Typedef Enum
Regular
OK Boys,
It's been one full day since I unwrapped the Parhelia, and slapped it in my system. I'm actually _very_ interested in finding anybody else out there that has actually used this board.
So, let me first start out how I came to buy this card. First of all, the GF4 that I was using was just ridiculous for running my 2nd LCD display. There were all kinds of visual crap on the display...you just had to see it kinda thing.
OK, so all of a sudden, multi-head was important. If the 9700 would have been available in my area, I would have bought onel. With that said, a few things interested me in the Parhelia.
1. Dual/Triple-head: I gave them the benefit of the doubt, and knew they had this feature nailed down to a science.
2. 2D Quality: Come on, this is Matrox, right?
3. Surround Gaming: The more I looked at this, the more intrigued I became.
Of course, I wished the Parhelia were a faster part. But, looking @ Surround Gaming, I saw something there that _really_ had the potential to change everything.
OK, so I bought one from Newegg, since I also could find NO/ZERO/NADA Matrox products in my city, much less Parhelias. Let me just toss a few things here (in no particular order)...
1. 2D Quality: To say that Matrox understands what 2D quality is all about is like saying the Rams, the last few years, have had an OK offense. In short, the 2D quality is utterly stunning. I mean, it just blows away everything else. I've got ATI stuff here, nVidia (obviously), etc. There's just no comparison.
2. 2D Quality: Did I mention it was good? I'm sitting here right now with 3 monitors: 2 20" TFT's, and 1 CRT. You would not believe (hell, I can't believe) what an amazing difference Parhelia has made on this CRT.
3. Driver Interface: Others should, IMHO, look @ Matrox's implementation. In short, I love their approach. They don't even bother tacking onto the standard display panel. The graphics are very nice, and they're very easy to use (particularly with multi-head).
4. Surround Gaming: OK, here's my dump on this baby. I've got it running, and I've played 4 games with S.G...Quake3, Flight Simulator 2002, Unreal Tournament, and Duke Nukem MP. With that said, S.G. IS the real deal as far as I'm concerned. I could probably go on and on talking up this feature...But as far as I'm concerned, this feature ABSOLUTELY and TOTALLY changes the way you game...just as I thought it would prior to getting the board.
Let me put this into perspective. Think about T&L (nVidia) and Truform (ATI). Go up and down each, and consider all the great things each has brought to the table. How many games actually came out that harnessed the capability of the hardware? More importantly, how many of these features REALLY made you take a step back and go, "Man...wow, what a difference. I just enabled/disabled that feature, and I'm just totally blown away."
Matrox, in just a few months, have more games supporting Surround Gaming than any of these other features did @ this point post-release...and the list is growing. I just spotted a post @ the MURC by their Dev. Relations guy, and they're going to make some more announcements this week concerning S.G. Take a look @ the following URL:
http://www.matrox.com/mga/3d_gaming/surrgame.cfm
Anyhow, Matrox is onto something here, and I think ATI/nVidia should really think about this feature. It's not difficult to implement, and it completely/radically changes the experience.
5. IQ. Quite frankly, I don't even know how to best put this into words. I mean, to say "it rocks" doesn't really do it justice.
Let me put it this way...Playing Quake3, a game I've fired up a million times before, took on a different form (excluding S.G. for a moment). It's really hard to explain, but this thing just renders the damn thing in such a way that blows anything else out of the water. Again, you would have to sit there and play with actual games to notice certain things. Textures are significantly more vibrant than anything used previously.
6. FAA: There have been some well documented instances in which FAA doesn't work...but let me say it this way. Has anybody seen what FAA @ a low resolution looks like? IE compare FAA at, say, 800x600 to anything else. This Antialiasing mode is amazingly good.
--------------------------------
OK, I'll try to keep it short. I've come across a few bugs along the way, as can be expected from a brand new architecture. However, I've not come across any bug that has flat out brought the system down, etc.
There are things that I hope this next driver release, slated for this week, will address...some of them are small, others are larger (better A.F. support).
In any event, the Parhelia is an amazing product. Does it compete head-to-head, performance wise, with the likes of a 9700/NV30? No. But, I can pretty much guarantee that it brings features to the table that will more radically enhance your gaming experience.
This is the thing that dissapointed me most, with respect to the reviews on the net. They trashed the crap out of the thing, only because it wasn't the fastest chip in rendering 3DMark2001 and/or Code Creatures, etc. What you basically never saw from any of these reviews (except 1 or 2) was a complete joke when looking @ the strengths of this card.
I realize that Surround Gaming is something of a niche feature, given the fact that you have to make an investment in 3 monitors...But if you're in a position to make that kind of investment, then this feature is obviously very tangible.
Overall, I will just conclude this post by saying that the Parhelia is an outstanding product, and has completely won me over.
