Parhelia vs P750

[ScientificLee]

Hi,

I've been meaning to purchase a P750 for sometime now. Except bills have kept pushing back that day.

I've recently been offered to purchase someone's used Parhelia 128 Megs-AGP for a good price. Except I don't know anything about the Parhelia.

My intended use does not include any gaming except Civ 3. The programs I use a lot are Excel, Word, browser, Visual Studio, SQL Server.

My current MoBo only has an AGP pro slot though.

[Jammrock]

We're off to Matrox Hardware, the wonderful hardware of Matrox. Because because because becaaauuuuuuse. This is the wrong forum for Matrox stuff.

da da da da da duh da.

Jammrock

[ScientificLee]

I should have been clear. Is there any disadvantage or advantage of getting one or the other?

[Kruzin]

The P750 is basically a stripped down Parhelia.
Parhelia has more features, and much more power.

[dZeus]

and much more banding if you're unlucky

[UtwigMU]

Yes, try to test the card prior to purchasing (check for banding - try some game like UT in window mode).

Otherwise, Parhelia is faster for 3D and has better features and better bundle and also 3D plugins for professional apps.

P750 does support different resolutions when running two DVI monitors AFAIK.

Note that AGP8x version of Parhelia is banding free (if you don't know what banding is, do a search here).

[ScientificLee]

Thanks everyone. I will do a more exhaustive search on banding later. *My first search resulted in a lot of results but they none of the first couple of post describes what banding actually it.

[Kurt]

Beh...it's basically a somewhat annoying effect (that looks like you image has moving waves if I'm not wrong). You mainly get that in 3D apps.

It's a defect, not a feature

Matrox has all but denied it even existed. It affects only the older P models (not the P650/P750/P8x).

[ScientificLee]

OK. Then the Parhelia should not be affected. I'm going to go ahead and buy it. I can't remember the last time I needed 3d graphics.

[Whirl-Secret]

Erm if you don't need 3D graphics, then why go for the extra 3D power that the Parhelia brings?

here's the Matrox product comparison.

http://www.matrox.com/mga/products/comp_chart/gseries_pseries_parhelia.cfm

If there is little difference in price then maybe the Parhelia would be better for any games you may want to play. As you can see the 2D is hardly better at all. The Parhelia can go higher on dual displays, but that's about it.

If it makes any difference I have the P650 and the 2d is wonderful but the 3D isn't really that missed. It's a bit of a step down from an Nvidia/ATI but I have happily played some games since I got the Matrox, even Doom3 was playable, but not worth it as it looked worse than Doom 1 with all the graphics I had to turn off

I've said it before, if you haven't experienced Matrox 2D quality before, you're in for a pleasant suprise. And as long as you don't have com_showFPS on in games, the 3D is not as bad as the propoganda says

[Wombat]

Originally posted by Whirl-Secret
Erm if you don't need 3D graphics, then why go for the extra 3D power that the Parhelia brings?

He's got an offer on a USED Parhelia. Cheaper than any of the P products new, I assume.

[ScientificLee]

Yes, I got an offer for a used Parhelia at too good a deal to pass up. I used to have a Matrox card in 1994 and couldn't of been happier with it.

[Maggi]

Originally posted by ScientificLee
Thanks everyone. I will do a more exhaustive search on banding later. *My first search resulted in a lot of results but they none of the first couple of post describes what banding actually it.

back then, I tried to describe the effect with simulated screenshots

http://forums.murc.ws/showthread.php?postid=326240#post326240