How does Parhelia do at these games?

[Clevor]

I know these are toughies, but I am considering a Parhelia card and would like to know if the following games are playable on a Parhelia at 1600x1200x32, around 4xFSAA and max aniso (does aniso still not work at all on some games?):

#1 toughie: Aquanox, all settings maxed
#2: Ghost Recon, all settings maxed
#3: Max Payne, all settings to high
#4: IL-2 Sturmovik
#5: UT 2003
#6: MOHAA, all settings maxed

Be aware I have a 9700 Pro and Ti 4600 card and so I am pretty spoiled.

By 'playable' I don't necessarily mean frame rates. I've found 30 fps and up is playable. What I mean is is there any mouse lag when looking around? Are the pans jerky, ragged, or shuddery? As long as there is no mouse lag, looking around is pretty instant and quick, and pans are reasonably smooth, that is playable in my opinion. This could be as low as 28 fps, but naturally I'm looking for 45 fps and up.

[Clevor]

BTW, I got fast rigs, 2.9-3.0 giggers with 3500-4050 bandwidth, although at 1600x1200 the video card is doing all the work. But the fast rig and massive bandwidth do help with the mouse movements.

[Chrono_Wanderer]

why 1600x1200x32? as matrox users, the standards nowadays are 3072x1024@10/10/10/2

okay. just kidding. but why not wait for benchies of the upcoming Parhelia 256MB that is supposed to be launched in 2 weeks time. Anisotropic Filter is still as 2x as i recall. If you have a 9700, why Parhelia? I mean... the 9700 probably can render better 3d because of it's 128-bit internal color percision anyways. Also, if we assume Matrox fixes their AF, it will be 64 samples, while 9700 can do 128 samples. About AA, AFAIK 4x FSAA sucks on P, it runs better with FAA16x. If you play @ 1600x1200x32bpp, IMO there's no reason to get P unless you want the 10-bit everything (ie HDTV-out and DVD) and triplehead.

[Clevor]

Actually I forgot to add Morrowind to the list.

I will say that the 9700 Pro, overclocked to 355/345, will run all those games smoothly at 1600x1200x32, 4xFSAA, and 16x aniso, except Aquanox, which stutters. It may be a driver issue. Ghost Recon is also playable, but a bit ragged. What I hate about the 9700 Pro is the washed out colors compared to a Ti 4600 with Digital Vibrance Control set to lowest setting (which equals a G400 MAX in color vibrance and vividness).

I've used Powerstrip to adjust the gamma, brightness, and contrast of the 9700 Pro but it still is not up to par. I can get the vividness of the color acceptable, but the gamma is too dark for games like Max Payne. I've never seen a Parhelia in action but I assume the color saturation is at least as good as a G400 MAX.

Thanks for the tip on the 256 MB card; I will wait for that if I do purchase.

However, from the 3DMark2001 benches, I suspect the Parhelia will have difficulty running all those games at anything equivalent to those settings. And if aniso is broke, that doesn't help in my eyes.

[Tony Ostinato]

I really dont think its the card for anyone who isnt nuts about surround gaming, but I sure am. I can't stand single screen on games now. I only hope more manufacturers go for the idea cause like i say, i'd hate to go back to one screen.

[Gohan]

Il2 Strumovik runs realy smooth! Only if you start the engiene, the game will stucking a few secons, if you see the smoke.

I played it in 1280 with 16xFAA

[Clevor]

Also the Parhelia won't replace my 9700 Pro. I have 4 rigs, so the Parhelia will go in one of them.

The Ti 500 has great image quality, and runs smooth at 1600x1200 in all games, but forget about enabling aniso, much less with FSAA. Because of that, the card is a waste.

The 9700 Pro is twice as fast if max aniso and 4xFSAA is turned on. But the Nvidia card has a bit better aniso than the ATI. I think ATI is still cheating with the drivers as the aniso is a bit less crisp.

