Looks sort of interesting...might give some people soemthing else to think about besides Nvidia and ATI.You can use up to three 19" screens and it will give you the viewing area of a 32" screen....Has 16x Antialiasing...More info.......http://www.matrox.com/mga/products/parhelia512/home.cfm....but for me I think I will still wait for the next gen of Nvidia cards to show up... :)http://members.cox.net/joshieca/fstimeslink.gif

One point to note here is that Matrox cards have almost always had the best picture QUALITY of any cards available. As for the Parhelia 512, I am VERY interested in this graphics card. It's about time that someone challenged Nvidia.Chris Low,ENGLAND.

If you follow the links on the news page here to the Electronic Games show held recently, you'll see that this card is the hottest thing hardware wise in the game market right now. I think one of the reviewers said (after seeing it running FS on three screens) that once he got it he would never do anything else but fly.Am I wrong in assuming this card will actually allow you to bring up another 3D screen in your other monitors? Right now my dual nVidia card comes to a complete stop when I do this -- so it's only good for putting up a 2D screen. If this card really allows this, I'll be the first in line for it (after a million others, natch :>)

Here's an FS three-screen demo image:http://www.matrox.com/mga/media/artwork/pa...or/fs_large.gif(Whoops--I posted the link and the whole image appeared; I hope that doesn't violate the image rules....)

Yeah, I went back to the links and found the quote:"Matrox

Looks like it's time to start filling up the piggy bank again ;). I've seen this card mentioned many times before, but the question I have, which only time will tell, is whether all three monitors will run smoothly. But if they do, man-o-man :(.

>Looks like it's time to start filling up the piggy bank >again ;). I've seen this card mentioned many times before, >but the question I have, which only time will tell, is >whether all three monitors will run smoothly. But if they >do, man-o-man :(. It runs as fast on all three as it does one, Check out the forum at the Matroxusers.com as there are many Parhelia users there that are happy to answer most any question as well as post screen shots, you cant/wont get any answers to specific FPS numbers as they are still under NDA.Cards (64&128mb version) go on sale june 30th, but I would wait for the NV30 and RV300 cards in a few more months before forking over the dough. :)Paul

What is that 3-in-1 monitor? Is that a real product?

Sorry but I cannot believe that this is possible with a decent framerate and quality on one PC regardless of how fast the card might be.. FS2002 is so much processor dependent, I am quite sure it will drop down at least 50% in fps.I will only believe this when I see it.If it turns out to be true

I'm sure it will -- in all the screen shots I've seen so far what the Parhelia is doing is stretching the VC mode of FS2K2 across three monitors. While this is a terrific technical feat, it isn't nearly as difficult as making 3 different 3D views operate simultaneously.IOW, I don't imagine FS will care one whit about whether it's running VC in one, two or three monitors. Your frame rates ought to be almost exactly the same (I say almost because there will be a little more scenery it has to generate on each side of the view but, once again, no where near as intensive as if it had to do three *different* views).The biggest thing that concerns me is I have never used the VC mode because I like to use the high hat switch to quickly check left and right, and in VC this results in a pan that makes it impossible to "get centered" quickly (I wish there was some kind of "auto center" key I could use in VC mode to quickly go back). For those who routinely fly VC this will be a godsend.I have to admit I went ahead and ordered one -- until they ship (sometime in mid July, although I'm guessing it will be more like the end of July before they really arrive in consumer hands) I can still cancel. I already have dual 19" monitors so it isn't such a stretch for me to add another one.

Ah -- I found the VC "center" key now. Now I have to play around flying in VC (and perhaps finding ways to tailor the VC cockpit. Ah, so much to learn, so little time to play :>)

I assing one of the joystick thumb buttons to "snap to front view". It's very convient that way.

Paul,I would never buy anything if I kept waiting for the next one !I will reiterate one aspect of Matrox cards, and that is the picture quality. In my opinion, the picture quality of the Matrox G400 was superb, and my current GeForce 2 GTS (although fine) doesn't provide the same vibrant colours that I was used to. Whether this has been improved for GeForce 3 and 4 I have no idea, but I am extremely interested in the Parhelia 512.If I only had the cash........Chris Low,ENGLAND.

>I would never buy anything if I kept waiting for the next >one ! You're exactly right, Chris. Not only that, but we're talking a *long* way out for these any new cards from other manufacturers to arrive -- they haven't even been announced yet (and from announcement to delivery typically is another three to four months) or demoed at any shows. I'm suspecting we'll see them before the end of the year, maybe, but it could be longer and they may *still* end up not being any better. In the meantime I'll have gotten months of enjoyment from my setup (and the way things go in this world, I could still probably turn around and Ebay my Matrox card and come out ahead!)Matrox is *definitely* committed to the game market with this card -- I've enjoyed their cards in the past but never very good support. In the past two days I've gotten *three* emails from various people in the Matrox hierarchy answering my pre-buy questions. They are on top of this one big time and I'm feeling very good about my setup. I just need to rearrange my desktop to make enough room for another monitor (my wife is already giving me the fisheye about all the space and time I spend on FS... )>If I only had the cash........ Heh, heh, that's never stoppped *me*...

>>>I would never buy anything if I kept waiting for the next >>one ! >>You're exactly right, Chris. Not only that, but we're >talking a *long* way out for these any new cards from other >manufacturers to arrive -- they haven't even been announced >yet (and from announcement to delivery typically is another >three to four months) Uh, long way out? ATI card is expected to ship in late July or early August and Nvidia has said to expect August and September, whether or not it's Sept or November even, I am not about to through $400-$500 at a Video card thats not even fully supporting DX9.0 as the Matrox is not fully DX9 and the Nv and ATI card are, only to have These cards come out just a month or two later! LOL!!!I would still recommend to wait for the dust to settle as well as you will see prices drop down a little. :) Anyway, the Marox card starts shiping as announced on June 30th. :)Later,Paul