a great idea for DCC works for it's FAA, TripleHead (surround design), specialized drivers, 64-tap AF etc... but the drivers and issues are still in development/investigation... also no OGL 2.0 support for Parhelia.

ATI R9700: Great card, IMO great balance between price/quality/performance. Disadvantage is probably it's poor DualHead functions, no OGL 2.0, and the "well-known" u-know-what drivers. 3dlabs cards should be better at FSAA though.

Okay as an unbiased 3rd person point of view:

Unless you want triplehead, I'd say go for a VP tho because you obviously are doing lots of DCC works so OGL 2.0 beta drivers from 3dlabs will come in handy. Also, their AA should be much more powreful than Parhelia...

**Slougi** · 27 October 2002, 06:34

Re: Parhelia and professional OpenGL usage. Or better choose 3DLabs or R9700 ?

Originally posted by Blacky
The 3D Labs VPxxx boards are said to have a bad display quality. Someone here that's able to confirm this ?

I have heard quite the opposite. This is only hear-say tho, so I can't be sure.

**Dogbert** · 27 October 2002, 07:03

What about Ati FireGL X1 ?

/me puts nomex suit on

**Chrono_Wanderer** · 27 October 2002, 08:22

Not sure but FireGL X1 should be a lot more expensive than VP. Probably X1 was designed to compete with cards like the Wildcat IIIs and IVs, and the FireGL 8800 for VPs

**K6-III** · 27 October 2002, 08:29

The VP980 will compete with the FireGL X1 pricewise...

The VP860 is the one you should get...(within 10% performance for about half the price)...

**Chrono_Wanderer** · 27 October 2002, 11:19

Speaking of pro cards, i wondered why 3dlabs released a more expensive wildcat 4 when their wildcat VPs seem more advanced... i.e. partial DX9 support, same OGL 2.0 support, the advanced Cache architecture on the VP etc...

IMO they should have made the Wildcat 4s a dual VP solution instead. (well the wildcat 4s are based on the VP, but what i meant is use the entire VP core with better DX support)

**Blacky** · 27 October 2002, 15:29

3DLabs had an agreement, with a company from which they've taken over some of their employees, to develope cards with this technology at least until Wildcad 4 . I'm not sure, but I think I've read it was Evans & Sutherland.

So my opinion is that they just wanted to bring this 4th version to get it away so they're now able to concentrate on their new VP technologie.

Yes, a card with multiple VPs would be very interesting. Same for the FireGLX1. Seems to get interesting, too.

Holy s*it. I thought this post would make my decision easier, but now it's getting even harder. Hmmm, buy now or wait until new 3DLabs cards, or GLX1 ?

I've read that ATI's going with OpenGL2.0 and they're active members of the OpenGL decision-board. So I'm sure at least for GLX1 they will do OGL2.0. Hmmmm, I think I will wait for this card. Then I should have good DCC performance, as well as OGL2.0 and high game/3D Engine performance.

BTW: Because of the image quality of 3DLabs cards, I've now read that they (reviewers) had an excelent quality @ their CRT. Hmmm... CT (A german well known mag) said it was miserable. Lol, what a mess is this ?

Don't know. If I should buy one from 3DLabs, I will see. If It's junk, eBay will find a buyer for me.

BTW2: Carmac (Quake/Doom3) is going with ATI, too. And he's addicted to OpenGL (As I'm), too.

Greets,

Michael Ritter (5am|coderz)

**Wombat** · 27 October 2002, 16:58

Yeah, but JC is interested in a very different implementation of OGL than you are. His choices shouldn't influence you.

**Chrono_Wanderer** · 27 October 2002, 18:28

okay here we go Blacky... gonna confuse you more

lol Matrox is also a part of the OpenGL. So let us expect Parhelia to support OGL 2.0, somehow

most importantly, however, is this question: what is your price range. if you can only go with ~800-1000, then there's no point to get FGL X1... unless they launch a 128MB lite version, which i think this is going to happen SOON(TM)

btw... JC... evil... a hardcore fps fan of ATI/nvidia

just kidding

P.S... da*n you man

, have all that money to spend on a gfx card... and actually consider 3dlabs VPs... hmm... check out my sig. A good old G550 with powerful HeadCasting... along with 133MHz core and 166MHz mem clocks

(no 1st generation T&L too)

Announcement

Parhelia and professional OpenGL usage. Or better choose 3DLabs or R9700 ?

Parhelia and professional OpenGL usage. Or better choose 3DLabs or R9700 ?

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