But it is great to see ATI kick Nvidia's butt. You figure even if Nvidia ups the ante with the NV30 and it is twice as fast as the Ti 4600 with max aniso and FSAA on, that still only makes it equal to a 9700 Pro. Nvidia is gonna have to work harder.

I played Morrowind at 1600x1200, max distance and real time shadows maxed out, without the nocd executable. It is indeed the smoothest I've seen so far on the 9700 Pro. Still a bit ragged in areas. The rig was a 2.91 gigger (DDR) with around 2600 bandwidth, not my fastest rig either. But had problems with flashing textures.

Matrox is going to have to fix the aniso before I bite on the Parhelia, though. And it needs to be something equivalent to 16x ATI and 8x Nvidia.

[Pace]

Just a little note, don't even look at FSAA scores. Hopefully some actual Parhelia owners can enlighten you as to whether Matrox's 16x FAA works on these games, but FAA offers incomparable framerates when compared to FSAA - and better quality too, and that's without touching on the Parhelia's finely filtered output

P.

[Clevor]

Actually I meant Ti 4600, not Ti 500 in my last post. The Ti 4600 runs all the games smoothly at 1600x1200, but once you enable aniso, forget it, much less with FSAA. That's why the card is a waste. Can't live without max aniso once you've seen it.

The 4xFSAA on the 9700 Pro is awfully good, and I haven't even tried higher (believe it does 6x). But then I'm using it at 1600x1200 .

Could use better color vibrancy and a bit crisper textures, but image quality at 1600x1200x32, 4xFSAA, and 16x aniso on the 9700 Pro is almost perfect. Getting greedy here, but 50% more speed would be nice, for stuff like Aquanox and Ghost Recon. The technology is getting there.

BTW, I was wrong in an earlier post. My 9700 Pro overclocked to 355/345 does not get a 9800 3DMark2001 score with 4xFSAA and max aniso. I checked my notes and it was actually 8900.

[Pace]

Do you expect the Parhelia to be 50% faster? I hope not

[GNEP]

Clevor: the advantages of a Parhelia are really quite subjective.

You seem to have plenty of cash around (judgin by the systems!) - so why not get one and plop it in with 3 CRTs and see?

[DentyCracker]

U can always send it back if it isn't up to scratch

[Clevor]

GNEP, I don't have a lot of cash (just a lot of credit card debt, heh). But I am in Japan so it is easy to sell stuff used. No haggling on Ebay, you get a fixed price for everything. So I buy the latest and greatest video card, and sell it just before the next one is on the market, and I can recoup 50% to 70% of my original cost.

Corsair XMS DDR is real expensive here. I can buy a stick in the U.S. and sell it used here for what I paid for it!

So Dentycracker, I can't go to CompUSA, try something out, and return it in a week. Most the mail order firms won't take anything back anymore unless defective, and if they do, they charge a 15-20% restocking fee, quite a chunk on a $300+ purchase.

With the yen rate, I can get an OEM Parhelia for maybe $267, but now the 256 MB is out . . .

[typedef enum]

The review that I'm working on right now answers most of your gaming questions, interestingly enough.

I don't have Aquanox on my system any longer, as it was a _really_ crappy game (despite the visuals).

I'm very hopeful to have this bad boy done within the next 5 days or so...but until then, I can tell you that there will probably be some surprises in there, as it relates to performance.

[Clevor]

Typedef enum, looking forward to your review! You might want to throw in UT2003 and Nascar2002. I just benched them over the weekend at 1600x1200x32, 4xFSAA, and max aniso on my overclocked 9700 Pro. I wasn't too pleased with the results: got 53/33 fps in the UT2003 benchmark, although the game was fluid and fast. In Nascar 2002 I got 45 fps average, and there was only one car on the track! Sacrifice and Giants are still awfully tough too. Even on the o/ced 9700 Pro, I still only get 40-50 fps at those settings. Must have been the program coding used in those games.

And BTW, this is on a rig that normally gets a 15,409/18,179 3DMark2001/2000 score with a 9700 Pro overclocked to 355/345!

I was wrong about the technology almost being there. We need more frame rates!