Matrox Parhelia

[Floppyman]

Hi all,

For my next videocard upgrade (whenever that will be) I have been considering the Matrox Parhelia. Not only because of the triple head support but also because of the excellent 2D, and better 3D than the Matrox G550 I have currently have. What are people's thoughts on this card? Personally, I think it's a tad overpriced right now. Any idea when it might come down? How about stability wise? I'm not looking for a superfast gamer's card, but rather an improvement to what I have now. Thanks in Advance.

[Alienware_Dude]

Tom's has a good, long review here.

[Floppyman]

Thanks for the reply, that's a great review. Does anyone else have any thoughts? Thanks.

[RenegadeKing]

I remember hearing all sorts of good things about it before it came out at the end of the summer. When it came out though, it didn't meet all the expectation in the 3D area though. But, it is still a great card for 2D and 3D. So if you're looking for great 2D and triple monitors, I don't think you can go wrong with it.

[Alienware_Dude]

Just don't expect to play any games that were made after 1997.

[RenegadeKing]

It actually plays games fairly well at about gf3 speed. When I first read reviews on it at the end of the summer, they said they thought it might actually play future games better than current games because of the advanced 3D features. It also has a very high transistor count. Check benchmarks out here:
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.html?i=1645

Pretty respectable framerates, although not at the gf4 level.

[Tuf]

They are nice cards. They aren't the best gaming cards but they aren't marketed as such either. They have as good a 2D picture as you can get.