Doom 3 and Parhelia 512

[DGhost]

between a 128MB Bulk and 256MB there should be no performance difference unless you are doing things that really, really hog memory. If you have to ask if you need it or not, then you don't.

re: JC and the Parhelia. Yes, he made a few comments. Yes, his points are all very valid and true. none of the features that make the Parhelia a unique card will provide any benefit in doom 3 - in fact they will take away from the game. Yes, the raw performance of the Parhelia seems to be rather disappointing - and as of 8 months after JC wrote that, the performance was still just plain sorry for what the card should be able to do.

re: quads and displacement mapping. the retraction of his comments about it being a quad based displacement mapping method have nothing to do with the rest of his statements. it is a small, technical detail. Ultimately, its not even a big deal since no one uses displacement mapping now and since Matrox apparently is not doing any DX9 level work on the Parhelia, despite the core being compatable.

[DGhost77]

Okay so there is no peformance issue from the 128 megsd compared to the 256 megs. Except like you said depending of what hyou do with the card. I would be better with the 128 megs for playing Quake 3, except Doom 3. Geee what a tough wold for matrox and IDsoftware fans.

[DeadAgain]

Man, this is an unhappy thread.

I put my Parhelia in mothballs a couple weeks ago in favor of an ATi based triple screen setup. It was a tough decision considering I was a strong supporter from the get-go. There were two final nails in the coffin for my P: 1) Newer game demos like FarCry were unplayable messes, and with Doom3 and Half-Life, STALKER, etc. on the horizon, I want to be ready. 2) Most of the games I play most (BF1942, Call of Duty, etc) only run in single screen mode anyway.

My two peripheral screens were being wasted anyhow. Now, desktop application use had it goin' on! So I didn't want to lose that. So, I went out and got a Radeon 9800XT and 9000 = Triple Head desktop. So, we're talking $500 dollars for a new video setup ... a setup I would have been happy to pay Matrox for in a single card solution that kicks serious ass. But they don't have such a solution--at least not an announced one.

So, I basically have the exact same setup, but with a card that tears through every demo and game in my arsenal.

I'm happy again.

[Che Guevara]

Don't buy the 256 mb version for gaming, more ram is not worth lower clock.

Further, I still try to believe the DX9 matrox card will really be released between june and august...

[piaxVirus]

Can you still run games in surround using that setup? I was under the impression that all three screens need to run off of the same card in order to get a stretched desktop, which is required for surround gaming. Even if it did work, the 9000 would be too slow.

[DeadAgain]

piaxVirus,

Well to be clear ... I can no longer have "Surround Mode" in games. But as surround mode is non-existant in the games I actually play, its a wash.

What I have going on is the Radeon 9800XT in the AGP slot (obviously), and a Radeon 9000 PCI in a PCI slot (naturally). The XT is connected to the center LCD. The right and left LCDs are connected to the 9000. Now, you can use ATi's HydraVision, but I think it sucks ass. So I use UltraMon, which is a thirdparty licensed software that allows you to manipulate up to 10 monitors into a single "desktop". Lots of nice features in it.

Anyway, I have my 3840x1024 WindowsXP desktop back, with the exact same functionality that I had with the Parhelia and PowerDesk. So, no, Surround Gaming is not an option, but I still have the Parhelia ... so if I ever get an itch to run bumper to bumper in NASCAR 2003 Racing Season, its just a simple swap.

Thing is, I know this is an over the top setup ... and if my tax refund wasn't so nice, I would still be using the Parhelia.

[Paddy the wak]

BF1942 & Call of Duty both run in Surround.

[SaTaN^666]

correction, bf1942 runs surround perfectly but cod only does surround in single player. some people need a clarification for cod duty cuz my friend was told that yes cod runs sg no problems. and he bought the game and isnt too happy because it wont let him do it in multyplayer. kinda sucks cuz its a great game

[DeadAgain]

Really? BF1942 runs surround in multiplayer? I thought they took it out. Or maybe there's a workaround you speak of? Call of Duty defintely doesn't do surround in MP. I tried everything I could think of and no dice.

I suppose it would have been much better for me to be more exact. I play mostly multiplayer games these days, except for NOLF2 and Tron 2.0 (Lithtech engines) and these games haven't supported surround gaming.

The only games I had that rocked my world (that I owned) with Surround Gaming were NASCAR 2003 and UT2K3. Wolfenstein ET would have been great, but I just couldn't get into it.

At any rate ... the best thing about it all is that I DO still have the Parhelia if I get a craving for Surround Mode.

[Paddy the wak]

DeadAgain......

BF1942..... http://chr79.free.fr/matrox/

[SaTaN^666]

yea, the only games I play in one screen are the ones that the fov is capped on. and what sux is that certain servers have a fov cap as well. like for return to castle wolf, some servers had a cap of 100 fov. ut 2k3 is really great on sg, but I think battle field is the best game for sg. q3 is my fav game of all time, but battlefield on sg is absolutely breath taking, it makes u wonder how u ever played this game on 1 screen and enjoyed it.

[SaTaN^666]

oh and btw u guys may think that stalker has unbelievable graphics and may not run on the parhelias... may I prove you all wrong about the performance. , want more screens? just ask , im currently trying to figure out how to change the res to 1024x768..and then sg. wish me luck

[az]

I've seen that Stalker video, and damn do I want to try that game... unfortunately, I don't think I can on my stellar Duron 1.3, 256MB, Kyro II...

AZ

[SaTaN^666]

hmm..its not a video :P. Im running the game on my computer . 6 levels. and man is this gonna be one sic game. and I dunno what a kyro is but stalker just might run, they optimized this game to run on a geforce 2 hence why it runs so sweet on a parhelia .

[gt40]

looks sweet, may have to have a go at that stalker.
is the game available as a demo?