Parhelia official benchmark scores: doesn't look pretty

[Guest Wichita]

http://www.anandtech.com/Not even close to the performance a $400.00 card should give...David

[Guest Max Cowgill]

>Hey Paul, >>Where did those banana's come from? They're HILARIOUS! Elrond, I've encountered those bananas on Madonion's "Gamers' HQ" message boards before, I believe that is where they originated (that's where they're most commonly used, anyway).Max Cowgill

[michal 44]

Looks like others are confiriming the results.Are we witnessing perhaps the beginning of the end of Matrox ?Michael J.

[Guest PaulL01]

>Hey Paul, >>Where did those banana's come from? They're HILARIOUS! >I've stolen them so I hope you don't mind. :-) These bannas are all over the place,I stole mine from: http://www.xtremesystems.orgHere, have a crate of em on me! :)http://www.frontiernet.net/~pleatzaw/images/banana.gif http://www.frontiernet.net/~pleatzaw/images/banana.gif http://www.frontiernet.net/~pleatzaw/images/banana.gif http://www.frontiernet.net/~pleatzaw/images/banana.gif http://www.frontiernet.net/~pleatzaw/images/banana.gif http://www.frontiernet.net/~pleatzaw/images/banana.gif http://www.frontiernet.net/~pleatzaw/images/banana.gif http://www.frontiernet.net/~pleatzaw/images/banana.gif http://www.frontiernet.net/~pleatzaw/images/banana.gif http://www.frontiernet.net/~pleatzaw/images/banana.gif http://www.frontiernet.net/~pleatzaw/images/banana.gif http://www.frontiernet.net/~pleatzaw/images/banana.gif http://www.frontiernet.net/~pleatzaw/images/banana.gif http://www.frontiernet.net/~pleatzaw/images/banana.gif http://www.frontiernet.net/~pleatzaw/images/banana.gif http://www.frontiernet.net/~pleatzaw/images/banana.gif http://www.frontiernet.net/~pleatzaw/images/banana.gif http://www.frontiernet.net/~pleatzaw/images/banana.gif http://www.frontiernet.net/~pleatzaw/images/banana.gif http://www.frontiernet.net/~pleatzaw/images/banana.gif http://www.frontiernet.net/~pleatzaw/images/banana.gif http://www.frontiernet.net/~pleatzaw/images/banana.gif http://www.frontiernet.net/~pleatzaw/images/banana.gif http://www.frontiernet.net/~pleatzaw/images/banana.gif http://www.frontiernet.net/~pleatzaw/images/banana.gif http://www.frontiernet.net/~pleatzaw/images/banana.gif http://www.frontiernet.net/~pleatzaw/images/banana.gif http://www.frontiernet.net/~pleatzaw/images/banana.gif http://www.frontiernet.net/~pleatzaw/images/banana.gif http://www.frontiernet.net/~pleatzaw/images/banana.gif http://www.frontiernet.net/~pleatzaw/images/banana.gif http://www.frontiernet.net/~pleatzaw/images/banana.gif http://www.frontiernet.net/~pleatzaw/images/banana.gif http://www.frontiernet.net/~pleatzaw/images/banana.gif http://www.frontiernet.net/~pleatzaw/images/banana.gif http://www.frontiernet.net/~pleatzaw/images/banana.gif http://www.frontiernet.net/~pleatzaw/images/banana.gif http://www.frontiernet.net/~pleatzaw/images/banana.gif http://www.frontiernet.net/~pleatzaw/images/banana.gif http://www.frontiernet.net/~pleatzaw/images/banana.gif http://www.frontiernet.net/~pleatzaw/images/banana.gif http://www.frontiernet.net/~pleatzaw/images/banana.gif http://www.frontiernet.net/~pleatzaw/images/banana.gif http://www.frontiernet.net/~pleatzaw/images/banana.gif http://www.frontiernet.net/~pleatzaw/images/banana.gif http://www.frontiernet.net/~pleatzaw/images/banana.gif http://www.frontiernet.net/~pleatzaw/images/banana.gif http://www.frontiernet.net/~pleatzaw/images/banana.gif http://www.frontiernet.net/~pleatzaw/images/banana.gif http://www.frontiernet.net/~pleatzaw/images/banana.gif http://www.frontiernet.net/~pleatzaw/images/banana.gif http://www.frontiernet.net/~pleatzaw/images/banana.gif

[Guest]

