New P-series cards from Matrox

[Gnep]

No-one else has posted this, so here goes: Matrox has released 2 new cards, aimed, armed with Parhelia-LX chips at the core. This seems to be 2-pipeline, 256-bit, 128-bit mem interface (all of these being 1/2 what the original Parhelia has)... an extract follows from http://forums.matroxusers.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=41331

The Millennium P650 and Millennium P750, featuring 64MBs of fast DDR memory and an AGP 8X interface, provide professional level multi-display technologies, at a mainstream price. Both boards include improved DualHead support through dual 400 MHz UltraSharp RAMDACs for crystal clear, fully symmetric RGB outputs at resolutions up to 1920 x 1440 and also feature the most advanced dual-DVI implementation, allowing independent resolution support at up to 1600 x 1200 on each flat panel display. While both the Millennium P650 and Millennium P750 include dual independent, gamma correctable overlay support and adjustable proc-amp settings for both the video window and TV , the Millennium P750 adds Dual-display plus TV output and TripleHead for maximum video workstation productivity for use with leading non-linear editing (NLE) software packages from Avid®, Adobe®, Ulead Systems Inc., and many others.

More details at http://www.matrox.com/mga

Not so relevant to "3D" technology and hardware you might think, but as a replacement for G-series cards they seem spot on (ie have some 3d speed and dx8.1, but with the emphasis firmly on 2d and multimonitor corporate markets)

Gnep

 

[Gnep]

Oh yeah - forgot to add that they appar to be available from today (at shopmatrox.com) - if only more releases were coincident with card availability!

EDIT: Today means pre-order apparently. Shipping is estimated end-May 03.

 

[jandar]

nice cards!!!!


be great for workstations and such 8)

 

[Unit01]

This is more Matrox market in my opinion. Desktop display cards with great picture and some basic 3d power with Superb 2D(maybe the best in the market). I'd rather have one of matrox cards in a OEM then a GF4Mx, even though i will never buy a oem for home usage(i hope).

 

[Nappe1]

as for a note:
http://www.beyond3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5240&highlight=

and back the business:

few points:
1. why they cutted pipeline count to half? why not ripping of 2 texture stages per pipe?
- oh well, maybe it was easier by this way... only problem is that now fill rate is cutted half too. Hopefully this core is clocked higher than the original. otherwise it will be "just corporate product". I can't think any situation where 2x4 conf is needed. 4x2 would have been more like what games now are using. Of course it will make a great corporate product, there's no doubt about that, but it could have been more than that.

2. if FAA is gone, why?
- it's algorithm one strong points was that it doesn't consume a lot memory. (something that is important on 64MB card nowadays.)

3. Aniso gone too?
- interesting... it seems that they really are very low resources, because this chip quickly looked looks lmore like "ripped off" than "lowered down" version.

4. Prices are nice. $169 as ERP sounds pretty good for a corporate product.

 

[McElvis]

The Millennium P650 is also only passively cooled. Should make a nice HTPC

 

[Ali]

I wonder if these are just the same chips at Parhelia, but BIOS crippled to half pipes/ half data width.

This could have been done to reduce invintory, and possible fix the banding issue, which is apparently caused by on-chip interference.

I havent read up on them yet, just this thread, but thats the first thing that comes to mind.

ali

 

[Tahir2]

But can you do that with a simple BIOS update?
Anyone willing to test this theory? Anyone out there with a Parhelia?

 

[Ali]

Im sure the board is different, so no 256bit memory bus, so there is probably no point trying to increase the pipes.

Just read through the MGA site, as Matroxusers seems to be down (sorry Ant, must have overloaded you).

The P750 seems to be the one to have, the P650 could just as well be a G400 as far as I can tell.

The price of the P750 is a little extreme though. RRP of US$235 is a bit steep.

Still, Ill try to get work to buy me one This G400 has followed me through 4 workstation upgrades, so Im probably due a new card.

Ali

 

[Stefan Payne]

Does annyone know if there is a Low Profile Version of the new Parhelia Cards ??

 

[Gnep]

Nappe - the FAA and aniso disappearance are just us speculating as far as I know. But we are yet to see any whitepapers yet so who can tell?

As I said, these appear to be right back in Matrox's "core" market - corporate/2d workstation etc but with some interesting potential for HTPCs. The 3d boost over G550 (about 2-3x as fast I'd guess with a finger firmly held in the breeze) is just a nice addition... but these are firmly NOT aimed at the 3d market. Hence guesses on FAA and aniso being left out (as presumably they have gone for a cheaper-to-manufacture core) EDIT: or, on second thoughts, to use up overstock on partly broken parhelia cores - not sure what these cards are clocked at, but it could be quite low...

 

[3dcgi]

The LX products are a new chip that is a cost reduced version of Parhelia. Unless something changed in the past few months the chips support FAA and aniso, but I don't know if the features are enabled in the final product.

 

[Nappe1]

The LX products are a new chip that is a cost reduced version of Parhelia. Unless something changed in the past few months the chips support FAA and aniso, but I don't know if the features are enabled in the final product.

wheeh... thanks for this info. sounds pretty good replacement for my gf ddr on 2nd computer. (though, I have no idea when I can afford it right now.)