I finally did it!

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After a long, agonizing period, I finally decided to bite the bullet and buy a Parhelia. Yes, I know...who gives a crap, eh?

There were several factors into making this purchase, so I thought I might share them with whoever might care

1. 2D: In years past, I would pretty much dismiss this altogether. Now that I work in the "real world," I spend an amazing amount of time on my system doing work. I want/need the best quality 2D.

2. Dual DVI: I recently bought 2 Dell FP2000's, and the quality is outstanding...err...as far as DVI goes Seriously, I think it's a side effect of this Ti4200 that I'm using right now...but you wouldn't believe how crappy it looks on the analog output.

3. Surround Gaming: This was a definite feature for me. I mean, how many features have come out in the last 4 years that have truly changed the way you game?

- FSAA: Yes, it improves the visual quality...but it doesn't literally change the immersion factor at all.

- Anisotropic Filtering: Enhances texture quality...doesn't touch immersion at all

- T&L: hehe...no need to comment there

- Pixel/Vertex Shaders: Um...err...I don't have any game (still) that employs this...it's a non-tangible feature @ the moment.

4. FAA: This is a bit of a catch-22. When it works, it kicks ass...when it doesn't, you're kinda screwed. 4xFSAA really does tank too much in the benchmarks...but I'm hoping that this steadily gets better.

5. Solid multi-monitor support: Nobody's better than Maxtrox...pure and simple.

Those are my main reasons...I was tempted to go with a 9700...but in the end, I saw that it offered nothing significant over my current solution.

So, if you're kinda teetering on making a decision...and any of the above seem familiar...maybe it's time to give one a whirl, eh?

[Supernaut]

I think you bring up some valid points. So far, I think the P is the cheapest single dual dvi card besides the dual dvi version of the previous matrox cards.
If I can get the P running counter strike n Doom 3 well with all the details cranked up and all the features like FAA and Anisotropic filtering off, then thats good enuff for me. Also, triplehead is uber kewl, even though it would be annoying to run since I will have 2 change over from dual dvi to triple analog whenever I want to use it. But the question is whether the matrox has enuff raw power to run Doom 3 the way I the Carmack envisioned it

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Super,

This is just my opinion...But I don't care about Doom III. Well, OK...I do. But given the fact that I know I won't be able to buy the thing until next Spring (at the earliest), it's a bit of a moot point.

I'm pretty sure I will end up buying some faster by then, because I pretty much realize that the "P" won't really be adequate for Doom III.

Having said that, here's the thing to consider. I've got (as I'm most others do) a plentiful amount of games that would just rock with surround gaming. Hell, I would even go back to games that have already been completed/finished just to do it all over again with something like S.G.

The day that Matrox can hook us up with some NHL/Madden in S.G. is the day that, all by itself, would make the P worthwhile. I just cannot imagine playing some hockey with S.G...!

[Snake-Eyes]

The Gainward GF4Ti4600 XP/750 Golden Sample has dual-output DVIs.

Then again, you don't get the 16xFAA or the possibility of moving to a triple display setup with anything but the Parhelia.