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Parhelia in the house!

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  • Parhelia in the house!

    That's right!
    No foolin' this time
    The card has been announced, and it can now be said:
    I got my Parhelia! (actually had it for a couple weeks, but had to wait till now before I came out in the open.)

    There will undoubtedly be many questions.
    For those who are not familiar with what the BBz can/can't say, I'll outline
    it for you. We are still under NDA for many things. There are a few rules
    we must follow:
    -No benchmarks on non-public drivers. (You will have to rely on reviews for those)
    -No benchmarks from us period untill reviews are posted.
    -No comments about unannounced features that may or may not be in future drivers.
    -No comments about future plans for hardware or software/drivers.
    -No dates outside of what is in official press releases.
    -No technical info outside of what is in the public white papers.



    On to the meat...

    The card: 128meg Parhelia
    OS: WinXP pro
    System: see sig below

    The card is dual-DVI output. For those of us without DVI, there is a DVI-VGA adapter
    much like with the G550, and a large DVI-Dual VGA splitter cable for triple-head
    support, and a VGA-TV breakout cable, same as G450 and 550.

    My primary display is on the single adapter, displays 2 and 3 on the y-cable.
    With my set up of 3 CRTs, I can choose from Single display, DualHead (stretched),
    DualHead (independent resolutions), DualHead Clone, or TripleHead (stretched).

    As you can see in my sig, I'm not exactly running a powerhouse processor, so I won't
    bother with any solid numbers on benchmarks. I will say that in 3Dmark2001, my score
    more than quadrupled in comparison to the G550 I was running. In the games I play
    (Half-Life/TFC, Unreal Tourney, Q3, STV:EF (sorry, no newer games here)) I was able
    to increase detail levels and resolutions significantly, and still end up with faster
    performance than I had.

    As always, image quality is job1 with Matrox. Parhelia is no different.
    Just when you thought your desktop couldn't look better, along comes M to prove you wrong.
    Gigacolor looks great, and my desktop is faster than ever.
    My 2D AutoCAD work is smoother moving and sharper looking than I could have dreamed.

    But I think the most impressive thing I've noticed with Parhelia is the 16xFAA.
    OH MY GOD!
    With this enabled, even 800x600 looks good in games. Not a jaggie in site.
    And the performance hit is minimal when compared to other forms of AA.
    Only about a 10-15% drop in FPS is all I see on my system.
    Of course, even with my rig, I don't need to drop down to 800x600.
    Games I was running at 800x600 on G550 with medium details are now running at
    3072x768(surround) or 1280x1024, with details maxed, and 16xFAA on.
    In UT, I have been running the S3TC compressed textures in OGL.
    In STV:EF, anisotropic and simple shaders are supported and enabled (and looking amazing).
    TFC never looked so good (it's stunning what 16xFAA can do for a game).

    Surround Gaming is way cool too.
    I will be posting a batch of some pics I've taken (mostly [MU] UT pics).
    Last edited by Kruzin; 18 June 2002, 06:37.
    Core2 Duo E7500 2.93, Asus P5Q Pro Turbo, 4gig 1066 DDR2, 1gig Asus ENGTS250, SB X-Fi Gamer ,WD Caviar Black 1tb, Plextor PX-880SA, Dual Samsung 2494s

  • #2
    Thanks Kruzin.
    I know there isn't much you can say, but can you comment on:
    What's the state of OGL?
    How's the stability of the drivers?
    Better than, less than, or equal to Ti4600 at 1600x1200?

    Thanks.

    Comment


    • #3
      I’m losing my mind, it’s not fair………

      Comment


      • #4
        sounds cool
        so, is it worth $400?
        are the drivers good?
        I guess you are cpu-limited, so the 16xfaa drop doesn´t tell much.
        why do you only run in 1280*1024 in singlehead? is it because of the monitor or the performance?
        how does the anisotropic filtering look and run?


        BTW what is STV:EF
        This sig is a shameless atempt to make my post look bigger.

        Comment


        • #5
          OGL is great. There is still some tweaking to do, but I think the OGL ICD is already in as good or better shape than the G series cards. It is a new ICD from the ground up.

          The drivers have been very stable for me. The very first beta drivers we had gave me a couple errors, but those issues where addressed quickly in the next drivers, and I have not had a crash or error from the card in almost 2 weeks.