Hi Michael,Indeed. When John Carmack speaks and has nothing but bad things to say about a "next-gen" card, its hard to recover from that:http://www.shacknews.com/finger/?fid=johnc@idsoftware.comAnd that from the most competent and influential "next-gen" or otherwise engine author that exists. Carmack sure is the EF Hutton of the industry. :-)I hope one of two things happen: either Matrox slashes the Parhelia's price to $150-$199 immediately (highly unlikely), or they develop some extremely high quality and certified OpenGL drivers and refocus this card completely away from consumers toward the professional CAD and Media markets (Wildcat type market). I can see 16x AA doing well there, but not here with its poor performance and aniso.Take care,http://members.rogers.com/eelvish/elrondlogo.gifhttp://members.rogers.com/eelvish/flyurl.gif

[Guest]

LOL. If they weren't quite so squiggly going down with all that dancin' round, they might have even been tasty! Thanks for the crate regardless Paul. :-)http://members.rogers.com/eelvish/elrondlogo.gifhttp://members.rogers.com/eelvish/flyurl.gif

[Guest JonP01]

Just got back from Tom's looking at the screenshots on the Parhelia review (couldn't care about the benchmarks ;-) ) I have to say that on the basis of that review, the Parhelia won't even be able to hold it's own in terms of image quality either. It was quite disappointing to note the current Parhelia drivers only allow for anisotropic filtering to be fully on or fully off - and the fully on only partly filters the textures in comparison to the Geforce 4. I must say I get better image quality from my ASUS Geforce 3 Ti than those Parhelia shots, even with level 4 aniso enabled (which is my standard setup). I guess it is still a little premature to make a definitive judgement, as there could still be a fair amount of driver development ahead (one would hope so). Still, it reminds me of when 3dfx released the Voodoo 5500. Not to put too fine a point on it, that card was too little too late. And of course everyone knows what happened to 3dfx.The fact of the matter is that not even taking into account image quality, it is still principally (and unfortunately) benchmark performance that sells premium priced video cards. That was a major factor as to why 3dfx succumbed to Nvidia. Matrox have obviously put a huge investment into this card and I'm beginning to wonder whether the return on it will meet their own forecasts. As for it's use in FS2002, I know of only 2 or 3 Avsim readers for whom the Matrox, in it's current guise, could even be considered. They are the ones who run everything totally maxed out on very large monitors. But as they probably already run Geforce 4's, they probably wouldn't bother anyway.

[spokes2112 179]

Joe, Very nice pics of late July at KOSH. Unforunately, didn't make it due to work. It looks like you got the famous afternoon t-storms that happen almost like clockwork during EAA. You can see the humidity :~P .( I.E. B-1 contrails) . I see your children had a good time ... What child wouldn't? :-) Are you making it back to EAA this year ? If so, hope to meet possibly.. If not we can just enjoy the new scenery that MS gave to us.Regards,RomanGreen Bay, WisconsinProject 737-400

[Guest JonP01]

I guess I should add that imo, the best card for FS2002 remains the Geforce 3 Ti 500 - that is, if you want the best image quality with minimal performance loss. I would have said Geforce 4, but so far that card is barely any better (and reportedly even worse) than the Geforce 3 when the aniso is set to 32 or 64 tap. By the time Nvidia bring out drivers that might improve Geforce 4 aniso, many people will already have their sites set on the NV30.

[maxter 0]

Hi Elrond,I can certainly vouch for the Ti4600. It has given me the most realistic simming experience since I started in 1984 on a PCXT.Cheers,Chris Porter:-outtaPerthWestern Australiahttp://www.fsd-international.com/images/FSD_beta_tester.jpg[h3] FSD Aircraft "Around the world" flight.Now at KCRG (Craig Muni.) Florida, USA[/h3][h3]"I drive way too fast to worry about cholesterol."[/h3]Intel Pentium IV 2.26GHz(533) Socket 478 pins, 512K L2 Cache 0.13micron TechnologyIntel D850EMV2-LAN P4 (533MHz FSB) w/ Management S/WKingston/Samsung 256MB PC-800 RAMBUS, "Intel Approved" x 2 (512Mb)MSI-8872 GeForce4 Titanium 4600 128MB DDR with TV-OUT & Video CapturePioneer 16x DVD , 40x CD-ROM Tray Load Version ATA 66Hyundai -ImageQuest P910+, 19" Multi-Scan Digital Monitor, 0.26mm 1600x 1200 @ 85HzIBM Deskstar 60GXP, 60GB HDD IDE, 2MB Cache, 8.5ms, 7200rpm, ATA 100Microsoft Internet Hardware Value Pack , Internet PS/2 Keyboard & Optical Intelimouse Bundle3Com 3CSOHO100-TX OfficeConnect 10/100 Faset Ethernet 10/100 NICAOpen QF50 ( with Multimedia USB2.0 Front Panel ) Midi ATX Case with 300W P4 ATX Power Supply Hercules Game Theater XP, 6.1 speakers Dolby