Parhelia users please read this

[Jenix]

Hi guys,

I'm a user of an old Parhelia 256MB card suports for AGP 4X..

I got it in Dec. 2003 as soon as computer shops started to sell in Korea.(u c, I'm a Korean^^)


Because of its high price, I take pride in it, as most of you guys who loves matrox do..

I'm satisfied with its beautiful 2D graphic performance,

(I once worked for designing and printing companies using nVidia's, ATI's and Matrox's)

but in 3D gaming and graphic, well,.....


I majored in animations at the university and now am using Photoshop CS,

Illustrator CS, Corel 9, Premiere Pro, After Effect 6.5, Painter 9 on PC for my work..

And also have plans to use Maya, and 3D Studio Max in the near future...

(I can use them both, of course)


Mostly I use my pc for work as I wrote above,

but of course enjoy computer games(I love 3D racing games most..(eg. Underground2))
,

DVD movies, internet surfing as well..

I think I won't change my baby to others like ATI's, nVidia's,

I don't want to give up matrox's lovely 2D graphic performance for the reason of 3D's..

But I'm willing to pay more money if there's a better model in Matrox VGA..

Do you understand me??

I'm writing this because I want to listen to you guys' opinions on upgrading mine(old one) to new one(8x version)..

Can new version card work much better than old one?? if can, how much???


And also want to know what 256MB memory can provide us with..

Who does need 256MB card, and who doesn't??

Don't I need 256MB one for 2D graphic work and simple 3D graphic modeling????

How about selling my old Parhelia 256MB and getting new Parhelia 128MB??



Please answer me~

I'm looking forward to you guys' wise opinons

[Adis]

Millennium P650 PCIe 128

http://www.matrox.com/mga/workstation/video/news/press_rel/2005/millennium_p650_pcie.cfm

"The Millennium P650 PCIe 128 will be available in April 2005 at a list price of $249 USD from authorized resellers and directly from Matrox at: http://shopmatrox.com."

[UtwigMU]

I think you don't need 256MB card as things using that much textures run too slow on Parhelia.

Otherwise the AGP8x has higher clock speeds, better FAA16x and better memory controller.

Clock speeds (not official) core/memory:
AGP4x bulk: 200/250
AGP4x retail: 220/275
AGP8x: 250/300 - also good overclockability

The performance is better - for instance you can play at higher resolution or better detail level, however the new AGP8x card still only supports PS1.3, VS1.3 and OpenGL1.3, so newer games requiring DX9 hardware support or newer OpenGL will not run or run poorly (Doom3). If you also game on the side and price difference between selling 4x card and getting 8x card is not big, go for it.

The new one will work better in games that are already supported, but not much better and still not work in games that are not supported (DirectX9 requirements).

Otherwise, you can consider building a separate computer for gaming with nVidia or Ati gaming card and keeping your workstation with Parhelia for work.

The P650 PCIe and Parhelia APVe PCIe are from what Haig said on par with Parhelia 8x (comparable speed) and still DX8.1 and OpenGL 1.3. I don't expect core with higher DirectX (Avalon/DirectX Next/WGF 1.0 or 2.0) support from Matrox untill 2006 at the earliest.

[Jenix]

Really thanx for your kind and quick reply
by the way, can I ask you one more question??

Do you think PS, VS, and OpenGL won't be able to be upgraded by a new firmware or a driver??
I don't know if they have a plan for working those drivers and firmwares but if they did,
don't you think it would be possible??
just curious...

[Jenix]

http://www.matrox.com/mga/workstatio..._p650_pcie.cfm

"The Millennium P650 PCIe 128 will be available in April 2005 at a list price of $249 USD from authorized resellers and directly from Matrox at: http://shopmatrox.com."

Thanx but I think PXXX models are downgraded from Parhelia, Aren't they??
In addition, I don't trust PCI version's..
In the past time, we all used PCI ports for VGA, and AGP was developed for better performance..
AGP also has different versions...
2X, 4X, 8X....
What do you think??

[UtwigMU]

PCIe = PCI Express = the interface that will replace APG and PCI

There will almost certainly be no upgrade to better Pixelshader, Vertexshader and OpenGL support (they might add 1.4 but probability is very low) because hardware cannot handle that.

[Jenix]

I didn't know that, thanx for good information^^

[voltronX]

I´m in a similar situation like you, i got an old Parhelia 128.
But to be honest, if you´re going to do serious 3d you should think about another solution. The Parhelias 3D application problem lies not with its slow clock speed and the transfer rate but with the poor openGL support.

When i upgrade my 4 years old PC i´ll be either buying a used parhelia or another dualhead matrox card via ebay and buying a nVidia or ati for my main display for 3D applications. That way i can keep the superb dualhead functionality of matrox and max-DVD plus some real 3D support for games and applications.

[xortam]

Yeah ... what happened to that great certified OpenGL support that was supposed to be available at launch on the Parhelia?