          Better than, less than, or equal to TI4600 is highly interprative.
          Better image quality.
          Better feature package.
          Nvidia will continue to have higher scores in somple games like Q3, and synthetic benchmarks, Parhelia will do better in more complex games, and certain benchmarks.
          Core2 Duo E7500 2.93, Asus P5Q Pro Turbo, 4gig 1066 DDR2, 1gig Asus ENGTS250, SB X-Fi Gamer ,WD Caviar Black 1tb, Plextor PX-880SA, Dual Samsung 2494s

          Comment


          • #6
            So then Kruzin, have you noticed a significant increase in you frag rate in UT? Does triplehead work in UT and if so is it as big an advantage as I imagine?

            gnep
            DM says: Crunch with Matrox Users@ClimatePrediction.net

            Comment


            • #7
              and don't forget all eyecandy enabled
              "Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind." -- Dr. Seuss

              "Always do good. It will gratify some and astonish the rest." ~Mark Twain

              Comment


              • #8
                1280x1024 is the best res for my older monitor. It will do 1600x1200, but not at a comfortable refresh rate.

                Anisotropic works and looks great on apps that support it, though I have not bothered to guage it speed-wise.

                STV:EF = Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force
                Core2 Duo E7500 2.93, Asus P5Q Pro Turbo, 4gig 1066 DDR2, 1gig Asus ENGTS250, SB X-Fi Gamer ,WD Caviar Black 1tb, Plextor PX-880SA, Dual Samsung 2494s

                Comment


                • #9
                  Greebe! you seem to have a faster computer, are you limited by the gpu or the rest of your system in games?
                  This sig is a shameless atempt to make my post look bigger.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Thanks again Kruzin.
                    It looks like the excitement is building again.
                    Any negatives, or suprises?
                    How's Glyph Antialiasing?
                    How's DVD playback?
                    Any comment on the HDTV functionality?
                    I know, I amongst others have a lot of questions, but anything you can do to satiate our appetite is greatly appreciated.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Surround does work with UT, but it will probably not be on the official "suppoted game list", because the weapons models in the game are not big(deep) enough (they don't show properly, but it is a game issue, not a P issue). Not a big deal, I just turn the gun off

                      I will be posting some pics shortly.
                      Core2 Duo E7500 2.93, Asus P5Q Pro Turbo, 4gig 1066 DDR2, 1gig Asus ENGTS250, SB X-Fi Gamer ,WD Caviar Black 1tb, Plextor PX-880SA, Dual Samsung 2494s

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        And some more questions...

                        In triplehead: must all resolutions/refreshrates be the same ? (or only 2nd and 3rd) And a similar question for surround gaming, of course...

                        Perhaps a strange question, but is it possible to run dual-head where the 3rd display simply duplicates the 2nd ?

                        Do you need to disconnect cables when going from a triple-head setup to a tv-out config ? (or is it the same dongle)

                        How is the TV output (dvd films, etc...) ?


                        Thanks !


                        Jörg

                        PS: Somehow, I expected a "na nana nana naa" in that posting .
                        pixar
                        Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die tomorrow. (James Dean)

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Only negative is that they didn't give me a 256meg card
                          Biggest surprise to me was how good 16xFAA really is.

                          Glyph AA seems pretty nice, but I honestly have not paid that much attention to that feature.

                          DVD playback is great on my monitors. Have not tried on a TV yet.
                          Especially nice is the fact that both primary and secondary displays now have hardware overlay (with software overlay on 3rd), so you can now drag a video from screen to screen.

                          I don't have an HDTV, so I can't comment on that one.
                          Core2 Duo E7500 2.93, Asus P5Q Pro Turbo, 4gig 1066 DDR2, 1gig Asus ENGTS250, SB X-Fi Gamer ,WD Caviar Black 1tb, Plextor PX-880SA, Dual Samsung 2494s

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            In TripleHead, only stretch mode is available. Same res/refresh.

                            There is some cable swapping and rebooting required to go from CRT to TV.
                            Core2 Duo E7500 2.93, Asus P5Q Pro Turbo, 4gig 1066 DDR2, 1gig Asus ENGTS250, SB X-Fi Gamer ,WD Caviar Black 1tb, Plextor PX-880SA, Dual Samsung 2494s

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Thanks Kruzin.
                              Looking into my crystal ball... I see that you are going to be very busy the next few days

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