Matrox Legendary 2D Image Quality Revisited

[Sr17]

The results shown by the link you gave are completely false....

I own a Parhelia and many of the cards tested in the test and i can say that this test is not serious at all.

Despite it's banding problem, the image quality of the Parhelia is Excellent.

I have personnaly done quality tests on high end CRT monitor (Sony F520) and i have done tests on all my cards with same monitor, same video cables, same refresh frequency and resolutions. And tests at 1600*1200 and higher resolutions...

-Parhelia is much better than the Hercules Radeon 8500 LE (The test shown Radeon better than Parhelia).

-Parhelia is Much better than G550 and G450.

-Parhelia is on par with the old G400 which is much better than many other cards.

Conclusion : The test is done by not serious students which are playing not seriously with a scope. They seem to don't know that nobody use a graphic card to display to a scope.
They don't kwow that signal form whill vary with the device that is connected on it...

The signal form which is output by the graphic card do account of the compensation circuitry on the monitors.

A "perfect" signal quality on a scope may not be at all a good idea to have the best image quality on the screen because of the compensation circuits of the monitors.

[The PIT]

You know I wonder what people think as excellant. If I had a card that banded I wouldn't call it's display excellant I would choose the word flawed as it would really annoy me.

[Sr17]

Originally posted by The PIT
You know I wonder what people think as excellant. If I had a card that banded I wouldn't call it's display excellant I would choose the word flawed as it would really annoy me.

The card ISN'T banding in 2D.

The readability of the text is realy excellent with that card.

The banding problem is only with 3D use when there are a lot of parts of the chips which are working.

Im am using the Parhelia for working all days but i also plays with it 1 or 2 hours per day with games like UT2003. I can say that the banding problème is not so anoying : You forget it quickly.

But it's true that the bandng problèm seems to vary from board to board.

[SteveC]

Yep - I get the banding on the PowerDVD overlay test too. Maggi and I were the first to notice it I think.

[X-Caliber]

I have also noticed bands on my display - a 19" CRT running @ 1600x1200x85HZ. At first I thought I broke my monitor - I didnt' realize it was my new (and now crappy) video card

[gangster]

No, there are work-a-rounds for this issue. Unfortunately, as far as I know, it means a DVI connected monitor. Others have opinions to.

[gangster]

Originally posted by X-Caliber
I have also noticed bands on my display - a 19" CRT running @ 1600x1200x85HZ. At first I thought I broke my monitor - I didnt' realize it was my new (and now crappy) video card

Your card isn't "crappy"....................

[X-Caliber]

yeah, maybe crappy is a bad word.....But my CRT monitor has both DVI ports and a VGA port. I guess it has a built-in ADC....Do you think the banding will disappear if I use the DVI ports? Of course, I would have to run out and buy a DVI-DVI cable...

[Marshmallowman]

The only CRT's I have seen with DVI connectors only use DVI-A which is just the analogue section of the dvi port anyway...check you monitor specs, but I think a DVI cable would be a waste

[The PIT]

Originally posted by Sr17
The card ISN'T banding in 2D.

Sadly if you bothered to search the forums you would realise that in some cases it does. As for annoyance that depends on the person and how bad it is as it varies between cards.

[Wombat]

Originally posted by gangster
Your card isn't "crappy"....................

Yes, actually, yes it is.

[Sr17]

Originally posted by The PIT
Sadly if you bothered to search the forums you would realise that in some cases it does. As for annoyance that depends on the person and how bad it is as it varies between cards.

For my card, it has absolutely no banding problems in 2D.

And i am very sensitive to a problem like this because i am working a long time per day with my computer.

If it were only a little banding in my screen in 2D, i could not have missed it. But there are no banding at all.

Yes, i have readed in the forums that somebody have "very banding" cards and others that have "no banding" cards.

I would like to understand is the cause of the problem.

Defective chips or defective regulation components ? PLL frequency synchornisation problems with some monitors ? Or maybe interferences that might disturb the chip with some motherboards ?

It may also be a problem with the chip power supply. It might also be related to power supply capacity of the motherboard and power supply. I think the parhelia eat a lot of power but don't have external power connector.

Because i have also encoutered some banding problems with other cards i know that it might come from a lot of causes.

But it's clear for me that a card which don't offer the required image quality in 2D is a defective card that must be changed by Matrox.

[Sr17]

Originally posted by gangster
No, there are work-a-rounds for this issue. Unfortunately, as far as I know, it means a DVI connected monitor. Others have opinions to.

Maybe there are other workarounds to this problem if the cause isn't a defective chip.

I am running my Parhelia on a P4B533 Asus mobo and i am using a very strong Antec 480 Watts power supply. Maybe it could help. Maybe not. But like audio, if you want a good signal quality in video you must have good and reactive power supply and a motherboard that are not limiting intensity provided to graphic card.

Computer must also mounted seriously in doing careful placement of other PCI cards. There must be nothing around graphics card and the first PCI card used must be choosen. Don't put a card which is doing heavy interferences like sound cards at the first place near graphics card.

[Wombat]

I switched to a high-quality 450W power supply to try to alleviate the banding. It didn't help.

[The PIT]

Sr17 I think you're confusing external interferance with an internal design fault.