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  • Parhelia Driver monitoring

    Can any of those with their Parhelias please keep us (me) up to date with how drivers are performing over the next few weeks. Maybe some simple bench numbers etc - to illustrate the driver teams 'evolutionary knowledge' of the architecture, as well as quality/ stability of drivers.

    I need to buy one for myself, but recommend 60 or so to a client. Id like to be able to do so with some authority.
    G400 32 D/H, PIII650@840, ABIT-BE6II, MX300

  • #2
    I would be very cautious in recommending the Parhelia at this stage to any client.

    For the following reasons:
    1) The parhelia is TOO new. Its stability, final speed and reliability are unknown (but you can expect its stability and reliability to be good, final speed is unknown)
    2) It is too expensive. Unless there is a specific feature on the parhelia that your client needs, it is crazy to recommend them at the current asking price.
    3) Supplies of the parhelia are not known at the moment. It may be hard to come by 60 of them.

    But you probably know more about this than I do, so I will shut up now
    80% of people think I should be in a Mental Institute

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    • #3
      Dualhead, Dual Flat. clarity, Gigacolour, Linux, and money isnt any object at all.

      Umm, speed? Its doing fine for me, with the rest of the cards doing 5000 fps .. who here only ever plays games?
      G400 32 D/H, PIII650@840, ABIT-BE6II, MX300

      Comment


      • #4
        Bobby2,

        Dualhead- The G550 does dualhead just as well as the Parhellia.
        Dual DVI- If that is important, then yes, the Parhellia would do well.
        Clarity- Yep, you are right there.
        Gigacolour- Does that provide any benifet to your clients.
        Linux- There are no drivers for linux yet. Don't count chickens before they have hatched. The linux drivers may not exist, may only be 2d, or they may be 2d/3d and of poor quality.

        Have you considered that this may not be the best way to spend your client's money, even if it isn't any object at all.

        But you know your clients needs better than we do, and you shouldn't need anybodies authority to recommend to them what you think is best. If you do need extra authority to be able to recommend the Parhelia to them, then you must already know that this is not really the best solution for them.
        80% of people think I should be in a Mental Institute

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        • #5
          Just to let you know, so far I've been highly impressed by the stability of my Parhelia. I'm sure other BBz have found the same. Very impressive for a v1.0xx release!

          Comment


          • #6
            "Dualhead" : competing cards from nvidia and ati support that

            "Linux" : same

            "clarity" : same

            "Gigacolour" : Carmack (Doom3) said it was not that useful.

            "money isnt any object at all" : then upgrade your CPU first.

            Comment


            • #7
              mikeul, hush the question was about matrox products.

              all Dualhead's are not created equal.

              Linux - the judge is still out.

              clarity - same? have i missed something here?

              Gigacolour - they guy said the client wants 60 units, hmm probably some sort of photoshop requirment. He did not say it was for an internet cafe full of fps junkies.

              "money is no object" maybe they are already buying top of the line cpu's.

              Read the original question before you but in.
              Juu nin to iro


              English doesn't borrow from other languages. It follows them down dark alleys, knocks them over, and goes through their pockets for loose grammar.

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by mikeul
                "Gigacolour" : Carmack (Doom3) said it was not that useful.
                Doom 3 isn't the world! If I would buy a card just for Doom 3, then I wait another year for R400, NV40 or whatever they will be called.
                Also I don't care what JC says, he only speaks for his game, maybe other developers have the opposite opinion and say that Gigacolor is useful.
                Specs:
                MSI 745 Ultra :: AMD Athlon XP 2000+ :: 1024 MB PC-266 DDR-RAM :: HIS Radeon 9700 (Catalyst 3.1) :: Creative Soundblaster Live! 1024 :: Pioneer DVD-106S :: Western Digital WD800BB :: IBM IC35L040AVVN07

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                • #9
                  LOL - my client has very specific needs.

                  They are particular about requirements, and are thinking ahead. Again, game FPS is of no relevance. Trust for previous products is of relevance.