It's been one full day since I unwrapped the Parhelia, and slapped it in my system. I'm actually _very_ interested in finding anybody else out there that has actually used this board.
So, let me first start out how I came to buy this card. First of all, the GF4 that I was using was just ridiculous for running my 2nd LCD display. There were all kinds of visual crap on the display...you just had to see it kinda thing.
OK, so all of a sudden, multi-head was important. If the 9700 would have been available in my area, I would have bought onel. With that said, a few things interested me in the Parhelia.
1. Dual/Triple-head: I gave them the benefit of the doubt, and knew they had this feature nailed down to a science.
2. 2D Quality: Come on, this is Matrox, right?
3. Surround Gaming: The more I looked at this, the more intrigued I became.
Of course, I wished the Parhelia were a faster part. But, looking @ Surround Gaming, I saw something there that _really_ had the potential to change everything.
OK, so I bought one from Newegg, since I also could find NO/ZERO/NADA Matrox products in my city, much less Parhelias. Let me just toss a few things here (in no particular order)...
1. 2D Quality: To say that Matrox understands what 2D quality is all about is like saying the Rams, the last few years, have had an OK offense. In short, the 2D quality is utterly stunning. I mean, it just blows away everything else. I've got ATI stuff here, nVidia (obviously), etc. There's just no comparison.
2. 2D Quality: Did I mention it was good? I'm sitting here right now with 3 monitors: 2 20" TFT's, and 1 CRT. You would not believe (hell, I can't believe) what an amazing difference Parhelia has made on this CRT.
3. Driver Interface: Others should, IMHO, look @ Matrox's implementation. In short, I love their approach. They don't even bother tacking onto the standard display panel. The graphics are very nice, and they're very easy to use (particularly with multi-head).
4. Surround Gaming: OK, here's my dump on this baby. I've got it running, and I've played 4 games with S.G...Quake3, Flight Simulator 2002, Unreal Tournament, and Duke Nukem MP. With that said, S.G. IS the real deal as far as I'm concerned. I could probably go on and on talking up this feature...But as far as I'm concerned, this feature ABSOLUTELY and TOTALLY changes the way you game...just as I thought it would prior to getting the board.
Let me put this into perspective. Think about T&L (nVidia) and Truform (ATI). Go up and down each, and consider all the great things each has brought to the table. How many games actually came out that harnessed the capability of the hardware? More importantly, how many of these features REALLY made you take a step back and go, "Man...wow, what a difference. I just enabled/disabled that feature, and I'm just totally blown away."
Matrox, in just a few months, have more games supporting Surround Gaming than any of these other features did @ this point post-release...and the list is growing. I just spotted a post @ the MURC by their Dev. Relations guy, and they're going to make some more announcements this week concerning S.G. Take a look @ the following URL:
http://www.matrox.com/mga/3d_gaming/surrgame.cfm
Anyhow, Matrox is onto something here, and I think ATI/nVidia should really think about this feature. It's not difficult to implement, and it completely/radically changes the experience.
5. IQ. Quite frankly, I don't even know how to best put this into words. I mean, to say "it rocks" doesn't really do it justice.
Let me put it this way...Playing Quake3, a game I've fired up a million times before, took on a different form (excluding S.G. for a moment). It's really hard to explain, but this thing just renders the damn thing in such a way that blows anything else out of the water. Again, you would have to sit there and play with actual games to notice certain things. Textures are significantly more vibrant than anything used previously.
6. FAA: There have been some well documented instances in which FAA doesn't work...but let me say it this way. Has anybody seen what FAA @ a low resolution looks like? IE compare FAA at, say, 800x600 to anything else. This Antialiasing mode is amazingly good.
--------------------------------
OK, I'll try to keep it short. I've come across a few bugs along the way, as can be expected from a brand new architecture. However, I've not come across any bug that has flat out brought the system down, etc.
There are things that I hope this next driver release, slated for this week, will address...some of them are small, others are larger (better A.F. support).
In any event, the Parhelia is an amazing product. Does it compete head-to-head, performance wise, with the likes of a 9700/NV30? No. But, I can pretty much guarantee that it brings features to the table that will more radically enhance your gaming experience.
This is the thing that dissapointed me most, with respect to the reviews on the net. They trashed the crap out of the thing, only because it wasn't the fastest chip in rendering 3DMark2001 and/or Code Creatures, etc. What you basically never saw from any of these reviews (except 1 or 2) was a complete joke when looking @ the strengths of this card.
I realize that Surround Gaming is something of a niche feature, given the fact that you have to make an investment in 3 monitors...But if you're in a position to make that kind of investment, then this feature is obviously very tangible.
Overall, I will just conclude this post by saying that the Parhelia is an outstanding product, and has completely won me over.
