PCI-E dilemma: APVe or P650?

[Kurt]

I will replace my PC at work. I'll go for an Athlon 64 on an NF4 mainboard. I am very tempted to take the APVe but I feel it might be too expensive for what it is.

The P650 would fit my actual needs (2 screens only) but I would like to try surround gaming (is it possible on the APVe?). [obvioulsy I would take the card out of that PC, I would never DARE play at work ]

[Mikko]

Hi,

I suppose you can try Surround Gaming with Parhelia APVe, but don't expect anything spectacular. I asked Matrox Sales about the performance of Parhelia APVe and I got some answers:

Parhelia APVe is based on Parhelia-LX core, so it is 256-bit core unlike Parhelia-512 core, which is 512-bit. They didn't give out any clock speeds, though. They said that even if the PCIe bus had much better bandwidth than AGP-8x bus, it won't help. They think Parhelia APVe has quite good 3D performance, but not up to the level of Parhelia AGP. They also said, that if you prefer Surround Gaming, it would be better to buy a state-of-the-art motherboard (with AGP slot) and the latest 64-bit CPU, instead of Parhelia APVe and a motherboard featuring PCIe slot.

[UtwigMU]

Of course, since the PCI-E GPU is native PCIE, they don't have enough marketshare to justify making also Parhelia class native PCIE GPU.

IMHO go for APVE only if you need 3 screens and plan to play only 2003 and older games.

[Kurt]

beh, it looks like the APVe is really a P750 PCI-E ... which is what I have in AGP.

[Mikko]

That's the way I see it, plus HDTV and Video-in, of course.
I really hope Matrox will release similar card with increased performance in the future...

[UtwigMU]

IMHO not untill Q2 or Q3 next year.

With Longhorn out next year and all manufacturers crazy about meeting the logo specs:
Driver model and hardware requirements are generally specified by now, so companies can now start to work on hardware. While WGF1.0 will probably be DX9.0 with maybe some added features, WGF2.0 will be the real deal.

They probably won't repeat same mistake as with Parhelia when they brought out best DX8.1 hardware (on paper, GF4 was better due to higher clocks, Parhelia was better clock for clock but didn't meet target clock), only to be eclipsed by DX9 R9700 and beyond 8.1 features being useless for DX9 games.

[sparky001]

Apparently there is supposed to be another DirectX, DirectX 9.0L. I asume that this will be an exact copy of the WGF 1.0 only it will be for XP.

I dont know, have matrox got a FID machine yet. That was one of the reasons as to why they didnt hit clock speed last time so I hear.

[Kurt]

OK. I'm getting the P650 PCI-E so I can save a bit of money for a nextgen card

[UtwigMU]

Please report back on the clocks, benchmarks, etc...

[Kurt]

I don't think I'll have much time for benching, but I try to get the clock speed.

[Fluff]

Does the APV have component out for standard pal and ntsc resolutions? Or is it just HD modes?