                  We dont need to go there. I was hoping to keep this a simple. A-B-C thread, and need no help in providing advice. Thanks all the same.
                  G400 32 D/H, PIII650@840, ABIT-BE6II, MX300

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    mikeul: Did you read the first post? Did you read any post? Do you read anything about graphics cards beyond Kyle's comments?
                    Meet Jasmine.
                    flickr.com/photos/pace3000

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                    • #11
                      Originally posted by mikeul
                      "Dualhead" : competing cards from nvidia and ati support that

                      "Linux" : same

                      "clarity" : same

                      "Gigacolour" : Carmack (Doom3) said it was not that useful.

                      "money isnt any object at all" : then upgrade your CPU first.
                      Okie... the Parhelia has a much better dualhead support than either NVidia or ATI, and also has a much better implementation. the parhelia acctually supports hardware overlays on both monitors, something ATI and NVidia don't do. Also, ATI has a 230-250mhz DAC on their second head, iirc. the MX cards have a similar limitation. the only ones that don't are the GF4Ti's.

                      Lemme see here... would you rather have NVidia Linux support or Matrox Linux support...

                      i go with Matrox, just because their dualhead drivers work a lot better, last i checked. has nvidia enabled Xinerama support in their drivers yet? and, last i checked, ATI doesn't support Linux for anything other than the FireGL cards.

                      as far as clarity, Matrox wins. hands down. both the picture that the card produces and the way they translate it into an analog signal, it is superior.

                      What carmack said on gigacolour was that he needed more than 2bits alpha precision for Doom3, not that it wasn't useful. i'm sure if it was a true 40bit precision he wouldn't have said that. he might have even praised it for going in the right direction. who knows.

                      about the CPU... most computers are no longer CPU bound. unless you are specifically stressing the CPU, it simply isn't a limitation in computers anymore.
                      "And yet, after spending 20+ years trying to evolve the user interface into something better, what's the most powerful improvement Apple was able to make? They finally put a god damned shell back in." -jwz

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by 103er-Fan


                        Doom 3 isn't the world! If I would buy a card just for Doom 3, then I wait another year for R400, NV40 or whatever they will be called.
                        Also I don't care what JC says, he only speaks for his game, maybe other developers have the opposite opinion and say that Gigacolor is useful.
                        You've missed the point sorely on that one!

                        The Doom3 engine will no doubt power a considerable number of games over the next few years. History shows that any and all iD engines usually features highly in the market for quite some time after their initial 'game' is released.
                        Cheers, Reckless

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Hmm.... well i don't think i would buy this card just to play Doom3 (or any other game based on the engine) in a billion colors instead of 16,7million....

                          hm.. god damn im a mini murcer again...
                          <font size=1>Primary System: ASUS P4B533-E, Intel Pentium4 1.6A GHz, 512MB Samsung PC2700, Leadtek GF4 Ti4200 64MB, SB Audigy, 2xSeagate Barracuda IV 80GB, Pioneer DVD 106S, NEC CD-R 40/10/40, InWin Q500 Case w/ Enermax 353W PSU, Windows XP Pro, Samsung SyncMaster 753DFX.

                          Secondary System: ECS K7S5A, Athlon XP 1600+, 256MB PC133, Asus GF2 GTS 32MB, Seagate Barracuda IV 20GB, Aopen HQ08 Case, Windows XP Pro.</font>

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                          • #14
                            - Didnt Carmack also say... Dont expect games using the Doom 3 Engine to come out until 2-3 years after release?

                            And for the original topic:
                            Im sort of in the same boat. But rather a Client.... He's my Boss. Now my Boss has been eyeing the card since announcment. And hes considering upgrading 15-25 PC Graphics Workstation to this card. Hes more then convinced about purchasing the card. He feels that the card offeres great productivity values. He admires the True Dual Head. And even the Expanded Triple Head. 10-Bit Gigacolour for Photoshop is a very nice. And the Clarity is a given with Matrox Cards. Lol, he's even considering LANing the PC's together... Knowing that Gaming is one of the Cards functions. But he doesnt have a huge emphasis on it.
                            As said before, Linux Drivers are on the way. And it may only be for 2D. But as you said 3D Gaming isnt as important.

                            As a service to your client, maybe you should offer a monthly visit, to tend to issues and updates. If you want, just a suggestion. -
                            - ? -

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Originally posted by bobby2
                              They are particular about requirements, and are thinking ahead. Again, game FPS is of no relevance. Trust for previous products is of relevance.
                              Did anyone see that?

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