Matrox Parhelia? 3 monitors?

[Nick Burns]

I was at CompUSA today, but I didn't have much time. I had enough time to notice a system that was powering 3 monitors with the matrox parhelia emblem at the bottom corner. Did a new Matrox card come out? Where does it rank in single monitor performance to a ATI Radeon card? Is it made for gaming or video editing or something else even? Anyone have a site for it?

[Evnas]

Its not new at all...older then (or was released shortly after) the 9700 Pro actually.

As far as its gaming performance..."terrible" in terms of the cards available. Simply put, its a workstation card, with superior 2D image quality and the capability to support 3 monitors.

[Nick Burns]

okay, thats what I was thinking, but then I thought, "Why would CompUSA display such an old card?" But I bet they had a few laying around that they couldn't sell so they simply show it running 3 monitors so that people will flock to it.

[Voodoo Rufus]

It's too bad Matrox couldn't compete with that card. It sure would've been nice to have 3 companies duking it out.

[Black_Paladin]

I agree with Evnas (as always :) ) and would like to give you some links to reviews for this card, so you can see the comparisons for yourself:

http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MzQwLDQ=

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.html?i=1645

http://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/20020625/index.html

I really think that this card is actually a great card in terms of image quality and its ability to support 3 monitors but it's just not a gaming card. It was simply wrong for Matrox to push this card into the gaming market and I believe that this hurt their reputation. Well, it's not the engineers fault here, pure and simple marketing failure.

Morever, the card is way overpriced for gaming. On the other hand, as a workstation card, it is probably a cheap card!! Interesting, eh?
;)

And btw, if you haven't seen the Matrox Parhelia reef demo, it's one of the most awesome demos ever made (you gotta see it if you haven't already, it's worth watching). The good news here is that you don't have to have a Parhelia to play this demo (works GREAT on Radeon 9700/9800 cards) even though the demo was designed by Matrox specifically for the Parhelia. You need a program called 3D Analyzer to emulate a Parhelia to play this demo if you have another card. If you are interested, just let me know and I'll give you the links to download the stuff. I could also host the stuff myself.

[Oni]

Reef Demo = teh pwnzorz!

I just installed it. I forgot I had it for a while. Damn is it cool! :)

[Black_Paladin]

Originally posted by Oni
Reef Demo = teh pwnzorz!

I just installed it. I forgot I had it for a while. Damn is it cool! :)

LOL, same here actually. I remembered the demo when I saw this Parhelia thread. :)