Massive graphics card performance test

[Orgin]

Tomshardware.com brings you a comprehensive performance test of a wide range of graphics cards from Nvidia, ATI and SIS.

Link to article

[jd997uk]

Err, what happened to the Parhelia?

Surely it hasn't bee relegated to the lower leagues below cards from SIS?

-john

[Kent]

The Parhelia isn't in the same league as the graphics cards tested.  For one thing each color gun is only 8bit for the tested graphics cards, and the programs used to test the cards listed wouldn't even begin to take advantage of some of the abilities of the Parhelia.  Keep in mind though, Matrox said themselves they were not trying to make a gaming card but rather a card to set new standards by.  As a graphics artist and programmer I'm looking for more 10bit color gun graphics cards but so far only the Parhelia is available at a consumer price range.

:pint:

[odin]

What GPU to those SIS card thingies use? Are they actually a competitor to NVidia/ATI/Matrox?

-edit- Nevermind, I've found the answer already: yes. :-).

[bloodline]

Tom Hardware Guide posted on THIS site!!!! now I have seen it all....

And not a single toll moaning about x86 hardware... :-D

Go on then flame me, I don't care.

Actually I do, and don't  :-P

[CodeSmith]

Hey, that's what you get when you can use the same hardware as most of the computer-owning world! :-D

Suddenly, for Amiga users Tom's Hardware went from "oh, that's neat" to "oh, that's useful"

Good times!

[Orgin]

Actually I (As the poster of the news item) have been reading Toms Hardware since fall 1998 if I remember correctly. I bought my first x86 PC back then, A PII 400 with a millennium G200 and such. I didn't have a clue about what AGP 2x, BX, north gate and such were back then and toms hardware became a big help to bring me up to date on PC hardware. I finished my university studies that year, and me neglecting PC hardware as a rabid Amiga fan had its downsides when I got a job as a software engineer So Toms hardware was a big help to me atleast

(The big downside being that I now have to help all and everyone with their PC's. *sigh* Most PC owners don't seem to be able to do anything themselves when something goes wrong.)

/Björn

[Kay]

Hmm...wonder what framerate a Radeon 8500LE/128 will give Shogo on my G4-XE...:-D

Kay

[Seehund]

For one thing each color gun is only 8bit for the tested graphics cards, and the programs used to test the cards listed wouldn't even begin to take advantage of some of the abilities of the Parhelia.

I'm fairly sure that at least the Radeon 9700 (Pro?) also uses 10 bits per channel. Parhelia may have been the first consumer card to do so, but not the only one.

Matrox said themselves they were not trying to make a gaming card

Actually, that's exactly what they said they were trying to do.
But other than the "Surround Gaming" using the triple-head technology, they evidently failed with the Parhelia 512. It was slower than the competitors cards that it was supposed to supercede, it was more expensive, it doesn't support all DX9 features, and contrary to the usual expectations on Matrox stuff its image quality was not better, but in some instances even worse, than the competition at the time.

The older and way cheaper GeForce 4600 Ti beat it hands down and stomped all over its corpse in 3D/gaming performance back then, and since then we've already seen the even better Radeon 9700, and soon the GeForce FX.

If someone really needs three monitors in 3D intensive apps/games and has too much money, then I could possibly see a use for the Parhelia 512. The "pros" are probably better off with even more expensive "real" workstation graphics anyway.



Anyway, what good are graphics card reviews like these in an AmigaOS/MorphOS perspective, unless there are drivers for them and even half of their features are actually utilised in AOS/MOS, their 3D APIs and their apps/games?

Not to mention that the other hardware (mobo, CPU, RAM, AGP bus) that AOS/MOS will be running on will never be able to push a graphics card made after the rest of the hardware (2000-2001) over its limits.

I suggest to wait and see what drivers there will be and then loot the "vintage" or second hand market for cheap graphics cards. It's not like they'll become more expensive with time... For now, one of the supported Radeons looks like the best buy for AOS4/MOS users.

[whabang]

@seehund
Yeah, but AFAIK, Parhelia can definitely be of use to whoever wants good image quality.