Matrox has no advantages at all??

[Jenix]

I'm a guy who posted a thread on Parhelia just below..

I read some threads here including a poll(Do you Still use a matrox card in your prime machine),

and found some guys' opinions say "matrox has lost its own advantages now"..

For me, 2D performance is very important,..

I need a VGA card that can show me 2D picutures with very very accurate colors..

Despite of low 3D performance, I chose Matrox because I considered 2D most..

Since G550 came out, I haven't compared 2D performance to other brands' at all..

I just made a decision depending on Matrox's brand name..

So I was shocked when I read you guys' thought...


I'm an animator and sometimes, a designer...

(I have no plan to have the second PC at all because I sepent a lot of money

on my workstation..(HDD : 400GB x 4, RAM : 4GB, DVD+_RW : 16X, CPU : 3.72.....))


If I sell my Parhelia, I will be able to get a good card from ATI or nVidia, I think..

I want to listen to your opinions..


What would you do if you were in my situation??



ps. I have one CRT monitor(Analog) and one LCD(DVI)..

I'm using both together with parhelia's dualhead function..

[VJ]

For me, 2D performance is very important,..
I need a VGA card that can show me 2D picutures with very very accurate colors..
Despite of low 3D performance, I chose Matrox because I considered 2D most..

Since G550 came out, I haven't compared 2D performance to other brands' at all..
I just made a decision depending on Matrox's brand name..
So I was shocked when I read you guys' thought...

I'm an animator and sometimes, a designer...
(I have no plan to have the second PC at all because I sepent a lot of money
on my workstation..(HDD : 400GB x 4, RAM : 4GB, DVD+_RW : 16X, CPU : 3.72.....))


If I sell my Parhelia, I will be able to get a good card from ATI or nVidia, I think..

I want to listen to your opinions..


What would you do if you were in my situation??

If your current card suffices (gives good output, ...), why bother to upgrade?

I purchased a Parhelia last year, as it was the only card that offered me the features I liked. Output is great (I do photo editing ), speed is fast enough for me, dual screen implementation is great, and so is tv-out.

As an animator, for you , I take it the wysiwyg plugins (http://www.matrox.com/mga/workstatio...gy/wysiwyg.cfm ) might be very interesting also.

For me, I doubt I'll find a card with another make that would give me the same feature package. Sure, the other cards are faster at 3D, but if you don't need it, why bother?


Jörg

[Jenix]

Thanx, your're very right, I should believe what I see, I'm really satisfied with Parhelia's 2D performance as I said several times here..

But I can't stop thinking of upgrading to a better 3D graphic card because I love 3D games as well..

I'm waiting for a newer card from Matrox, but i don't expect much...

I don't play games that much and really love Parhelia's outputs,

don't need 256MB Memory of VGA, so my final decision was changing

mine (Parhelia 256MB AGP 4X) to new Parhelia 8X(128MB)..

I know, it's not that wise idea but I have no choice..

And today I read some threads here, someone said other brands also give good output these days...

There's no way for me to check if that's true because all the cards I've used are 2003's only..(when I was in company)

That's why I asked here...

If ATI gives me good output then I can consider ATI's as well..



Anyway, even if I couldn't compare Parhelia to others, I can tell it's real nice for 2D work,

satisfied and it's very very clear that I don't have to change if I never play games......

[VJ]

I feel that the other cards (esp. Ati) have come close to Matrox when it comes to 2D image quality. But their multimonitor implementation still has some quirks.

Why would you change your card, if you currently have a Parhelia 256 MB?
(the additional memory is sometimes used by the wysiwyg plugins)


Jörg

[Jenix]

That's because mine is old one(AGP 4X) and new one(AGP 8X) will work faster..

I didn't think that much big memory(256MB) would need when my 2D working,

and thought 128MB was enough for me..

If you got yours last year, it's better than mine..

I bought Parhelia about one and half years ago when it just came out..

At that time I didn't know there would be the new version of parhelia that soon..

early adopters always suffer damage, I think..

[Nicram]

Some test that can help You a little. Parhelia isn't the fastes card in 2D : http://nicram.3rror.com/content.php?article.21

[VJ]

That's because mine is old one(AGP 4X) and new one(AGP 8X) will work faster..

I didn't think that much big memory(256MB) would need when my 2D working,
and thought 128MB was enough for me..

I don't think the difference between the 4x AGP and the 8x AGP will be noticable, IIRC, both are using less bandwith than offered by AGP 4x (but someone will correct me if I'm wrong about this).

In this thread:

http://forum.matrox.com/mga/viewtopic.php?t=14423&start=0

I posted (scroll down on page 1) a problem with a wysiwyg using the 128 MB version; problem was was caused by lack of memory

If you got yours last year, it's better than mine..

I bought Parhelia about one and half years ago when it just came out..
At that time I didn't know there would be the new version of parhelia that soon..

early adopters always suffer damage, I think..

Acutally, I purchased mine a few months before the AGP 8x was released .
(I also didn't know there was going to be an updated version)



Jörg

[Jenix]

Thanks a million I could get a lot of information I never expected,

especially on drivers..,

I thought optimized version drivers had some downsides just like you..

I don't understand why matrox has such a strange strategy neither..


Thanks to you I became more satisfied with my parhelia..^^

[VJ]

Thanks a million I could get a lot of information I never expected,

especially on drivers..,

I thought optimized version drivers had some downsides just like you..
I don't understand why matrox has such a strange strategy neither..

Are there any plugins that suit you?
(3D Studio Max, Combustion, Photoshop, ...)

Thanks to you I became more satisfied with my parhelia..

You're welcome!


I always try to get the most out of my hardware (use optimal software, try all the features, configure properly, ...). Quite often, one finds interesting stuff that way... In case of Parhelia, it doesn't speed it up compared to e.g. ATI, but it could lead to features that are equally - if not more - valuable.
Only when one see the full potential of a piece of hardware, one can decide whether it is suitable or not.
(the smily seems appropriate here )


Jörg

[Gurm]

Matrox STILL has the best multi-display available. Bar none. ATI is catching up but has a ways to go. I don't even want to TALK about nVidia.

When I want to use a second display on a machine with an ATI video card, I don't hook up to ATI's second output - I slap in a G200 PCI.

[Jenix]

Everybody says Matrox's multi-display function is the best...

Why is that???

What's the problem of others' ??

Crash??? I'm just curious, want some examples..

[VJ]

Everybody says Matrox's multi-display function is the best...

Why is that???

What's the problem of others' ??

Crash??? I'm just curious, want some examples..

Mainly versatility: Matrox allows independant refresh rates (without problems!), dual dvi, combinations (dvi/vga, vga/tv-out, dvi/tv-out, ...), ...

Also featurewise: dvdmax is an interesting feature, as is the multi display zoom.

True, others (I believe nVidia) offer more versatility when it comes to virtual desktops (Matrox seems to struggle to get this working properly) and multiple taskbars (Matrox refers to third party software for this).


Jörg

[Chrono_Wanderer]

I don't even want to TALK about nVidia.

Why not? I thought NVIDIA has better drivers than ATI

[Wombat]

I don't think the difference between the 4x AGP and the 8x AGP will be noticable, IIRC, both are using less bandwith than offered by AGP 4x (but someone will correct me if I'm wrong about this).

Jörg

You're right that they're not using all the AGP bandwidth, but the 8x Parhelia is also a revised core that (1) runs faster and (2) doesn't have the 3D analog flicker problem.

[Jenix]

hello wombat ,

What's the 3D analog flicker problem exactly??

Can you tell me when I may see such a problem??