Matrox Parhelia
After three year absence decided to enter Matrox the 3D-gamingwereld again with the Matrox
Parhelia. The theoretical specifications resemble strengthen Radeon 9700-superchip: four vertex-shaders, a 256-bus availed and a
quite high fillratio.
But the performances put teleur, for the Parhelia is scarcely faster than a GeForce 4 Ti 4200, that twice cheaper duration is.
Why is the Radeon 9700 a real GeForce 4-chillier and the Parhelia not” Is the first reason - only the most important - not that
the Parhelia-chip only on 220 MHz afklokt, while the Radeon 9700 on 325 MHz (ATIs play cards) is clocked. The Hercules-card on
basis of the Radeon 9700 will yet higher afklokken. The most important reason is however the being missing from intelligent
hardwareocclusielogica. This stiff hardware sees to for it that the most pixels that not visibly are, not colored become. With
other words, the nVidia- and ATI-chips get a higher output then the Matrox Parhelia.
Also the 3D-beeldkwaliteit puts teleur. Matrox limits the anisotropische filtering till 2-tap, while the GeForce 4 about
8-anistropische filtering tipped sees to. The Ti 4200 furnishes tipped tipped even better performances with 8-anisotropische
filtering then the Parhelia with 2-.
Fortunately the Matrox-chip has yet source a few extra trumps on board, Triplehead for instance. Do three RAMDACs in the chip and
a splitcableon the second exit let to close you closed round in totally three monitors on the Parhelia-card on.
Glyph Anti-aliasing sees to for it that text yet softer - without hard saw tooth - is reproduced. Windows sees to already about
softwarematige antialiased fonts (AA-fonts), but the Parhelia does the AA-calculations quite fast and hardwarematig, and gets so a
better final result.
Only already by all watch Matrox a difficult tough job the Parhelia-card to positioneren. Compared with nVidias GeForce 4 is
the price/performance proportion weak. At the same time is the G550 a much cheaper alternative for the 2D-professional. Only for
served that Triplehead necessarily have, is the Parhelia the best choice.
Conclusion: The Matrox Parhelia is an amusing card, but much too expensive for the furnished 3Dprestaties. The price positions
is correct for who three monitors absolutely necessarily has.